On Wednesday night, at the 11:30 shift change, a male nurse walked into my room. His nametag said David Something. I recognized him from one of my previous hospitalizations. "hi" I said, "are you my nurse this shift?" he said yes, and I told him I remembered him from before. He asked when that had been, and I told him when my other operations were done. We discussed why I was there this time, and I explained it to him, including the history of my operations and recoveries. I told him how because I'd had a laproscopy people kept assuming that I should be in less pain than I was, and have a short recovery. I asked him, like I asked all my nurses, to please understand that because of the extent of the hernia and the operation, and because of my physiology, that my pain was very intense and that it would take several days before I would begin to feel better. He asked to see the incisions, and I pulled back the blanket & lifted my gown to show him. He looked at my abdomen for a minute and as he was pulling the blanket back over me his hand brushed against a particularly sore spot on my torso.

I said "Ow! That hurt!" He said "I didn't touch you". I said "you did, your hand brushed against me and it hurt." He repeated that he hadn't touched me, and smiled. Smirked, really. I was in intense pain. It hurt to breathe, and to talk. I said "What's so funny? Are you laughing at me?" and he said "I'm not laughing. " I said "well you're smirking" and he said "yes, I do smile". I said "do you think my pain is funny?" and he said again, "I didn't touch you." I started to raise my voice, which hurt more. "look, I'm not asking you to apologize, I'm not trying to start no shit with you, I just mentioned that what you did hurt me and you need to respect that instead of fuckin laughing at me." He just stood there, still smirking at me. "what the fuck is so motherfuckin funny?" I yelled at him. "Nothing. I didn't touch you." I said "Goddammit, you did, and it fuckin hurt, and if you're not going to respect that you need to get the fuck out and send someone in who'll respect me without fuckin makin fun of me!" He just looked at me. "What the fuck are you lookin at? You're not being helpful, goddammit, you're being disrespectful!" He said "you're being inappropriate." I went off. "how the fuck you gone say I'm inappropriate when you won't acknowledge my fuckin pain, you just defend yourself and fuckin laugh at me, you're fuckin unprofessional and disrespectful and need to get the fuck out my motherfuckin face RIGHT NOW!" he sauntered over near the door and leaned against the wall, his hand on his hip, that funky ass smile on his face. I kept yelling, my chest feeling tight, my entire abdomen burning in pain. Every breath was excruciating and I was gasping out my words. "don't stand there with your hand on your fuckin hip laughing at me, get the fuck out my motherfuckin room, you lucky I can't get up because I'd slap that fuckin smirk off your fuckin face!" And he smiled and said "I didn't touch you." "GODDAMMIT SHUT UP stop fucking disrespecting me, what kind of fucked up ass nurse are you! get the fuck out my motherfuckin room!"

Then I heard someone from outside say "just come out of there" and three female nurses came in my room, one of them the charge nurse. I was gripping the rails of the bed tightly, gasping with pain, sweating and crying. The charge nurse asks me to please calm down, which I really can't, and tell her what happened. I gasped and cried and was finally able to relate the exchange. I told her that if I saw his fuckin face again I would spit on him if I couldn't slap him. She told me he would not be in my room again, and that I didn't have worry, all the other nurses knew how badly I was hurting and I would not have a problem like that again. Meanwhile I heard David outside, he was obviously being questioned about the incident because I heard him say "I didn't touch her, she just started screaming at me".

My doctor was called, and he approved a shot of Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug. My new nurse, Heidi, rubbed my legs, which had cuffs on them that automatically inflated & deflated, to prevent DVT. I calmed down and finally stopped crying, and fell asleep. Later Heidi told me that David wouldn't be back anytime soon; he'd been suspended. My guess is he'd had other issues before that night because I really didn't think one crazy irate patient would get him suspended. I always feel bad when someone gets in trouble behind me, even if they deserve it. I can't help it. But this time that empathy was so fleeting as to be non-existent. Fuckin smarmy asshole.

The McDonalds was packed with kids from their school. They were mostly noisy and rowdy, and many of them were giving the cashiers a hard time. Kwan was glad he didn't work at a fast food restaurant. Yolanda told him stories almost every day about rude customers so he always remembered to be polite when he was buying food. He ordered for everyone and paid with a twenty. He was careful to separate the bill from the wad inside his pocket, so no one would see how much money he was holding. He put the change in the pocket on the other side of his coat. Now he had $639.86. The boys took their food outside and ate sitting on a bus stop bench. The ground was littered with McDonalds cups and wrappers and half-eaten burgers. Battered looking pigeons picked at the food on the ground and chased each other. A man who smelled like piss and alcohol asked them for change, and Kwan gave him the rest of his french fries. The man stood there for a moment, telling the boys about a fight he'd had with his wife. When he walked away Paul said "shit, he probably ain't even got a wife. He probably sleeps in a box with a dirty ass dog. That's who he was fighting, not his wife." The boys laughed.