as many of you know, i spent a lot of time in the hospital when i was first diagnosed with leukemia. some of these visits were planned, others resulted from frantic rushes to the emergency room.

one time, i had a hospital roommate who liked to sleep with the television on full blast and it drove me crazy. my only respite was when the nurse came in every once in a while to check his vitals. she would turn I Love Lucy down, wake him up to check things out and ask him a few questions. each visit only took a few minutes but it was enough for me to succumb to exhaustion and finally fall asleep. unfortunately for me, my roommate would immediately turn the volume back up as soon as the nurse finished, simultaneously lulling himself back to sleep while waking me up.

by the time morning came, i was completely exhausted. i felt like i only got 15 minutes of sleep and was struggling to stay awake as the doctors were asking me questions.

i was interested to see what kind of person my roommate was so i made sure to sit myself up when the nurse came in to take him away for tests later in the day. as the neighboring bed was wheeled out from behind the curtain and past my own, it appeared to be occupied by the upper torso of an enormous middle-aged black man. it wasn’t until later that i learned that he had such a severe case of diabetes that doctors were forced to amputate both of his legs above the knee.

i wasn’t so annoyed the second night.