civilized ku # 57 ~ joyous in the ICU

Laughing to keep from crying • click to embiggenThroughout the darkest ICU days, I insisted that the rule in the ICU be, 'put on a happy face'. For the most part, this was not as difficult as it first might seem.

It was helpful that the 'big ones' were rather quickly being ruled out, but the support of the wife's family - many of whom lived less than 10 miles away, right across the river from Philadelphia - was beyond measure. Two of the wife's sisters were at the hospital within a hour of Maggie's arrival. They provided a running account of Maggie's status - by cell phone - during our 6 1/2 drive to Philadelphia. During Maggie's days in the ICU, there was always at least one and at times up to four family members there for support.

On Sunday (day 2), we were able to get a number of things from Maggie's dorm room - in the picture, you can see her IPod Nano, teddy bear, favorite pillow and pictures of friends on the wall. In addition to the wife, there is a cousin and an aunt, each holding one of Maggie's hands. The banter was about good times with Mags. The mood was joyous.

It must be said that the staff in the ICU was helpful in maintaining the joyous-ness. There were friendly and very 'tolerant' when it came to the 'rules'. We were in constant violation of the max number of visitors, cell phones (although banned) were overlooked, cameras (although banned) were never confiscated, 'outside' food and beverages (although banned) were overlooked, personal possessions of the patient - see above - (although banned) were allowed, and no one even mentioned the bottle of Makers Mark (hand-crafted Kentucky bourbon whiskey) on the floor in the brown paper bag.

So, although it was a very tense, stressful and trying time, we managed to keep in joyous in the ICU.