The music of the night

Day 5: Nights are improving and we're faring much better this go around with some wonderful night nursing help. Nonetheless I still find them sleepless enough to muse about what they'd be like put to music.  The setting for these ruminations is the convertible chair-bed pictured above.

First there is the beat.  In this case it is the ceaseless whirl and ticking of Annie's four to six pumps, the different ticking of the wall clock, and the hum of the mini-frig.  This beat can be the only sound for the first hour or so, helping to calm the mind enough to enter a sleep-state.  Then, like an intruder breaking through the window, comes the piercing "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" This is one of the main instruments featured in the composition and is accompanied by a shot of stress hormones guaranteed to take at least 30 minutes to dissipate.

The beeps come when an infusion is complete or if there is air in a line. They continue until a nurse can come in and that depends on how busy they are with other patients. We've learned how to pause the beep which initiates a little dance sequence where one shuffles over to the machine, gets silent relief, falls back into bed in a delusional attempt to rejoin sleep at which point the pause has expired and the beep resumes. Despite the futility of this, the sequence is repeated over and over again until the nurse arrives.  Sometimes the hum beat takes over and sometimes there is a surprise second set of BEEPS when the air bubbles return.

Then there is the chorus, and it has lyrics.  This repeats every two hours when on lasix.  The words are, "I have to go to the bathroom!" Then comes a dance number where you unplug the pumps, push the pole to the bathroom and return.

In between the chorus there are some verses of backup vocals from people in the hall by the nurses' station or patients in neighboring rooms.  These are usually soft and rarely jarring.  Then, on really special nights, there are the soloists.

One diva is the battery empty, extra loud, shrill BEEP, high-note sequence.  This results from when the pumps haven't been given proper attention either by not being plugged in after the bathroom dance or by not being pushed in just-right.  Another vixen is the throaty cough.  This stage hog will stay until tempted off stage with drugs.  The third soloist is the Johnny one-note call of "bucket" which is followed by a set of rather unpleasant sounds.

The final element of the musical ensemble are the dancing girls.  They come in several times a night to take vital signs, hang bags and check the bathroom.  Twice they also include Annie in the dance by having her step on a scale wheeled into the room.  All performers must wear a yellow gown that has to be deposited in a bin with a cymbal-like lid upon exiting.

Annie is still asleep now as she stars in this show night after night and the run promises to be for over a month.