Dear Folks, I'm still trying to get over the ordeal of the daily hospital routine for the past week. It didn't really surprise me that I'd have to change my daily habits a bit but I couldn't believe the hour of the day that my day began. At 4:45 every morning I was awaken by a knock on my door immediately followed by the light being turned on in my room. The nurse said something to me and I eventually took it in stride. She was there to either take my blood pressure, temperature and oxygen intake or she was there to give me my pills or she was there to add more medication to my IV or she was there to put a mask over my nose to give me a dose of a breathing medication. Oh, in addition there were shots to my belly to give me more steroids. My poor belly is so black and blue it looks like some one gave it several good swift kicks. Nonetheless, after the nurse left, I went right back to sleep. That kept up until 7:45 a.m. when my breakfast was brought in. Note: more about breakfast later. The last nurse's visit for the day was around 10:30 at night and on several occasions I was awaken around 2:30 the next morning. For the first several days all I did was sleep but by Friday the third day I started snapping out of it. One of my biggest problems was my being kept on a short leash. I was hooked up to not only oxygen but to my IV and I couldn't walk very far because the hoses kept getting tangled up in each other. Therefore, I couldn't quite manage to make it to the bathroom. Instead I had to use the portable commode that was set up near my bed. The only problem I had with it was that when I sat down on the seat my feet dangled a few inches from the floor. Therefore, I had to stand up in order to finish my business. It's difficult to be dainty under the circumstances. But now I'm home again and feeling so much better. The only big problem I have right now is that my legs got so little exercise in the hospital that I have to walk very carefully. There's so little strength in them. Thank goodness for my walker. No doubt but what within a day or so, my legs will be back to normal again. So that's how my daily hospital routine went. It wasn't a pleasant experience but after awhile I just got used to it. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. vee