It affected me all day more so when I was about to sleep. I could not stand it anymore and vowed that on the next working day i.e. October 26, 2006, I will head on to Assunta http://www.assunta.com.my/index.html.
So begins my little journey of pain and more pain and the subsequent of easing of it.
Dateline: October 26, 2006
Place: Specialist Clinic, Assunta Hospital
Time : 1430 hours
I called up earlier to book an appointment with my specialist doctor, a certain Mr. MMS. Painful as it was, I knew I was to be admitted to the hospital that day itself.
Painfully, I made my way to Room 8 where the specialist was based. The nurse who took my number looked at me pitifully and managed to shove my number ahead from another patient (who was looking more healthy than me).
"Mr Coolgardy, the doctor will see you now" commanded the nurse to me and gesturing me to enter the room before the other guy realizes what was happening.
Going in, I spoke in a hushed voice complaining that my pain did not go away, and that a few days ago, I went to a GP to get some daflon pills.
The pills only acted as a relief but it did not actually pull away the pain nor did it end it like I was hoping it will be.
"Go up to the examining bed, and let's have a look at it" said Mr. MMS.
Dutifully, I strutted to the bed, knowing well of what I was about to receive, I took off my pants and also my underwear and waited for Mr MMS to come in.
He came in, with his surgical gloves began to examine my anal rectum area.
"See this bumps over here, these are what is causing the pain for me" I retorted. I just could not bear it anymore, I had to pinpoint to him where it was.
"Ah, yes, it looks swollen, ok let's get you admitted today" said MMS.
"As you need to undergo a scope too, you will have to fast; will also give you some potion to clear up your stomach and colon and also at the same time to put you on a IUV drip" explained MMS.
Slowly, the anal probed ended, I put on my what was left of the clothing that was uncovered, made my way to his table and began to see him write up some prescriptions for the nurse to follow up.
All in all, it took less than 10 minutes, and there I was being ushered in a wheel chair, to the Admission Dept. My brother who accompanied me took down all the things that I wanted, asked him to go back and come back in the later part of the evening to bring my belongings.
While waiting for the company's insurance agent to come back on the guarantee letter, the staff at the Admissions will only do so when they have that letter. Minutes passed and minutes became almost 40 minutes, and I asked the Admission staff what was going on?
"We are waiting for your Insurance company to fax over the letter" replied this nice Indian chap.
Not being the mood of waiting, I called up the Insurance company and with a stern voice asked them...
"What is holding up my application? Is there a problem? If not, why are you guys making me wait in this pain???"
The lady at the other end replied calmly with a heavily Chinese accented English... "Oh, we are going to fax over in 10 minutes, don't worry".
Yeah, don't worry, tell it to a patient who is about to collapse any moment. But, like what they told me, the letter did go through and I thought that was the end of my problems. However, this was not be to so.
"Sir, at the moment, we have only single room available and also 4 to a room. Two to a room is all taken up at the moment, so that leaves only 2 choices" explained the nice Indian chap.
"How much is the single and how much is the 4 to a room bed?" I enquired. Reason being, I wanted to know if my Insurance will cover the single, and duh, it did not, so no choice it was either the 2 to a room or the 4 to a room. As 2 was not available, I had to take the 4, so ok, I thought that was the end of it, but then no, as later I found out, the bed was not ready yet, and will take another hour for it to be ready.
"Huh, how much longer must I wait?" I asked myself. The Admission chap seeing that I was not in very good spirits, decided to allow me to rest in the A&E bed. I had no choice so I took up the suggestion and ventured to the A&E room. In it was a cacophony of noise made out of little boys and girls reeling in pain as the nurses and doctors administered to the best of ability the care intended for them. This also made me wonder, I was in some paederitic ward?
Place: 4th Floor, MAWAR Ward, ROOM 6 Bed 3
I guess it was almost about 1900 hours that I was finally wheeled in to my bed. As soon, as I reached the bed (which was going to be my next home for the past 9 days), a chripy nurse came up and asked me some questions.
"Sir, is this your first time to Assunta" she asked.
"Yup" I replied.
"So, the toilet is there at the end, here is the button to call the nurse, press the red one, and here is the cabinet to put in your stuff. If you want to watch the TV, you can rent it for RM10 per day, we have several channels operated by MITV" explained the chirpy chip chip nurse.
"Thought to myself, yeah why not, put me on the TV list 'cos at least I will have some entertainment to amuse me when I'm bored and nothing really nothing really to do"
So, the chirpy student nurse went out, came in again and got me to sign off some forms first one is to consent them for surgery, second for the scope and then the 3rd one, for the rental of the TV.
After that, another nurse came in. This time a staff nurse, meaning a more senior nurse came to attend to me. She asked me if I had any food as she wanted me to swallow some pills...I told her, I have yet to eat anything and then she went to ask for a bowl of plain porridge for me. It tasted horrible...bland and nothing in this world that you will want to eat. But, for the sake of the pills, I had to swallow it.
Immediately, she came in again, this time with a bottle and asked me to drink it all up.
"It's a bit salty you know" said the nurse.
"Nope, I don't know" I replied her. "Never been to this situation before, so I will not know. But, I guess now I will know" teasing her.
I took a sip, YUCKS!!! It did taste horrible...something like sea water. So, the nurse mixed it with some water and I gulped like taking a pot shot. The immediate effect was not apparent until very very much later which I must say it felt like living hell.
Ken camed over to visit me that evening, but I was already in that stage where the salty water was making its effect. I constantly burped and was like going through some roller coaster, my stomach that was. Sensing that I was like not in the mood to entertain, Ken and a few of my friends decided to leave me alone...and thus, my journey of suffering begins.
Place: Mawar Ward, Bed 6-3 (between the witching hours) - toilet
My stomach began to grumble and the next thing, my colon began to take control of my brain. Instantaneous, I was like running to the toilet at all times. Sat on the throne of power, out came the excesses of the body and thought it was all over...for the time being. Within minutes after creeping into my bed, my lower part began to take control again. Out of bed, rushed back to the toilet (and all this time, my pain was growing from the inflammation) and sat on the throne. This time, it was fluids...OMGosh, when will all this end?
It never, came to a point, I just sat there at the throne waiting for the next download to take place but none did ever came. I refused to budge from it, instead resting one part of my head on the side bar of the toilet. Minutes passed, and well, I thought to myself, ok finally it has ended. I cleaned up, walked back to my bed, and thought, finally I can rest.
Upon crawling in bed, and rested within seconds, the growling pain began to take place. This time it was furious and was coming like a 747 jet ...pardon the pun, it was that fast. I literally dashed into the toilet and out came...*** not telling *** too much information already.
Finally it did end but the time I guess was almost 3 in the morning. I managed to catch some winks before being rudely awaken by a staff nurse and this Singh doctor. They were there to take my blood.
"Sir, we are here to take some blood samples for testing" the nurse said in a hushed voice. I'm not sure if the whole night of me rushing in and out of the toilet and the constant flushing had actually made my other room mates sleep but I guess, I did not care much at that point for already I was feeling so sore from the sitting, running and the downloads. I was literally drained and now, they want to drain me of my blood?
The Singh doctor tried to get my veins to pull out the blood but he failed to get any from my left hand, thus, he said he was going to go for the right arm instead. If that fails, he told me jokingly "we will have to extract it out near your leg" - bad taste to me, I was like can you F*** off! But, already drained, no more energy to fight, I just allowed them the privilege of my right arm...and thank heavens, the blood did flow out.
"You have very healthy blood" explained Dr. Singh.
"Huh? What do you mean by that? How can one tell if the blood is healthy? I asked.
"The color and the texture of it" replied Dr. Singh.
Wow, first time someone actually commented that I had healthy blood. Ok, maybe this doctor is not so bad after all, or maybe he was just trying to make conversations with me?
Off they went and before I knew it, again the staff nurse came in with another doctor, a lady doctor this time.
"Sir, we are here to put you on the IVU drip" the nurse said in a hushed voice again.
"Will this hurt?" I asked the doctor.
"Just a little bit, nothing more like an ant bite" replied Madam Doctor. Yup, she was right, it was not that bad. After that, the staff nurse came with the drips and looking at it, I really had no more energy in me. I just fell asleep until woken up by the morning church bells toiling around 0600 hours calling the faithful for early morning Mass.
My bed was just next to the Church of the Assumption. http://www.assumptionpj.org/
To me, I thought it was a blessing to be so close to a church in times of difficulties. However, as the morning breaks open, so the next part of the journey begins....
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