I was a patient at Christiana Hospital following robotic sigmoid colon resection surgery. My hospital stay was during the time the State of Delaware and our country are in the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. My expected hospital stay was supposed to be "a minimum of 5 days," but ended up only being 2 days.
On Thursday, the nurse manager came into my room and gave me a letter. The letter stated that no more visitors including spouses and immediate family would be allowed in the hospital. Our only contact with our loved ones would be via telephone, email, texting, video chatting. I was in a lot of pain and on some serious pain medications so I really wasn't understanding what this was going to mean and my husband and one son had already been in to visit me so I guess I wasn't very concerned. I called my husband and told him about the letter. He was shocked that immediate family was not allowed in the hospital. Of course, during this troubling time, we both understood the reason but that didn't make it any easier.
The next day, when I woke up, I realized that I was not going to be able to see my husband, my daughter, or my two sons. I guess the enormity of this hit me all at once because I started crying and could not stop. I called my husband; then my son called me. They did everything they could do to reassure me that it was going to be ok. It didn't help. My crying continued. The tech came in to take my blood pressure and it was WAY up. The nurses came in and tried to reassure me that it was going to be ok. But, I wasn't having it. I felt like nothing was going to be ok. My world was spinning out of control and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Now I was separated from my husband who I have never been separated from in our 40 years together and I would not be able to see any of my three children. The more I tried to stop crying the more I cried. I just couldn't stop. The tech came in again to take my blood pressure and it was still way too high.
Meanwhile, I had no idea what was going on out at the nurse's station. My son had called Lauren to see if my husband could bring in my cell phone so that I could at least FaceTime with my family (Lauren was so loving and concerned about me that she had already offered to let me use her cell phone to call my family and FaceTime with them). But, all I wanted was to be with my husband, just for a moment. After a while, Lauren came into my room, leaned down to me, and said she had a wheelchair so that I could go down with her to get my cell phone. I was shocked. Lauren told me that my husband was going to bring the cell phone into the hospital and she had permission for him to give her the cell phone, sanitize it, and while she was doing that I would be able to get to spend a few minutes with my husband. I could not wait to get downstairs. The nurse manager went down with us to make sure the guards let my husband into the hospital. I watched as the guards tried to stop him from coming through the barriers but the nurse manager jumped into action. Those few minutes with my husband were the sweetest gift anyone has ever given to me. We could only be together for a few minutes but that was all I needed. We hugged, had a couple of kisses, hugged some more, and he assured me that everything WOULD be ok. Our time was up so he had to leave but I felt so much better just seeing my husband for those few, short minutes.
My husband left the hospital and we all went back upstairs. My crying stopped, my blood pressure went back to normal and I said to Lauren "what do I need to do to get home." Lauren told me that the sooner I started walking around the unit the sooner I would go home. That was it. ROOMA ZOOM ZOOM. I was off and running (well, not running). I told my tech that I did not want to get back in that bed. I wanted to sit in the chair. Every time she came into the room I asked to go for a walk. I went from once around the nurse's station to three times around the nurse's station and down a short hallway.
When the doctor came in later that day we talked about my surgery, what to expect and then he asked if I wanted to continue my recovery at home. I was astounded and said YES. I think that if I had stayed in that chair, crying, I would still be in the hospital. When I left the hospital, I asked Lauren if I could give her a hug. I almost didn't want to let go of Lauren but I wanted to get downstairs to my husband.
The Christiana Hospital has many amazing nurses. My amazing nurse was Lauren Klein.