Tuesday, July 12, 2005
The Average Wait Time is Four Hours
An interesting week for once.
I don’t recall visiting that many doctors in one week before. Anyway, my minor op that was supposed to be today was pushed back by two weeks. Apparently because GA regulations forbid you to take the op if you haven’t been healthy at any point in the prior two weeks.
So I ended up at A&E on Saturday night. I guess it started last Wednesday when I experienced ‘some’ amount of discomfort in my stomach which I couldn’t quite isolate. So the doctor could only tag it as some gastric problem. Then I came down with high fever on Friday. Then uber high fever by Saturday. I was in agony – last time I had such a fever was in BMT. Hmm reminds me of those reports coming in the papers these days – those that talk about the initial assumptions that all NS men are malingering by default when they see a doctor? Not that I’m implying anything, of course. Surely I’d never do something like that, would I?
A&E was quite an… experience. I’d never been there in my life, and hopefully I will never have any good reason to. At least they seemed fairly eager to clear me out, so after waiting about an hour in that freezing, tiny little cubicle, my spectacles steamed over from my stifled breathing behind the mask, a doctor attended to me. After ensuring that I was not going to die anytime soon, they discharged me with several referral letters/documents/certificates. And I got to miss my own concert the next day, something which I am not sorry about whatsoever. Hope you had fun with that drum set part I had to play on your behalf…
Then Sunday came, and all hell broke lose. Gastric flu was the order of the day, with whatever you might expect of it, the regurgitations, diarrhea what not. All round, a very exciting day indeed. The doctor had to put me through micturation tests and all that. Quite amusing. If not unsettling. And I was unfit for another two days, with fluctuating fevers, migraines, the whole she-bang. A whole lot of fun. Really.
And was the medical leave worth all that pain and suffering?
Hell yeah.
Paranoia out.
P.S. thanks for all the notes! Especially from those people I haven’t heard from in the past 5 decades or something – MW, KT... where have you guys been all my life? We need to get in touch sometime!
I don’t recall visiting that many doctors in one week before. Anyway, my minor op that was supposed to be today was pushed back by two weeks. Apparently because GA regulations forbid you to take the op if you haven’t been healthy at any point in the prior two weeks.
So I ended up at A&E on Saturday night. I guess it started last Wednesday when I experienced ‘some’ amount of discomfort in my stomach which I couldn’t quite isolate. So the doctor could only tag it as some gastric problem. Then I came down with high fever on Friday. Then uber high fever by Saturday. I was in agony – last time I had such a fever was in BMT. Hmm reminds me of those reports coming in the papers these days – those that talk about the initial assumptions that all NS men are malingering by default when they see a doctor? Not that I’m implying anything, of course. Surely I’d never do something like that, would I?
A&E was quite an… experience. I’d never been there in my life, and hopefully I will never have any good reason to. At least they seemed fairly eager to clear me out, so after waiting about an hour in that freezing, tiny little cubicle, my spectacles steamed over from my stifled breathing behind the mask, a doctor attended to me. After ensuring that I was not going to die anytime soon, they discharged me with several referral letters/documents/certificates. And I got to miss my own concert the next day, something which I am not sorry about whatsoever. Hope you had fun with that drum set part I had to play on your behalf…
Then Sunday came, and all hell broke lose. Gastric flu was the order of the day, with whatever you might expect of it, the regurgitations, diarrhea what not. All round, a very exciting day indeed. The doctor had to put me through micturation tests and all that. Quite amusing. If not unsettling. And I was unfit for another two days, with fluctuating fevers, migraines, the whole she-bang. A whole lot of fun. Really.
And was the medical leave worth all that pain and suffering?
Hell yeah.
Paranoia out.
P.S. thanks for all the notes! Especially from those people I haven’t heard from in the past 5 decades or something – MW, KT... where have you guys been all my life? We need to get in touch sometime!
# posted by Paranoia Incarnate @ 8:45 AM 
