Nursing duty

 15 March 1985 - Tuesday morning we took Ethelyn to the KU Medical Center Hospital in Kansas City and got her admitted for the purpose of patching her right ear drum which had been 1/3 eaten away.  She was really scared.

When we were getting her admitted to the hospital, we had to help her a lot with the many questions they asked her, but when we got her up to her room and the nurse started asking her another series of questions, it got rather difficult.  When she said she didn't know what the nurse meant by "When did you have your last bowel movement?" Leona just sat there, and the nurse and I had a heck of a time explaining that one to her!  When we left her at 12:30 as we had to get back to the Institute, she started to cry - 21 years old and never been in a hospital before.  She had a TV and a private room, Leona bought her some magazines, and she was in no pain, but was just scared of this strange new world she was in.  It sure looked good to us, all that quiet and an opportunity to relax and sleep!

We hurried back over to the institute - about 40 miles away.  About 6:30 she called to say that she just felt like crying and wanted to talk to us, so I talked to her (collect call) for a while and reassured her that all would be well.  Surgery was to be the next morning at 10:00.

Ethelyn in May, 1986 -- she survived the surgery!

At 8:15 a.m. the next day, I got another collect call from the hospital - 1 hour and 30 minutes until operating time and, "I'm scared."  So we talked for about 15 minutes.  The surgery went well.  In the evening, Leona took her sister over to the hospital and visited her.  Ethelyn said that whenever she got scared and wanted to cry, she just said a prayer and everything got better.  She came home about 9:00 on Thursday.

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