The Hospital Trial Run

I had the chance to do a trial run at Pantai Cheras the past week. I went in with terrible gastric pains, discharged and got in again with food poisoning (might be food from the hospital). I was placed at the maternity ward just because my doctor was the gynae/obstetrician there. And so I had the chance of experiencing staying in maternity ward and watching pregnant women giving birth even though it's not my turn (thank God!).

The first night, the next bed was empty. Darn! Why couldn't they give me the bed next to the window instead of the one facing the wall with the aircond blowing directly onto my face! Not that I minded the aircond that much but I had to stare at blank greyish-greenish walls and curtains for 5 days. No TV, no entertainment or whatsoever, the only cheerful thing I could stare at was the basket of flowers given by my colleagues.

That night, a Chinese woman checked-in. She was really quiet, never an exchange of words and I only had a few glimpses of her through the parting curtains when she went to the loo. She was there for an operation. Even when her 3-year old came to visit her, she was hushing him down, asking him not to make any noise or whatsoever. Her kid left within 10 minutes. That was the only sound I managed to hear from her throughout her stay. The next day, she was discharged.

On the fourth day I was there, a pregnant Indian woman checked-in. The moment she came in, there was a big hoohah from her and her family members. Such a vast difference from the previous lady. Within minutes I learnt that she was going in for the C-section, all expenses covered by her busband's company called GL or something, she had 4 months off after that, her placenta has matured so she opted for the C-section, etc etc. See, told you it was a big hoohah.

I witnessed the whole regime from my bed. This is how the process of the caesaerean is done. First, you'd have to be starving for umpteenth hours before the day. People like me with terrible heartburns and gastric will never survive that long without processing food. Then you check in, and the nurses would put you on bed with drips and then shave off (you know.....the part). You are then wheeled into the operation theatre. The anaesthetist will come in and numb you down from the waist. It's not epidural, he says...Then the surgery starts with you watching yourself being cut up and the baby being pulled out part by part. According to this lady, her baby's leg got stuck while being pulled out. Sounds scary isn't it?

Right after the surgery, the baby is given to you while the doctor stitches you up. Then you're put on sedatives and left in the operating theatre for 2 hours. You will be wheeled back into the ward thereafter and put on drips. Now here's the even scarier part. There will be this morphine machine next to you, drips and a tube placed through your urinary tract. You wouldn't be able to move for more than 24 hours. Each time you feel pain, you press the morphine button. Even after the surgery, food or even drinks were not allowed for another 24 hours. That makes a total of 2 days without food and water. You pee through the tube and the nurses will come clear the pan every few hours. You wouldn't be able to see your baby till the next morning. This lady couldn't move at all, even turning her upper part of her body hurts. It didn't improve the day after coz she told the nurse not to change her clothes after cleaning as it was too painful.

The funny part is that right after she was wheeled in to the ward, visitors never stopped pouring in. Throngs of them. I thought you'd need to rest and sleep but no, the visitors came and kept yacking away and never left. Handphones rang, they talked as if they were in Starbucks over a cup of coffee. I had a difficult time trying to continue on my reading, much less take a nap. Even when the announcement was made at 9:30pm, her visitors still hung around for a while. I heaved with relief when they finally left only to discover that a new set of visitors came in after visiting hours. Thank goodness the whole ruckuss was over at 10pm! I am so going to take the single room next time even though it costs a hundred more and my insurance isn't going to cover anything.

Now enough about the C-section procedures. It's so scary that I will not trade it for normal birth when its my turn. What the heck about ripening placenta - just induce me but never cut me up like that! I don't know if she's still in pain coz I checked-out that day.

It was quite an experience staying in the hospital for 5 days but I'm glad I had this trial run thing. I only hope that the single room bed is a little bit softer and bigger than the double room. Imagine on my 3rd day, instead of complaining about the stomach pains, I told the doctor I now have bad backaches too. The moment I reached home, I jumped onto my bed and slept for 4 hours straight! Talk about recuperating in a hospital, I think I would've got more rest on my own bed. Oh well.....I'd be back there again in 2.5 months or less - hope it would be a whole lot of a better experience then.