A JOURNEY REVEALED (part TWO)

Date : October 27, 2006.
Place: Mawar Ward, 6-3.
Time: Between 0800 to the whole afternoon.

At about 8am, the caterers came in to bring the breakfast for the other patients; except for me and uncle next bed, we were both fasting due to our surgeries later. The nurse came in to greet me, asked how I was feeling, told her as a matter of fact, I felt lousy!

She smiled, and then asked me to have my shower. I was like huh? How to have shower with all the drips and tubes running around me? So, like any pro, the staff nurse managed it and soon, I was able to make my way to the toilet.

I was impressed with the shower head, it had one of those modern shower heads where one can adjust to the different types of water gushing out. Apparently, I was taking a wee bit of time in the toilet than my normal days. It was refreshing, having the warm shower hitting my otherwise sullen skin.

After my shower, I was asked to rest whilst the student nurses began to take my heart beat, blood pressure and also temperature. All this was to ensure that I was normal before my scope and also surgery later. I was normal as the student nurse dutifully informed me.

Not sure how long I was lying in bed but later I believe around 10-ish, the staff nurse informed me that they will be taking me down for my scope. She asked me if I had any valuable items with me as the ward has a safety box to keep my stuff. I told her that I have only a handphone and handed it to her. She issued me a receipt and I waited.

Minutes later, the staff nurse came and took off the drips for me as I was ushered to the wheel chair once again to be taken down to the scope room. At this point of time, my bumps near my rectum really hurt and walking was near impossible. I just cringed in pain and as they say "tahan" it like there was no tomorrow.

Soon, I was in the room, one of the nurses asked me to go up the bed and rest. Within seconds, I was pushed in with the bed to the scope room. From what I observed, the room was kinda small, there was a this huge screen next to me, which I believe was to observe what was going inside of me. There were a heart detector there, the nurse placed one of it to my index finger and soon, I could see my heart beat beeping away. Very standard Grey Anatomy's operating theater.


"We are going to put you to rest now" the nurse explained to me. How did they do it? Ok, they had this tubes again, and they actually inserted one of the tubes to my hand and suddenly I felt as if I was conscious and at the same time, maybe I was dreaming. The last thing I remembered was they asked me to lay one side and heard a grilling sound, maybe the scope was in action?
I'm not sure.

What they did was enter this contraception via my anus and from there they moved along my colon area to view what was going inside of me. According to a relative of mine, this method is very useful to check for any diseases in one's body.

After that, things began to be hazy and then it began to be clear. I woke up hearing voices and this nurse standing next to me. From my observation, I could see a few other patients in the recovery room, perhaps waiting for their turn on the scope or perhaps just after it? I'm not sure. I felt drugged.

Later, they moved me back to the ward. I believe that I went down to the scope room around 10-ish and by the time, I got back was almost noon. As I lied in bed, I felt no pain, so the pain killers did their job very well. Half an hour after that, I was again ushered out, this time in a bed.

Like those movies / dramas one has always seen, yeah, I was placed in one of them. They pushed me to the Operating Theatre and before I got know anything, a certain Dr. Hoo introduced himself to me. He told me that he was going to do the anathestic on me and asked me to relax.

The OT looked like any OT one can see in dramas or movies. Standard procedure in it and the number of nurses and doctors in there. Yeah, they all wore this green over coat and then had this green shower cap on them...oh yes, not forgetting their masks.

Dr. Hoo then injected some liquid into my tube again and then later, a staff nurse told me to inhale the oxygen when she applied the contraception over my mouth. I breathed in and out and soon, everything became a BLANK.

Imagine you like some guy / girl and you have this with you, all the vices in the world will be at your disposal. It really worked wonders as for me, I always wondered about those movies where you have people put under anasthestic, and how it felt. First hand information, your mind is a blank and what the doctors may or may not done to you, you feel nothing.

Later, I woke up to some noises. On my right, I heard this man complaining to the nurse that he was put on catheter. Left side, a little girl was crying non-stop and I believe the nurse was comforting her by calling her, Geraldine.

I looked up and then I realized I was very warm as there was a blanket put on me.

"Why is it so hot?" I asked with barely any strength in me.

"You were shivering in the OT just now" replied the staff nurse assigned to me.

"Huh? You mean the surgery is over? I thought that I'm still waiting in line for my turn?" I enquired.

"Oh no, the surgery is over an hour ago" and the nurse began to motion to the helpers to push me back to the ward.

Again, it was hazy. I was unsure what time I finished my surgery but I do believe it was already mid afternoon, somewhere around the region of 3 to 4 plus? My brother told me later that he was at the ward around 2 but at that time, I was already pushed in the OT.

Later on, Ken came to visit me but I was not sure because the effects of the anesthesia was beginning to wear off. I felt nausea and burping all the time. In one word, it was like a hangover but more worse than one. I did not get any headache, but I felt wanting to burp out air or maybe vomit, but I did not.

So the time passed, some of my colleagues came in to visit me, I was not in the mood to entertain. I wanted to say out loud their names, but I could not. I just did not have the strength. The more exertion I made, the more I felt like vomiting. I held back all of my exertions.

The nurses came in periodically to take my temperature, blood pressure and also heart beat. They wanted to ensure that all was well with me. I could feel a bandage at a certain somewhere but as for the pain, nope, I did not feel a thing; the painkillers did a magnificent job at concealing the pain.

When it was time to eat, I really did not have the appetite. They serve me porridge and some fish and vegetables. The food tasted bland, it was horrible porridge and I was feeling nausea. I forced fed myself a bit of the food, so that I can have some strength but I could not bring myself to mouth another two more spoons and I gave up. Later, when they brought in the milo for me, I did not have any appetite to drink it.
I just felt like sleeping all the time.

My friends who came in later enquired how I felt. I told them with what I had in me about my experiences and then when it was too much for me to bear, I just kept very silent. I then rested and found myself falling asleep but not without being woken up again from the nurses who wanted to check on my condition.

Another day of events have ended and tomorrow what I had expected to be smooth was not to be. (To be continued....)