Souvenir

The young woman who shared my hospital room had pneumonia and was hacking up a storm. After she was finally moved to the ICU, I asked the staff nurse if she was contagious. Even though the nurse already told me the woman probably caught the pneumonia when she was in the hospital recently to deliver a baby, she said, “Oh, no, no.” Right.

“Well, I’d feel better if someone would clean the bathroom and empty the trashcans with all her tissues,” I said.

They finally cleaned it right before I left. And even though I wiped down what I could (considering how I was tethered to an IV stand), I now have a cold. I never get colds, it’s been years since I had one. Sigh…