Another hospital roommate tale

“Moe” was probably the worst of the lot. Thankfully I had him for a short time. He was another leg amputee that was there to make sure he was healing properly and would then be sent home only to return in a few months to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.

He was a member of a certain faith that did not entertain the thought of eating pork and had a very low opinion of women. He saw women as only existing to serve him. He had a very high opinion of himself, a classic narcissist, and I do not think he thought the other people in the room existed. This was kind of amusing since I found out over time that he was a retired janitor. You would have thought he was a king by the way he acted. He was adamant that he would not eat the usual hospital food, his food had to conform to his faith. That option existed, it was very limited. There were a few that had certain dietary requirements. He was the only ass about it.

A number of nurses flat out refused to deal with him. The nursing staff loved me, I never caused any problems and went out of my way to thank them. He would call them stupid or liars, pick fights, and not cooperate for the simplest thing. He would only go to physiotherapy when he felt like it. His family would come to visit him and he was rude to them. I got the impression they were glad he was in the hospital so they could have a break from him. When he was discharged he was waiting in a waiting room for a few hours for his family to pick him up. I think they were in no hurry to claim him.

You would think that a guy that had to have dialysis every two to three days, was a recent amputee, and an insulin diabetic would be kinder to the medical staff since he was so dependent on them.

He would play his tablet when he was in bed. I played mine when I was in bed at night as well. The difference was I played mine at a very low volume so as not to disturb others. He would play his at full volume. One night I asked him politely to please turn it down as I was trying to sleep and it was very late at night. After being ignored for the third time I yelled at him in an unpleasant manner. Before I could do it again a nurse cam into the room and got him to turn it down. He wanted to know who was complaining so he could do . . . actually I not sure what he thought he would do with that information. I was about to shout out it was me but the nurse told him to knock it off which he did. I declined to say anything further, nurses had it hard enough with him.

On another occasion he was back to blasting his tablet again. So I retaliated with AC/DC at high volume. After “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Money Talks” I got creative and found some bagpipe music that I played at full volume. Having Scottish ancestry the skirl of the pipes stirs something deep within my soul so I could keep it up all night long. He folded. To emphasize my point I played it longer than necessary to drive the point home.

I shall not miss him.