the longest night

Marie had been hooked up to an  IV that was administering an antibiotic for the infection. She was pretty much out of it and I found myself walking the halls. At times I would sit in the visitors waiting room watching television and sometimes I would sit in Maries room watching her sleep. I was tired but not sleepy and I kept drinking coffee.

Her monitor had alarms set so if a particular vital sign would drop too low the alarm would go off. The machine was watching the blood pressure, oxygen level, and heart rate. As the night wore on the monitor would register one of the levels too low and the alarm would sound. Then the nurse would check Marie and the machine. Sometimes the level that set off the alarm would go back up and sometimes the nurse would reset the machine to accept a lower level.

This went on for some time. It seemed like each time the level went back up, it didn't go as high as it was before, but high enough to turn the alarm back off. This scenario went on, over and over until the levels were getting low enough to really concern the nurse. She decided to put a call into the doctor.