I've spent much of the past couple of days either asleep or dozing - trying to get as close to sleep as possible without dropping off. The trouble is that if I'm asleep more than a couple of hours my mouth dries out.  Then either bits stick together or the mucus builds up till I snort or cough.  Whatever it is - the past several days I've awoken at around 3.30 am, with my mouth feeling horrible and in pain to  level that's overriding the morphine. Then it just gets unpleasant for several hours until I'm awake and cleaned up to a point that things can begin to subside slowly back to normal.

And of course this time of day is when everything is happening. Surfaces are wiped, floors mopped, bathroom cleaned, blood taken, morning pill rounds, various injections, IV replenishments, food ordering, etc - all demanding my attention when I want to be curling up and letting my tongue throb itself to quietness.

Interspersed with this are the rounds - where people at various levels come round and ask me questions, so they can interrupt my answer when a more senior person with a bigger entourage asks me that same question a little later.  First there's the nurse - she needs to know because she's the one who orders new stocks of drugs, creams etc as I absorb them. Then the ward manager - she could get the info from the nurses records, but prefers to smile and say hello to all the patients daily. Then my doctor - she needs to know of any new developments and examine rashes swellings and the like to make decisions about treatment, and then there's the big head of BMT honcho with all the others in tow - asking the same questions - (how's the mouth, any change on the rash? Hmmm, let me have a look.. Itchiness? Do you need more morphine? etc. etc.)  It begins to get silly when you have two people rushing to 'assist' me to undo my pyjama top so he can go 'Hmmm, yes, the rash has gone down a bit'. 

Ah well - that's the way hierarchies work - everyone needs to be seen to be doing their part.

And an interesting thought for your day: You'd never believe how much hair you have in your nostrils until watched it all show up on your tissue over the course of a day.

Ok - so I may be back in grumble mode - but at least I'm feeling well enough to check my email and make a post today - so think of it as an improvement on yesterday :)