29 and my life passing before my eyes.... Part II
Inside the emergency ward, I was wheeled into a space, separated from other patients by a wall of curtains. The ambos transferred me to the hospital bed, and then bid me goodbye. They were nice guys, and I hope they had a good day.
The nurses stuck a couple more sticky electrodes to my chest, and hooked me up to the EKG to monitor my heart. They notices my irregular inverted wave, and checked to make sure that they had the electrodes connected properly.
And then it came - the request to collect some blood............... words cannot describe the horror that comes to my mind when I am asked to provide blood. I let the white-haired nurse (who are my favourites under these conditions - you'll understand why when you have had a 20 year old nurse try to draw your blood unsuccessfully three or four times!) swab my arm down, and I let her know that my vein was fairly hard to find. She sighed, and said that she hated hard to find veins - the way she said it didn't inspire any confidence at all in her abilities.
OW!!! She bluffed me - note to self, never doubt the white-haired nurse ever again. While putting doubt into my mind about her abilties she had sneakily impaled my vein upon a massive needle! The feeling of a tube of metal one inch long inside a vein is one of the most unpleasant feelings on earth, beaten only by the blood being drawn out of your body and into a plastic tube......
A mid-thirties doctor entered some minutes later. The nurse pointed out the irregular inverted wave (yeah it was still worrying me) and the doc pulled out her stethescope and listened to my heart. Wow - that's some heart murmur you have, she exclaimed. What murmur?? She called over the nurse, who had a listen, and next thing I knew the two other nurses in the nurse station opposite my cubicle had checked out my impressive murmur. The doc even suggested that I should be a case study for the medical students!!
Warning to all members of the public - DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT ever allow a med student to examine you!!! Seeing them during their formative studying years has not in any way, shape or form made me want one of them looking at me, even on my death bed!
Next came the x-ray, to check out my clearly abnormal heart. The radiographer rolled me to the x-ray room, and read me the riot act. You will listen to me and do exactly what I say, and do not, under any circumstances get off the bed unless I tell you to. wow - welcome to Nazi Hospital!!
Three x-rays later, I'm back in my cubicle. The lady doc comes around and says the x-rays show that I have a larger than normal heart. She has arranged for me to see the cardiologist, who will be in to see me soon.
Diversion - on the way home, my friend told my girlfriend that my large heart meant that I could love her more with it. How sweet, but CORNY! haha
Some time later...... the lady doc is back - the cardiologist can't make it, so I have to go to another hospital to see him. I'm advised that it's not a great idea to get a ride with my girlfriend to the other hospital for safety reasons, so they call an ambulance to transfer me. Twenty minutes later, and a couple of new ambos arrive to move me out, just as they introduce themselves to me and line up their bed to transfer me, their beepers go off and so do they - a pressing emergency. WHAT ABOUT ME and my HEART??!!
AN old man is bought in on a stretcher not long after, he doesn't look well. The nurses are saying he's got a tumour on his spine, I hope he's going to be ok. The up-side, ambos to take me to the new hospital. But do I want these ambos? After spending a couple of minutes unsuccessfully trying to lower their own stretcher to my level, they decided to raise my bed to the level of their stretcher. I'm gonna add this test to the ambulance training exam in future!
My fears are not helped when the ambos can't start the ambulance. I can hear the driver turn the key, but there is absolutely no sound from the engine. Finally they get it started and off we go. Not long after, the heart monitor that I am hooked up to started beeping constantly - sounds like an alarm. Am I dying? I feel ok!! How do i turn this damn thing off, ambo two asks the driver. What sound? That sound! Oh. I tried turning the alarms off, but it hasn't stopped it. Oh it't not an alarm....... finally the beeping is turned off, and after a short discussion about the two male ambos kissing each other (ok it made sense in the ambulance) we had arrived at the hospital. Another minute or two to find the swipe key to open the gate, and we had arrived.
One 20 second black out, and two hospitals later, was someone finally going to tell me what was wrong with my damn large, loads of loving heart??!!
End of Part II
Part III - the cardiologist, the echo and watching my life pass before my eyes
The nurses stuck a couple more sticky electrodes to my chest, and hooked me up to the EKG to monitor my heart. They notices my irregular inverted wave, and checked to make sure that they had the electrodes connected properly.
And then it came - the request to collect some blood............... words cannot describe the horror that comes to my mind when I am asked to provide blood. I let the white-haired nurse (who are my favourites under these conditions - you'll understand why when you have had a 20 year old nurse try to draw your blood unsuccessfully three or four times!) swab my arm down, and I let her know that my vein was fairly hard to find. She sighed, and said that she hated hard to find veins - the way she said it didn't inspire any confidence at all in her abilities.
OW!!! She bluffed me - note to self, never doubt the white-haired nurse ever again. While putting doubt into my mind about her abilties she had sneakily impaled my vein upon a massive needle! The feeling of a tube of metal one inch long inside a vein is one of the most unpleasant feelings on earth, beaten only by the blood being drawn out of your body and into a plastic tube......
A mid-thirties doctor entered some minutes later. The nurse pointed out the irregular inverted wave (yeah it was still worrying me) and the doc pulled out her stethescope and listened to my heart. Wow - that's some heart murmur you have, she exclaimed. What murmur?? She called over the nurse, who had a listen, and next thing I knew the two other nurses in the nurse station opposite my cubicle had checked out my impressive murmur. The doc even suggested that I should be a case study for the medical students!!
Warning to all members of the public - DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT ever allow a med student to examine you!!! Seeing them during their formative studying years has not in any way, shape or form made me want one of them looking at me, even on my death bed!
Next came the x-ray, to check out my clearly abnormal heart. The radiographer rolled me to the x-ray room, and read me the riot act. You will listen to me and do exactly what I say, and do not, under any circumstances get off the bed unless I tell you to. wow - welcome to Nazi Hospital!!
Three x-rays later, I'm back in my cubicle. The lady doc comes around and says the x-rays show that I have a larger than normal heart. She has arranged for me to see the cardiologist, who will be in to see me soon.
Diversion - on the way home, my friend told my girlfriend that my large heart meant that I could love her more with it. How sweet, but CORNY! haha
Some time later...... the lady doc is back - the cardiologist can't make it, so I have to go to another hospital to see him. I'm advised that it's not a great idea to get a ride with my girlfriend to the other hospital for safety reasons, so they call an ambulance to transfer me. Twenty minutes later, and a couple of new ambos arrive to move me out, just as they introduce themselves to me and line up their bed to transfer me, their beepers go off and so do they - a pressing emergency. WHAT ABOUT ME and my HEART??!!
AN old man is bought in on a stretcher not long after, he doesn't look well. The nurses are saying he's got a tumour on his spine, I hope he's going to be ok. The up-side, ambos to take me to the new hospital. But do I want these ambos? After spending a couple of minutes unsuccessfully trying to lower their own stretcher to my level, they decided to raise my bed to the level of their stretcher. I'm gonna add this test to the ambulance training exam in future!
My fears are not helped when the ambos can't start the ambulance. I can hear the driver turn the key, but there is absolutely no sound from the engine. Finally they get it started and off we go. Not long after, the heart monitor that I am hooked up to started beeping constantly - sounds like an alarm. Am I dying? I feel ok!! How do i turn this damn thing off, ambo two asks the driver. What sound? That sound! Oh. I tried turning the alarms off, but it hasn't stopped it. Oh it't not an alarm....... finally the beeping is turned off, and after a short discussion about the two male ambos kissing each other (ok it made sense in the ambulance) we had arrived at the hospital. Another minute or two to find the swipe key to open the gate, and we had arrived.
One 20 second black out, and two hospitals later, was someone finally going to tell me what was wrong with my damn large, loads of loving heart??!!
End of Part II
Part III - the cardiologist, the echo and watching my life pass before my eyes
posted by Rog at 10/17/2006 01:29:00 AM
1 Comments:
My type of Diversion is saying something completely stupid and corny. Kat just needed something else to think about for a bit. :-)
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