ER Episode

I somehow believe that people do die without knowing that they will. You can be playing football now and minutes later collapse and die of heart attack (real story which happened to an ex-colleague who was in his 30s then). I had some similar kind of experience last week. One minute I was enjoying lunch, had my haircut, had dinner and next thing I know I was being brought to hospital, half weeping with the excruciating pain in my stomach.

If it hadn't been for the pain, I would have smirked when I arrived at the hospital. I never thought that an actual scenario included nurses rushing out with a wheelchair, grabbing you to be placed on the wheelchair and wheeling you off to the emergency room while onlookers watched with petrifying eyes.

The first thing they asked was "Who's your doctor? Where's your referral letter?" I was thinking, what the heck, it's an emergency and I needed a referral letter? Actually, my mistake. They all thought that I was heavily pregnant and was about to give birth. Hahahahahaha.....

I was immediately wheeled into the ER (stylo-milo to be able to use ER instead of Emergency Room) and a fairly young doctor (if only his hair hadn't turned all white, he'd look like he just stepped out of ER) with his white overcoat whisking around attended to me. He suggested giving me painkiller via jab plus other miscellaneous jabs and then see if I could go home right after. I was stunned. What? Am I even supposed to be jabbed with anything? He then gave me two choices - call my doctor or he'll go on with the jabs. "And calling your doctor in means paying RM300", he says. What a funny doctor....he was almost threatening me not to call for my doctor.

Anyway, my doctor came. Treated me and dumped me into the maternity ward since he's actually my gynae. The next morning, he came and happily said I can be discharged. Yahoo - episode 1, ER, over.

Talk about bad luck. Have you ever had bad things happening to you one after another? Well, I had my lunch in the hospital, went home and then felt bad again. I call this bout the 'cleansing ritual' since I was throwing out everything when I didn't have anything. Haven't or couldn't do my yearly cleansing ritual for quite some time anyway. Tummy aches returned but this time it wasn't the same kind of pain. Darn.....

ER, Episode 2 - it happened at around 4am that day. I had to go back to the hospital. Was it due to the lunch at the hospital? I don't know but it's kind of funny to think that I stayed in the hospital because I've been poisoned by hospital food. Maybe it's just karma that I needed to experience staying in this hospital before the day when I really have to go there.

This time around, the same black car stopped in front of the main door, the wheelchair was wheeled out and they immediately recognised me. Who wouldn't when it's a replayed episode with me holding on to my stomach and my face writhing in pain. They didn't ask who my doctor was but immediately mentioned his name. They didn't think I was about to give birth this time, thank goodness! They wheeled me to the ER again and this time it was a different doctor with the same white overcoat flying behind him when he entered the room. Wow...just like another ER episode! This one looked smarter and more like a doctor. He didn't even say what he was going to give me but told me that he was going to call my doctor to ask. Bravo for such a good decision made. He was actually good and treated me well. My doctor didn't even have to come in.

And so, the ordeal of staying in the hospital for another 4 days began....It's quite a mark in history for me as this is the second time I've ever stayed in a hospital my entire life. The previous wasn't even that long. Darn, I didn't even need a hospital when I was born (ask me about being born in a Post Office)!