Roni and I had been working together for about a year when she calmly asked if it would be okay to call me by my first name when we were off the floor. I had no problem with the idea and told her my first name was Jaqueline. She however decided that since she didn't really like Veronica, she would be Roni and I would be Jax. And thus, it was to be.

She answered on the third ring. I had called her cell phone, not knowing if she had been discharged yet. She had it with her in the hospital, so I was safe either way. She was still there, waiting for her daughter, Darlene was to arrive from out of town. She was to get in early tomorrow and the equipment was to be delivered before noon, then Roni would be discharged in the afternoon. Roni took a quick breath then continued.

"Well, according to the social worker who has checked with insurance, I will need some equipment at home. The list includes a hospital bed, a commode or potty chair, a wheelchair with a strong leg extension, a bed table and a hoyer lift. God, those things are scary, I would have never guessed. To think of all those patients we moved with them, they must have been terrified, I was. Darlene has to learn how to move me from bed to wheelchair, to the commode. I might just teach her at home how to do a transfer rather than that thing. Hey, you could come over and help her."

I smiled as I listened to her ramble on. I didn't have the heart to tell her that when I did my geriatric rotation or as some called it the old folks rotation, I had the privilege to use all those things and probably more, because our instructor was a firm believer that we should experience what we would be doing to people.

In recollection, I honestly think we did have some interesting and unusual instructors. In my LPN course, I had the geriatric lover. She had us partake in pairs as a geriatric patient. We were dressed in left over clothing from the nursing home, which was wore over our normal undies. We each had a entire shift as such. Of course, after being provided with vaseline coated glasses to blur our vision; gloves with cotton balls in the fingers to alter our dexterity and we were restrained to prevent us from moving on our own. Life was limited that day to either being in bed or in a wheelchair, being fed breakfast and lunch. I can say it was interesting having cold stew, warm milk and melted ice cream. We also had the thrill of being an incontinent patient. We had all been instructed to bring an extra pair of undies, so that on our day to be a patient, at some point warm water was poured onto the incontinent pad in our wheelchair. We then got to sit on it for at least one-half hour. The purpose was to let us feel what it was like to lose bladder control and sit wet. We all decided on our appointed day that we would be vigilant regarding incontinence.

In the RN course we did things like injections using sterile water, starting IV's, drawing blood for labs, putting NG tubes (nasal gastric tubes) into each other, and having a bed bath while wearing a bathing suit. NG tubes were those clear ones that would be inserted through one nose and go to one's stomach.

Over the years, these techniques have been stopped, but I will confess that when you are doing these things to your class mates and having them done to you; it instills a sense of concern and awareness of what you are doing to patients. I must admit I do have some fond and not so fond memories and definitely lots of chuckles. This was even before Roni's time.

I reassured Roni that I would come over and help Darlene. I also suggested that they go ahead and arrange for the equipment and I would go over for its arrival. I would get up early and pick up her key then go to the apartment. She hung up to let the social worker know.

It was time for supper, I did enjoy salads, so of course that was my dinner choice. I could top a salad with anything, chicken, sliced beef, cheese, boiled eggs, lamb or whatever. Tonight, it would be a combination of eggs and cheese. Wiggles was ready for her supper as well.

I liked the size of my condo. It was a wise purchase years ago. It was a convenient location for all three of us, Brian, Kelly and myself. I fell in love with it because of the eat in kitchen rather than a separate dining area as well as the small but efficient laundry room. So, it was the large kitchen, a comfortable living room, the master bedroom with its own four piece bathroom, the second bedroom with a three piece bathroom, the foyer. Because we both had good paying jobs, we did double payments and it was paid off in one third of the time. It came with enclosed two parking spaces, so I was settled. I had everything I needed.

I settled into the recliner after eating my salad. This was my TV time. I recorded programs that I would have missed during the week and now it was time to catch up. I did so love NCIS regardless of where they were filmed. And I will admit to being a big fan of Murder She Wrote, I had watched every episode a couple of times and always knew who did what but I guess I was really a big fan of the lead character. British humor also fascinated me, but tonight was NCIS night.

I was almost through my second hour when Roni called to confirm that the equipment was coming, that she had talked to Darlene and could I please pick her up a toasted bacon sandwich in the morning. We had developed the same eating habits at the hospital. The toast was always perfect and the bacon crispy and oh so yummy, add a little ketchup and it was a breakfast for royalty.