Currently Loving Frank: A Novel By Nancy Horan see related

I no longer have my gall bladder. They've yanked it out through my belly button. Seriously, they did. Now I've just got some Frankenstein stitches and they'll be gone soon.

So after surgery and recovery, I get put into a room. When I got to the room there was no roommate and the room was really hot...really, really hot. I called the nurse and they checked the thermostat and it was set at 90 degrees. So the nurse turned it down and asked if I wanted a fan. I said yes, so they bring in a box fan and set it up and they noticed there was a blanket over the ventilation unit, so they took that off too. It is finally cooling down in the room when the roommate gets back from whatever test she had.

Now, I realize that this woman was older and was obviously in poor health if she is in the hospital, but then again, I'm just hours after surgery, so I'm not in the best of shape either. Well, she threw a fit about the fan. It was freezing in the room and she could not stand to be in such horrendous conditions. She yelled at nurses and the nurses' aides. It was an outrage that someone would dare put a fan in her room. The nurses offered to bring her warmed blankets but nope, not good enough. After about 2 hours of yelling about the freezing conditions, she'd had enough and decides she's checking herself out of this hell hole. (It is actually a fine hospital and I had no complaints.) She took out her own IV, yelled at the nurse, and after the hospital took care of EVERYONE ELSE BUT HER, she left. It was way too much drama even in my drug-induced haze. It was so peaceful and cool after that, and, in celebration of now having a private room, I left the fan on all night.