Day 154: My Hospital Experience

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 154: My Hospital Experience

Even though a multitude of New Years wishes included good health, 2019 was not off to a great start for me. In the second week of January I got sick, a bug I was told, a bug was going around Toronto. I was not in the least surprised that this bug had found me. I’m always a welcoming host for whatever goes around.

When it got worse in the second week I still wasn’t worried, but when it goes worse still in the third week I thought it was time to consult a doctor. However, there was a problem ... my family doctor has her office downtown and I was in no fit state to travel. So, I called ‘Doctors making house calls.’

The doctor who showed up and examined me diagnosed me with pneumonia. She prescribed antibiotics and even though I had mentioned that I am allergic to penicillin, the drugs she prescribed contained penicillin.

To get suitable antibiotics another doctor from ‘Doctors making house calls’ was summoned. He said I didn’t need antibiotics as there was nothing wrong with me, I just had a simple cold. When things got worse still, I made my way to a walk-in clinic where I finally got safe antibiotics and since I was short of breath, a puffer to help me breathe. If I wasn’t feeling any better at the completion of the antibiotics course, I was to make my way to the hospital for tests.

I didn’t get any better, and so last Friday I took a cab to the Scarborough General Hospital. As soon as I mentioned shortness of breath, the nurse let me through and I was taken to an examination room. The attending doctor suspected fluid in the lungs. Since it was late Friday, nothing would be done, but he suggested that I check into the hospital to get immediate service on Monday. Staying at the hospital over the weekend didn’t appeal to me, so I checked out and promised to come back on Monday.

When I came back on Monday, the emergency room was packed with people. When I mentioned to the nurse that I couldn’t breathe, she didn’t seem to care, just told me to take a seat and wait my turn. Two hours passed, 15 patients were still ahead of me ... I decided to call it quits.

The next day things got so bad that I called 911 and was taken to hospital by ambulance. To cut a long story short, an X-ray was taken of my chest, followed by a CT-scan, and it was confirmed that I had indeed fluid in my lungs. Hence the shortness of breath. The fluid would need to be drained.

The preparation for the draining procedure I can describe as nothing less than torture. Even though I received a local anesthetic, I felt everything. The needle that went into the left side of my back, the 1 mm thick tube that followed and everything else that went on back there. I moaned and growled with pain and at one point nearly passed out. By the time the left side was done, I was terrified for the right-hand side. Fortunately, that went a lot better. The anesthetic had more time to work and even though I still felt pain, it wasn’t as excruciating as the left-hand side.

The pain wasn’t over yet though, with two thick tubes in my back, it was nearly impossible to get comfortable.

Within 15 minutes, 500 ml of fluid had gathered in the right-hand side bag, and while there was a good amount of fluid in the left-hand side bag, there was also a lot of air in that bag. 

In fact, it was swollen like a balloon. Within no time I couldn’t breathe anymore, I started to panic, and even though I was given oxygen and told to take deep breaths, I was like a fish a dry land. A nurse was summoned, she called for a doctor, who in turn ordered an X-ray. It turned out that the technician who had inserted the tubes had punctured my lung and now part of my lung had collapsed.

During my four-day hospital stay, an X-ray was taken of my lungs every day to monitor the healing of the lung. By Friday the hole had been reduced from 5 cm to 2 cm. According to the doctor, I should stay one more day in the hospital, but I had enough, I wanted to go home. To the best of my knowledge, people heal better in their own environment.

Before leaving the hospital, the doctor removed the tubes in my back and I was quite surprised to see the apparatus. I thought it was just a simple plastic tube, but that was not the case. This is what I saw ...

No wonder I had been in so much pain.

My hospital stay had some positive aspects too though. Every day my son brought me a cup of Tim Horton's coffee with a few of their delicious cookies and he brought me flowers.

So now I'm home, home sweet home, and although I am better, I am far from 100%. Everything I do exhausts me. I can’t wait to get better so I can do all the things I did before: cleaning, cooking, going for a walk, not to mention ... bowling. When I return to the bowling alley, there probably will be cobwebs in the holes of my ball.

A rather upsetting letter

I received a rather upsetting letter yesterday. My doctor, of over 15 years, is retiring. Not because of her age, but because to stay home with her children.

Not only is her retirement a huge inconvenience for me and all her other patients, I also find it upsetting that a woman just throws away her education. An education that took several years and over $100,000.

Fortunately, I am not her mother. If I was I would take her to task and point out that if she wanted to get married and have babies, she should have realized this a little sooner. I would also insist that she pays back every cent I put in her education.

I knew trouble was coming the moment I saw a diamond ring on the third finger of her left hand. Two months after she got married she announced she was pregnant, followed by a year’s maternity leave.

When she came back to her practice, she announced she was pregnant again and off she went to another year of maternity leave.

When her year was up, and she was expected to come back, she announced that she would take an extra year off. Standing in for her was another doctor who I didn’t particularly like. I only put up with her while waiting for Dr. X to come back.

Unfortunately for me and all her other patients, she’s not coming back. She now made the formal announcement that she’s going to stay home and have more babies.

Well, one thing is for sure, if they get measles or whooping cough, at least she won’t have to take them to a doctor.

Is she the only one? Far from it. I've seen it time and time again. Young women, full of dreams and ambitions when they leave high school. They go to university and become doctors, lawyers, accountants or any other type of professionals. Then they meet a man, their biological clock starting working overtime and before long they flush it all down the drain to get married and have babies.

It makes me bloody mad. Smart woman, an education that cost thousands and for what …

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Thank you for smoking

This is not an anti-smoking but a pro smoking message. You don’t see that one every day, do you? It’s true though, I’m as pro smoking as they come and if you stick around I’ll explain why.

First let me say though that I am just sick and tired of the smokers bashing. Just this morning I read three articles, urging pregnant women not to smoke. Oeh it’s bad for the baby.
Please, give me a break. I smoked when I was pregnant and so did all my friends and we all had healthy babies, who grew up to be healthy adults. Compare that to the kids of today. They’re allergic to this and allergic to that, they have asthma and as soon as a chilly wind blows they’re sick. Whimps I call them.

Many will say that smoking is bad for you. That it ruins your lungs and gives you cancer. Oh yeah, well I saw a doctor the other day and he stated that I had textbook lungs. “You are a walking non-smoking advertisement,” he told me. When I stated that had been smoking since I was sixteen you could have knocked that guy over with a feather.

But since we are on the subject of things that are bad for you ... what about car exhaust fumes and fumes from airplanes? A long time ago I read an article that stated that each time a plane passes by, the fumes are equal to 82 cigarettes. Hm, what do the non-smokers think of that?

And what about all the other stuff? Everybody happily smears deodorant under their arms, while medical textbooks state that the aluminum in deodorant sticks causes breast cancer.
Then there is hair dyes and cosmetics. Take a look at the ingredients folks, some of them are known to cause cancer. But do people care? ... no, they want to look good.

Some will say that if smokers want to light up that’s their good right, but that they shouldn’t bother others with second hand smoke.
Phoe-lees, second hand smoke. Back in the day when I was a teenager and went to clubs, you could cut the smoke in those places. And did anyone die of cancer? Nope, my friends and I are still very much alive.

Then there is the statement that smokers cost the state money. How so? I’ve never been to the doctor or a hospital with smoke related problems and neither have those that I know.

If you want to point a finger at people who cost the state money, what about those who drink? Some get all liquored up and get in their car. By doing so they cause accidents resulting in: material damage, hurting someone to the point that he ends up in a wheelchair, or killing someone.
Alcohol is also the leading cause for domestic violence.
Not to mention that more than one job is lost because of alcoholism.
Now how much money does that cost the state? If the drunk loses his job and ends getting employment, guess who pays for that ... you do! Unemployment insurance is deducted off your paycheck and goes to those who don’t work.

And that’s not all. Alcohol leads to high blood pressure, high blood pressure leads to strokes and heart attacks, and of course strokes and heart attacks lead to death. Not to mention that alcohol also causes liver cancer. But do bottles of beer, wine and spirits carry that message with a gory picture, nope. On the contrary, alcohol is packaged in attractive bottles and commercials are made, advertising that drinking is cool and fun.

What about junk food? Mountains of junk food are gobbled up each day, making close to half of the North American population overweight, with some being downright obese. Does anyone give them a dirty look? No, on the contrary, we’re supposed to feel sorry for them.

Then there is the sun. What’s wrong with the sun, you might ask ... skin cancer dear, ever heard of it? Some give me a dirty look when I’m smoking a cigarette, then they take off as much as is legally allowed and go and roast themselves in the sun. Skin cancer ... they don’t seem to care about that.

Let’s face it, this anti-smoking campaign was started by the cancer society who made itself billions of dollars in the process. Who heard of the cancer society twenty five years ago? Nobody, if they were there, they got no attention. And look at them now ... the richest ‘charitable’ organization.
While working for a consulting firm I saw statements (this is not hearsay, I saw those statements) of the cancer society in Colorado and Ohio. Both of them collected $1.3 million dollars in 2008. And that was just two states. Image what the cancer society rakes in over the whole of North America. We’re talking billions. Have you ever wondered where all that money is going?
Do you think they will ever reveal a cure for cancer? Of course not, the donations would dry up and then what?

And last but not least ... think of your taxes. If indeed all the smokers were to give up the habit, your taxes would sky rocket. Do you have any idea how much money goes into the tax coffers courtesy of cigarettes? Billions of dollars. Not just millions, but billions!
So if you come to think it, instead of picking on the smokers, shouldn’t you be thanking them?

A visit to the vet

Have you ever tried given a cat medication? If you have you know what a battle it can be.

Gabriel has an eye infection and even though some type of human eye medication was recommended to me to treat the condition, I rather played it safe and took him to the vet.

In his carrier, in the cab, he cried all the way there. At home he hardly says a ‘word’ but now he recited a whole dictionary.

At the vet Gabriel turned into a little angel. He didn’t mind being examined and he didn’t protest one little bit when the doctor put the ointment in his eye.

I thought administering the ointment myself was going to be a breeze. Yeah right.

When I tried to put the medication in his eye, he wiggled and squirmed, kicked and slapped me and generally turned into a little lion that wouldn’t be tamed.

He’s supposed to get that medication three times a day for the next seven days. Perhaps the vet should have sent a team of nurses along to help me with this task.

I’ll try again when he’s sleeping. Maybe I’ll have better luck then.

Can you spell that please?

Toronto is a melting pot of different races, cultures and languages. I’m all for giving everybody a fair chance, but where it comes to business, especially the profession of receptionist, I feel that the individual should be proficient in English.

I made a medical appointment this morning and nearly went around the bend in the process.

The following is part of the conversation:

“Dr. Smith’s office.” (Not the doctor’s real name)
“Good morning, I would like to make an appointment with Dr. Smith.”
“Are you patient of Dr. Smith?”
“Yes.”
“Your name is?”
“Manero, Conny Manero.”
“Spell please.”
“M as in Mary, A, N as in Nico ...”
“Is appointment for Mary of Nico?”
“Neither, the appointment is for me.”
“Name please.”
“Manero.”
“Can you spell that?”
“M as in Mary, A, N as in Nico ...”
“Is your name Mary or Nico?”
(sigh)
“Neither. My name is Conny, Conny Manero.”
“Spell please.”
(Oh no not again)
“M – A – N – E – R – O .”
“Mango?”
“Manero.”
“Thank you Mary Mango. I can give you appointment for next week.”

Mary Mango? I wasn’t about to correct her. I didn’t have the patience or it.