 |
| Image courtesy Medscape |
The last time I was an inpatient is a hospital was when I had my tonsils out at age four. Courtesy of a pulmonary embolism, I now find myself an inpatient after an emergency admission on Sunday.
Modern hospitals are interesting places. There are a variety of systems which generally work like well oiled machines and most often allow for effective monitoring of vital signs.
For the first few days of my treatment I was kitted out with a device which recorded my oxygen levels and heart rate in real time and transmitted the information to a screen in the nurses station. It was attached to my chest with stickers and cables, and was only a problem when I needed to shower, as the stickers had to be removed and replaced.
One benefit of this device was that it removed the requirement to be woken at stupid hours to have vital signs checked. Blood pressure could not be measured using this thing, so I still had to be disturbed for that, but that was only once during weird hours, so I was glad of the lumpy technology. It’s amazing what you can put up with sleep wise when it’s necessary.
The only time I had a problem with the monitoring was when I got a little stir-crazy and went for a walk to the cafeteria for a coffee.
The upshot was that the device started beeping, set an alarm at the nurses station, and caused consternation when they went to my room to find me absent.
I was spoken to very sternly….
