Being a patient sucks big time!

My birthday is December the 18th. I am an RN at a local level-1 trauma center and teaching hospital -I work in the ER as a care coordinator (first level of case management at our facility). 1/2 hour into my shift on Dec. 17, I was walking to my first post of the night to begin my shift duties and the next thing I know is I'm being asked questions by half a dozen people and I'm noticing that one of the lights in the ceiling has burned out. Turns out I had a (rather bad) bleed in my head -spontaneous. Had this happened an hour earlier, I'd have been on the news (something about a diesel pick-up truck lays waste to vehicles in front of it -empty home-brewing bottles and a sack of malted barley found on scene, etc. Film at 11 (well, you know the story) -in all likelihood I'd have broken my new 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy as well
But in any case, next time I'm fully awake (AND a bit confused -and not a little scared) I'm post-op, in an ICU and on a ventilator (and very unhappy. Didn't mind working with vents when I was a critical-care nurse, but NEVER wanted to be on the receiving end of one). after a couple and a half weeks, I'm home and suffer a seizure the very next morning (likely related to irritation of the brain from residual blood products -not entirely unexpected, but not very welcome either) -after I get out of the hospital AGAIN, I've spent a little over 3 weeks (overall) there, and am not allowed (by state law as well) to drive, AND I'm far too weak to brew! Was planning on a nice Trippel. Guess it will give me something to look forward to, but the brew on tap is half empty and I'm getting a little nervous (grin). To make matters worse, I was going to combine my two partial kegs of American style Generic Brown Ale to help fuel a 'welcome home' party (since I missed Christmas dinner with family -but at least my room had an EXCELLENT view of the fireworks on New Years- AND I wasn't drugged up, so I could really enjoy them.
Anyway, I had a partial keg of an old Porter that I'd made (about a year ago) that I didn't really enjoy, so had relegated it to 'cooking status' (use it when I want to use a beer in a recipe) -I accidentally hooked it up and pushed ALL of it into my brown ale keg (not sure how I did this since I have labels on the lids of all the kegs) -the result is 'OK' but i WOULDN'T do it again. I promptly consumed the rest of the other keg of uncontaminated brown.
Gotta convince SWMBO to drive me to the home-brew store and get some grain -but I also have to build up enough strength and stamina to brew.

Ok, I know this was about as interesting as a pile of spent grain, but I did need to vent a bit.
Thanks folks!

Glad to hear you made it through. And that you weren't driving at the time.

Maybe you can manage an extract batch to hold you over

Dude's got brain bleeds and almost dies. First thought is brewing. :rocking:

SharonaZamboni said:

Glad to hear you made it through. And that you weren't driving at the time.

Maybe you can manage an extract batch to hold you over

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THAT is not a bad thought! Been a while since I did an extract -and it sure would make for a shorter day (and easier cleanup.) -Glad you mentioned it!

Glad your ok...if you were closer I'd give you a keg of my latest
Brew.

Zuljin said:

Dude's got brain bleeds and almost dies. First thought is brewing. :rocking:

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Is it any wonder the wife thinks I'm a bit tweaked in the head? Besides, its no more than anyone else on here would do (its a great crowd!).

I think you would like this: AFTER they extubate (take the breathing tube out) you -at least when you've been on the vent- they give you a "swallow study" to determine if you can eat or drink liquids and foods of varying degrees of thickness (ground up stuff with the consistency of paste up to real solids) -if you fail the study entirely, well welcome to tube feeding for another few days or so, then try again. (groan). The test, at its most basic, is to swallow a (very small) amount of water, and then see if you cough (if you do, you will move on to a 'thickened' liquid and try again -if that fails, well, see above). "Thickening" is precisely what it sounds like. And I used to feel very sorry for the patients I had to give this stuff to. Its a powder (extracted from some kind of honey product, I was once told) and you measure out an amount depending on the degree of thickness the orders call for. Sure, the "liquid" LOOKS like water (well, its CLEAR, anyway) but it won't MOVE like water, and while this stuff does not add taste or alter flavors, the consistency is, well, think about it.
Anyway, I definitely coughed when she gave me the sips of water -and believe me I tried not to- so she reaches around and hands me another cup (and doesn't mention thickening -but I've been an RN for years, and on floors where we used this stuff) -first thing I did was tilt the cup on its' side -and the water moved with a syrup-like consistency. I said "I am NOT interested in anything "thickened" -she said, uhuh, know about that stuff, do you? (I think the dour look on my face made it clear because she went into the sales pitch about how it didn't affect flavor etc etc but was far safer to drink due to lower risk of aspiration into the lungs etc) -I said, very clearly, and probably louder than I should have, "Look lady, I am NOT having ANYTHING added to my drinks that I wouldn't feel safe adding to my beer. And I'm NOT adding this crap to my beer. I'd rather be back on tube feeding.
She consented to trying again a little later (kind of rare, but I think she felt bad because I worked in the same hospital) -I did much better later (I only pretended to take a drink) and then asked the doc (who was working my case) later that day, if it would be OK for my wife to bring me a small amount (well, 12oz really isn't much) of homebrew the next day.
You know, he didn't even answer the question.
Well, drink up and enjoy the suds which are the fruits of your labors -we just never really know when we will never be able to enjoy another.