I was moved into another room. This room has a red warning light for negative pressure so as to get rid of bacteria. You get move here after your surgery. And the oxygen tap is ready for you.
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| Oxygen tap above my bed |
One of my staff, XYZ, came to see me. I showed her my collapsed veins, she couldn’t control herself and teared up. She held my hand firmly and told me in a very soft kind voice, “Let me pray for your health.” I have never seen her so tender loving before. he had always been a cold calm corporate professional with little emotions on her face.
I couldn’t eat most of my foods. My appetite was gone. The only good thing today was my family’s visit. I told my sister no one gave me a bath so she and my daughter did that for me. Then the ascites bag fell off and water started to flow down the tapping hole. She asked for the nurse.
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The ascites draining bag has become very important in my daily life.
It has calibrated measurements up to five litres.
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“You are supposed to help us, not scold us,” my sister retorted.
The nurse tied all the tubes in one jiff and walked off. Then we realized that water was not moving from the tapping hole, even the urinary tube was stuck because she clipped it off. The unhappy nurse came to redo the tube.But water was everywhere by then. Still, she walked away.
My sister asked her for the cleaning lady. “It is 10 pm, no cleaning lady.” She answered reluctantly.
“Then what do we do with the smelly water and urine on the floor next to her bed?”
“Wait till tomorrow,” was her answer.
I told my sister about the utility room along the corridor. “You can find a broom there and a bucket.” Together, she and my daughter cleaned up the mess. Thank God they were here tonight, otherwise I would be sleeping with smell of urine and peritoneal fluid.
At around midnight, a new ward mate came. A Chinese lady in for a laproscopy too. No one came to tell her how to press red button to call for help or what she needed to do so she asked me many questions. As I was talking to her, suddenly, I realized that I slurred my speech. “Soap’ became ‘suuu’, ‘towel’ became “toooooo.” I touched my cheek. Something was wrong. So I went to the toilet to look at the mirror. My face seemed to have ‘slanted in a downward way’.
I pressed the red button. A nurse finally came, “Something is wrong with my face! Look!” I managed to convey my urgent message slowly.
An African doctor who was on call came in. “You have a stroke! “ He immediately called for the Medical Officer and his other colleagues.
The team was at my bedside discussing the next move. They thought I had Bells’ Palsy. A young medical assistant was sent to wheel me to the Pet Scan room on another floor to check if I had blood clot in my brain.
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| As a patient, I have these IV tubes opening on my hand. |
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| It is often difficult when I've to deal with the ascites bag and the urinary bag at the same time with the hand. |
After we got into the elevator, she started to text using her handphone. As she wheeled me through a long corridor, she stopped several times to do her SMS. We reached the Pet Scan room. It was 1 am. Hardly any one was around. I sat alone on the wheelchair with my head resting on my palm.
The African doctor showed up. “Where is the nurse assistant? She shouldn’t leave you alone like this, you could fall off the wheelchair after a stroke like this! She is so irresponsible!”
“I don’t know, she just left.” I said tiredly.
The doctor looked around and eventually found her sitting at another side of the wall behind me texting on her handphone. He scolded her. “You are not doing your job. I will tell the Head Nurse.”
When I was done with the imaging, I was wheeled outside of the room. The Medical Officer came, “ Are you the nurse assistant who left the patient alone on the wheelchair?” I saw his piercing eyes on her. She sobbed, small tears rolled down her cheeks.
The Medical Officer did some physical tests on me and studied the imaging results, all the while keeping an eye on what she was doing. This time, she stood behind my wheelchair and I didn’t think she texted any one throughout the examination. “Wheel her back and don’t use your handphone while you are doing this. “ The Medical Officer ordered her.
She wheeled me back but she texted several times again.
When I came to my bed, the waiting nurse was unsmiling. “You caused her to be scolded by the doctor.”
“I didn’t. I just sat there. The doctor saw her using handphone herself,” I defended myself. I didn’t do anything wrong.
For the rest of the night, I had to wait for a long time before any nurse came to help me.
By Ching Ching
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