Yeah, I know, everyone, including myself, thought I was going in for a thyroid surgery and a nice overnight stay with room service and some good drugs…… As it turned out the surgery ended up being the least of my worries…. After the recovery room, I ended up in my room for the night….. My roommate looked like an old Popeye and sounded like him too… He had the bed next to the door, which placed me in Bed #2 in the back against the wall with one permanently sealed window….. I couldn’t see him after I was placed in my bed as there was a curtain between us, but I could hear him muttering to himself and earlier Jek said he asked someone which cemetery he was in!…… and he was sitting on the edge of his bed shaking and rocking back and forth all the time. Just before visiting hours were over his family came in and he seemed to settle down…. With visiting hours over, I nodded out and woke-up around 10:30 pm or so to his loud talking. At first I thought he was talking to someone on the phone, but quickly realized he was talking to himself thinking he was talking to someone. The conversation went along the lines of “We gotta get out of here, You better run the cops are comin’, etc..”. I did hear him dialing the phone and apparently not getting the right person and getting more and more agitated at whatever poor soul was on the other end. I thought, Great, I’m locked up with ‘El Nuttso’, oh, well, it’s just for one night, I’ll just ring up the nurse, get some pain killers and go back to sleep. This worked until around 12:30 am when I was awakened by loud noises, things crashing on the floor and a nurse screaming, “You’ve pulled your IV out and you’re bleeding, PLEASE calm down and let me put it back in”, to which Popeye replied for her to stay away from him or he would hurt her. About this time I saw him as he passed the end of the curtain heading for the bathroom with blood going all over the place and yelling at the nurses to stay away from him….. So now I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do to repel a Popeye attack with me trapped in the back of the room with an IV in my arm which was attached to a big pole on rollers and no way out of the room without getting past him. The nurses called in his doctor and security because he was threatening them with bodily harm if they came near him. The doctor had no luck in making him believe where he was and that they were trying to help him. The doctor finally had to call in his family and around 4:00 am they finally convinced him that he was in the hospital and everyone was trying to help him…… I guess they had totally forgot I was even in the room as no one checked on me or asked if I was alright. They decided it might be best if they moved him to a private room with windows so he could see where he was…. So, there I am, wide awake and wondering if I could make through the night and get released before they brought in Popeye II – The Terminator for my new roommate…… Please don’t ever make me stay in V.A. overnight again. I found that surgery’s a breeze but the stay might kill you……