DAY TWENTY THREE Oct. 9

Nurse Irene came into take blood pressure this morning. I was shirtless, and she saw I now have a large bruise from my left collarbone to my xiphoid process (Nathan knows where that is) It looks pretty alarming. She sent Dr. Zhang, who administred my stem cells last week, in for a look. Now that someone knows and understands, I'll leave it in their hands. The bruise may be the result of my sleeping on my wounded side last night. For practice, and because I'm real tired of sleeping on my back. Makes me snore.

One thing we haven't seen are 'Nurse Rachets' at this hospital. My last visit to the Northwest Hospital and shop of horrors produced many characters: the night nurse, who took my polite refusal for a breathing treatment at 3am as a personal affront, refused me further treatments (I was a pneumonia patient.) Good for me they only work three days a week. I was on a 'spectrum' of antibiotics to try and knock out this stubborn pneumonia. One nurse saw to it I was administered the most caustic antibiotic through my hand IV at midnight, for a week, on a slow drip. Burned like Hell for two hours. Forget about sleep or sympathy but, something finally worked. After they cut my chest open to scrape my lungs, the intensive care nurse thought I was such a baby that she put the call button out of reach, drew the curtains and closed the door on my cries for help. Another nurse took out my pain control epidural, but didn't tell anyone. Two hours later....well I could go on and on. I'm sure many readers have had similar tales. American hospitals...you can keep them.

This is really a piece of cake by comparison. The nurses are all young, and pretty for the most part. They'll listen to you but don't usually understand; which is better than if they understand but don't care.

Well, stem cells in an hour or so. More tomorrow.