The first night was a horrible experience, but then every day that we were there was horrible. Since Eve had stayed up that Sunday night playing Diablo, this was now the third night in a row without any sleep. The painkiller that they were feeding into her IV worked for only 30 minutes or so before it wore off completely. And the worst part of her pain came in spikes, or convulsions, that the painkiller hardly helped at all. But the biggest help the painkiller was providing was emotional, for medications like this also calm the person. But the dosage just wasn't enough! Once every four hours gave her three hours of suffering!

So when Doctor L came the next day, our first order of business was to have him increase the dosage. Once, every four hours, he asked? No, he said, he ordered once every two hours. The other doctor had told us wrong! The nurses never bothered looking! Or caring! Eve broke down here. Once of many times. The frustrations were becoming incredible.

After talking to Doctor L, it became obvious that we would be staying another day. An ultra-sound was scheduled for that afternoon. This was a painless procedure that we were escorted down into the basement maze to perform. After a little waiting, a quite pleasant female doctor treated Eve very kindly to a quick procedure.

When we got back to our room, it was decided that I should go back home real quick, shower, eat, retrieve a few things, and purchase a few things from the store. I was away about two hours.

It was during this time that Eve had her face-off with Nurse Jacki about the heating pad. And I wasn't there to protect her. The building management (those responsible to stop building fires) had refused our heating pad. A hospital version with water-circulation instead of electrical coils would be provided in its place. And for everyone's safety, this hospital water-pad would just BARELY rise above body temperature. To have even the CAPABILITY of actually providing substantial heat would risk someone getting burned and therefore would break Priority #2 (being sued). (Oh, for the same reason, the hot water tap on the bathroom sink never got better than luke-warm, if even that. Far better to deny hot water to everyone that risk being sued).

Now I knew this was coming, and so did Eve. Neither of us blame the hospital for having to take away our heating pad, and replace it with, well, nothing. This is the fault of idiotic, moronic, uncaring, bureaucratic, unthinking government regulators (are there any other kind?). The nurses should JOIN us in our utter hatred for intrusive government, for it makes THEIR life miserable as well! But his is insane Nurse Jacki here. How DARE Eve put everyone at this hospital at risk by using a dangerous HEATING PAD! Don't you care about anyone but yourself???!!! Don't you care about possibly starting an uncontrollable fire???!!!!

She yelled at Eve. She didn't rationally state that, no matter how incredibly stupid and horrible it was, they couldn't allow us to use the heating pad. That government regulations were making it impossible to care for people. Or even try to find an alternative that worked. No. Nurse Jacki isn't a real person, we concluded. There is no thought process, no consideration, no realization about what is happening around her. Many people are like that, unfortunately. Nurse Jacki is just a conduit for the government and hospital to enforce their rules. As such, she is not human, she is a monster. We continued to find more.

One Nurse who was NOT a monster was the girl who cared for Eve that night. Knowing how useless the heating pad was, and seeing how Eve was suffering, she threw a few wet towels into a microwave and flash boiled them. Then she gave us replacements at intervals through the night as they got cold. She said she often did this for patients. But unfortunately she was the only one, and we never saw her again. The other nurses to whom we guardedly mentioned this 'possible' practice to all flat refused (might burn someone! Break Priority #2!).

They never confiscated our heating pad. As things got rough a few times that night, and the following, we did slip the heating pad back in for a while until the convulsions ceased. But Eve's spirit was breaking.