Have you ever spent the night in a hospital? If you have, you'd know how much it sucks stinks. I was once admitted to the hospital for suspected appendicitis. If I remember it right, it was the day before I had to register back to school following a school break. I was held in the ward only for one night, but it felt like a year. The air in there was filled with the smell of death; I felt as if my body was rotting away. Such atmosphere could turn a regular fever into a heart condition..no kidding.
That evening, my stomach hurt very badly. I was so much in pain that I was rolling around like a boulder over the floor. It felt like the veins in my stomach were breaking off. My dad was pretty much freaked out by this, and decided to take me to the hospital at that instant. *Hospital? Ok..I'm cool with that. Maybe I can get an MC from the doctor and stay at home for extra few days..hoho* So my anticipation was that, after they did a little checkup on me, I would be allowed to go home with a bag of medicines for regular diarrhea. I absolutely had no idea what I was getting myself into. To my greatest fear, the doctor said, "It looks like you have to stay in for tonight to confirm if you have appendicitis." *What?! Are you kidding me doctor? I only ate a few slices of mango. How on earth did I end up getting appendicitis?!* Next, the nurse put me on that electrolyte fluid thingy (what do you call that..intravenous therapy? Whatever..medicine people should know) It killed when she stuck the needle in my wrist.
My bed's surrounding was not helpful at all. The elderly man opposite to me was pretty much in a bad shape; he got blood in his urine! The urine (plus blood) drained through a long, thin plastic tube into a collection bag. What a scary sight that was. While next to me, a man with confirmed appendicitis was lying in his bed. There was a big handwritten tag on his bed that said "fasting." I was told that the guy was fasting in preparation for his surgery. Now I remember..the doctor did ask me to fast for 6 hours. *Wait. Am I going to be operated on too? But I thought it still hasn't been confirmed? No way..tell me this is not happening*
That night, I could not get myself to sleep. One reason was because my throat felt overwhelmingly dehydrated, another might have been because I had things playing on my mind (like..am I really going to be dissected?!) My stomach did not hurt as much anymore though. Then I think it was late in the night when I felt my thirst was becoming unbearable. So I got up and walked over to the nurses at the counter to ask for some water. My head felt dizzy..I was swinging left and right. I asked one of them, "Nurse, can I get some water? I'm so thirsty." She replied, "I'm sorry, but you have to stay on your fast at least for 6 hours." "But I'm really thirsty right now." "Just..hold on for a little longer okay..it's not much longer." *Nurse, you have no idea what I'm going through right now..I'm dying for a cup of water!* I was insisting to get some water, and she was persisting in not giving me any. However, realizing that I was passing out, they finally yielded. "Okay2. You can have some water. But after that you need to go back to bed ok?" *Yeah, I got my water.* After I drank the water, I finally could get myself to sleep. Alhamdulillah.. =)
The next morning, the doctor came to check on me..and he brought the whole gang with him too (practical doctors who seemed very enthusiastic to learn). I was surrounded. Their eyes were locked on me like I was a test subject or something. The doctor asked, "How are you feeling this morning?" I answered, "Oh, I'm feeling great. I think I'm alright now. Can I go home? Besides, I need to register back to school by this afternoon." *I don't care if it's appendicitis or not..I just wanna go home now!* He asked again, while pressing on my stomach, "Does it still hurt?" I blurted out, "Nope..it doesn't hurt anymore." *Silence* "Ok then..I think I can let you out already." "Really? Thank you doctor." So I think, I didn't have appendicitis after all?
I've never liked being in a hospital at all, be it as a patient, or as a visitor. Just the smell of it can make me sick to my stomach. And to think that I can stand spending half a day in Biology lab.. *Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder how the two are different from each other anyway. Hmm..* That might have been one of the reasons why I never wanted to be a doctor. But on top of that, I actually hate seeing blood. Once when I was in Form 5 (11th grade here), we were in the chemistry lab doing some experiment. A friend of mine cut his finger and a tremendous amount of blood started flowing down his arm. At this sight, I felt my head started spinning..I was sweating heavily. Fortunately I managed to get a hold of a chair just before I blacked out. That's embarrassing, isn't it??
p/s: To those who have spent more time in the hospital than I have, believe me, I do value your courage..hoho..The title was inspired by a film I recently watched..mind to take a guess?
