Pre-admittance:
As agreed, I mustered all my courage to get my ass to the hospital to get the terrifying blood test. I remember Mabel saying how painful it was when they took her blood to screen for Denggi. And so, I braced myself for the worst. It wasn't really painful actually, except for the part when the needle goes in. After which, my doctor, Dr. Sathesh (I think I'm very fond of him now, for some weird reason), informed me that the hospital had just received two emergency cases and that my operation had to be postponed to Saturday. =.= Not at all happy since I've missed class and I don't want to go to class in pain. And so, him being very compasionate argued my case to Dr. Ferdinand (or Dr. Ferds, as Kuhan calls him) and so, I got squeezed in between the two emergencies. I refuse to have to brace myself umpteen times before I actually get the stupid thing done, I might as well do it now, while I still don't feel like chickening out.
First day:
I have no idea why they insisted I get admitted at 8.30 am (such an un-godly hour) and so we went to get myself a place in one of those very cool but scary hospital beds. Fortunately for me, I got the new ward, which is less scary, less dirty, and much brighter. Funny thing was they wanted my dad to put in a deposit of RM400 for second class (since I was too scared to stay in first class alone). Who the hell carries RM 400 around town? But being the kepoh me, I decided to go question the nurse this and that and later on, after my parents left, they said that we only had to put in a deposit of RM15. And so, began my three days, two nights stay at the very scary Hospital Taiping.
The first thing that happened was me entering the air-conditioned room, and them almost forcing me to lie on the bed when I wasn't even sick. As if that was not bad, they made me wear hospital clothes made of unflattering patched up green cloth, which have been fore-worn by other possibly very sick people. Why oh why did they have to pretend I was sick when I was not at all? And so, the whole afternoon, I spent my time playing beau's PSP while trying to get the little girl from the bed next door off my highlighters. At this point, I finally came to the conclusion that hospital = prison, nurse = prison warden, doctor = executioner. Around 4.30 pm, while I was anxiously waiting for my mother fto bring me my 'last supper', the convoy of dentists came in, and crowded around my bed. Of course, Dr. Sathesh was there, beginning with his usual "How are you feeling, Janice?" which, I obliviously replied "Fine, thank you." And then, they closed the curtains around me, and I got scared. The next thing that came out of his mouth did not please me at all, it sounded like this: "Let's close the curtain just in case you scream". I'm telling you, never have I wanted to run so badly in my whole life! To make things worse, it was the Malay female dental intern who 'tried' to put in the IV tube, not Dr. Sathesh. After frantically trying to poke me twice, while I was held down by one nurse, one Indonesian maid, and the other doctors, the Malay male dental intern tried. After which, the Chinese female intern tried, and although she looked the most confident of them all, she still failed and so Dr. Sathesh came to the rescue. Having him drawn blood out of me put me at least a little bit of ease compared to the other doctors. Sad to say, even he failed. Suddenly, the curtains drew open and I saw Dr. Ferds standing with his bluetooth piece in his ear wondering how hard it was to put an IV tube into a 19-year old. After twisting my hand this way and that, he decided to try the other hand, looking for the biggest most juicy vein to poke. And in it went and there it stayed. Mind you, it was no less painful than the previous three attempts.
After the IV ordeal, I really felt at home in the hospital since I was 'mentally sick' already at that time. And so, when my mother came later on, I had already lost my appetite and all my strength. At approximately 9pm, after I had a one-handed bath, I was sleepy enough to fall asleep since I deprived myself of sleep the last night just so I wouldn't have a hard time sleeping at the hospital. Around 11.30pm, some bloody nurse decided to wake me up to give me sleeping pills. =.= Seriously, I would like to know what the sleeping pills were for since I was already fast asleep.
Second day:
The next day, i got woken up at 6.30am to bathe and wait for doom. Mum came at 9.30 am, much to my delight, and the dreadful phone call from the Operating Theater finally rang at 10.00am, by which the nurses were all frantically running around trying to get me as fast as they could. I really don't understand why they insisted I get on the stretcher when I was perfectly capable of walking. And so, I was dressed in those backless hospital gowns which exposed your ass if you walked around, put onto a stretcher, pushed into an ambulance, and driven all they way on the bumpy road to the operating theater, which really looked and smelt like a slaughter house. Inside, I was placed on the side walk, like some pig waiting to be slaughtered while the nurses and surgeons walked around gleefully, some carrying lunch boxes and what-nots. To my horror, I also saw a pantry there, and a lady pushing a trolley full of eggs, bee-hoon, and other food stuff into the operating theater, and into the pantry. Seriously, how do these people still have the appetite to eat even after butchering up human flesh? An hour after I've been pushed into the operating theater, another stretcher got pushed in, and on it was a little girl with a bleeding ear. Apparently her ear drum burst and her careless mother couldn't even be bothered to take her to the hospital when there was clearly puss in her ear, until it was too late. The little girl didn't wait long because 15 minutes later, someone came and pushed her into the operating theater. Another 15 minutes later, she was back out and there I still was, waiting impatiently for doom to arrive. At about 11.30am, Dr. Sathesh got bored, and decided to come chit chat with me, which really slowed down my almost roof-busting heart beat rate, telling me that they had just finished the first case and I shall be wheeled in soon, not that I was in a hurry. Finally, at 12.00pm, I saw a man being wheeled out from the operating theater I was destined to be in, half conscious, moaning as loud as he could with whatever strength he had left in him, and he was clearly in PAIN. That sent my blood pressure and heart beat rate sky-rocketing again, but I wasn't given any options because before I could even think of jumping down and running through the door, the anaesthetist came out of no where and put something into my IV tube, after which I was quickly wheeled into the operating theater. All I remember was somebody undressing me, some guy and girl taking turns injecting stuff into the IV tube, breathe in, breathe out, funny smelling gas, and the room started spinning. Next thing I knew, somebody was telling me "Dik, bangun dik". I remember hallucinating, but I also remember saying "Saya nak balik.." before passing out again. Next thing I knew, I was being undressed again, and somebody pulled my IV tube while trying to put the shirt on, which really hurt, and then being pants-less on the bed. The next time I woke up, my auntie and uncle were there and my aunt was mumbling something about how my mother should love me more (hahaha...), and then I knocked out again. Later in the evening, the doctors came to check on my wound which was still bleeding, much to my dismay and had to be compressed. Fortunately, I managed to convince them that I could do without the IV tube, since the intern nurse wonderfully inserted it together with an air bubble. I even convinced them that I only needed oral pain killers, instead of a shot. Some how, later that night, I became slightly feverish which sent my mother running everywhere trying to get someone to get me paracetamol. Honestly, I think the IV tube hurt much more than the tooth extraction itself. Later that night, when I was in pain, the nurses refused to give me any pain killers or sedatives although the doctor had already prescribed them and so, I had to force myself to sleep.
Day Three:
The next morning, I mysteriously woke up at 5.30 am, expecting to be woken up soon and asked to shower because a new set of over-sized green shirt and sarong was at the foot of my bed. Surprisingly, nobody came and woke me up until 8.00am, asking me to bathe because the dental surgeon wanted me at the clinic at 8.30am. Some nurse was waiting outside the bathroom door with pain killers in her hands. When I told her that I didn't need them, she said "Semalam you minta?". Obviously! I was in pain yesterday, not today. Why on earth would I need pain killers today for yesterday's pain? I swallowed it down and followed the dental nurse into the ambulance to be taken to the dental clinic. Unfortunately, Dr. Sathesh was there, but Dr. Ferds was still there to poke fun at me, asking me things like "you sure you don't want to stay another night?" and "I thought you liked needles?". The Chinese intern signed my discharge papers and I was practically running back to the ward to get my things packed, never mind the ambulance. My sarong was falling everywhere while I ran all the way back to the ward where my mother had already packed my things.
Post-admittance
Today, I came home, as promised, because my beau was making a fuss over how I promised to meet him at Pudu Raya. Annoyingly, he almost decided to get down at Wangsa Maju and abandon me when I'm clearly not in any condition to move let alone think for myself. Still, he abandoned me in the LRT and left me to find my own way back. How can I not be annoyed? He said he wanted to study but I know right now he's nicely sleeping away.
Honestly, my stay at the hospital could have been much worse. I owe Dr. Sathesh for the least pain I had to endure, the Indonesian maid Yani, who held me down and also made sure I was sleeping well at night and the pregnant nurse Sa'adiah who comforted me on the way to the slaughter house. If you ask me, I don't think I ever want an IV tube in my body ever again, but I really don't think GA is such a scary thing. To a certain extent, my sadistic side actually liked being put to sleep, hallucinating, drifting in and out. But if you ask me if I ever want to stay in the hospital again, I will gladly say NO! The bed may be cool (since the head part can be brought up and down..hehe), but the pillows are bloody uncomfortably high. Also, it wasn't so bad, because the beds are lined with PVC and are aired everytime somebody leaves.
P/s: I know this is a very boring post, but I'm still in pain and half conscious, and so I'm not thinking straight. Nevertheless, it is for my own reminder, and not yours.
p/p/s: Just found pictures of my 'souvenirs' from the hospital. Forgot to take pictures of my fractured tooth (my tooth was not fractured when I went in for surgery, okay?) Weird thing was that the hospital was infested with flies and mosquitoes (possibly Aedes), and nobody even cared about them! Did I mention that the anesthetist (she couldn't even pronounce the word anesthetic and foam was coming out from the side of her mouth, I was 'very' confident in her) came in and scared the living shit out of me by telling me that she would put me into such deep sleep that I would not even be able to breathe by myself, and that she'd stick a tube down my nose and that it would cause it to bleed, and possibly my blood pressure will crash or my heart rate will shoot sky high? Don't need to wait for operation, my blood pressure and heart rate already shot sky high at that very moment. After which, she happily skipped out of the ward and left me to wonder if I'd wake up next in the ICU ward.
Looks like mosquito bites but they're actually unsuccessful IV tube insertions. Mosquito bites are not visible because my camera wasn't good enough. Couldn't take a picture of my right hand because my left hand was too weak by the time I got out of the hospital. The green patch is NOT due to lighting, I think it is burst veins. Geez, I went in perfectly healthy, and I came out looking like a drug addict with spots all over my body and no strength at all.Also, after looking at the old lady beside my bed, I have come to the conclusion that I never want to grow old, I don't want to become senile, and I don't want a long life, long enough to watch my own suffering. I don't want to have to sit in the hospital day and night waiting for death and life, I don't want people to talk to me as if I'm deaf and blind, and senile. I don't want to grow old, not even gracefully.
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