Hospitals

So I neglected to notice that the last post Asian Time was the 69th post. I'll let all you readers fill in the blanks.


I decided to talk about hospitals for this post due to recent events. I don't think any of you guys know what it is nor do I expect you to. Let's start off with all of the times I have had to go to the hospital (birth does not count):


o Sometime around the ages of 10-11, I had the stomach flu but the pain was so bad that I was taken to the ER. Highly unpleasant visit, as I ended up not able to drink down all the medicine and having to re-drink it. Long story short, I can't help but avoid apple juice now. The IV needle also slid out so they had poke another hole and that time actually hurt. Probably because they used the vein in the hand that time.

o Spring Freshman year: While trying to run across a crosswalk, I tripped over someone's foot (Hey! It wasn't my fault that that person was running diagonally and I just got caught by her hell). The ambulance had to come and I was subjected to the torture of not remembering what exactly happened. The ER wasn't that pleasant either; the man on the stretcher next to me was rather insane and kept thrashing around so my mother had to get someone to move me so I wouldn't be kicked in the head. Also took hours just to leave the place. End result: I left the hospital with torn sweats (had just came from a swim meet), open wounds on hands and knees, and this annoying wound on my forehead that required me putting on sunblock so it wouldn't look funny. Took about two years to completely heal. T.T

o Summer before Senior year: I was suffering from dehydration and the flu (but I didn't know that), so after passing out three times, my mother decided to send me to a hospital. In Taiwan. Three days before I was supposed to go home. Four days before school started again. It was perhaps the greatest timing I had ever had. Anyway, I had a pain in the abdomen so the first thing they said was appendicitis. Fair enough. Then the doctor said it might be some infection. Either way, they would have to keep me in the hospital for several days so I could have the surgery and heal. After my mother translated that to me, I started crying. I hate missing school; it's such a pet peeve of mine. Finally, they found out that there was nothing really wrong and that I could leave...and then I developed a fever. So I had to stay overnight for observation. It took a while but I finally was able to leave. I had also finished about 1500cc of saline throughout my time there. Condemned to drinking a 500cc bottle a day, I was bad but too tired and sick and out of it to really complain. So that was a brilliant scare.


Okay, so three visits aren't actually that much nor were they too bad. And I think I've accumulated enough knowledge to be able to muse about those visits and some of the lessons I have learned from them.

1) The difference between the two countries' ERs is huge. The nurses in Taiwan would show us what the medicine is, tell us what it does, and give us the cost. While I do appreciate knowing how expensive my treatment is going to be, sometimes it's a bit better to just hook me up and worry about everything else later. Then again, the nurses there really do seem nicer, probably because it's not a crazy rush there (or at least while I was there). They also have an observation room that has several beds, so patients don't have to be admitted but they can still stay overnight. They also move you if there's something going else in one of the two rooms.

2) Hospitals have this smell that is actually rather addicting. I don't know why but...yeah...>.>

3) While they are great at times, you need to be wary of their food. At least the dishes from the cafeteria thing has me kind of on a thin wire on whether I want to eat it or not. They're not bad; you just don't know what exactly it is you're eating.

4) The expenses. Oh. My. Freakin'. Ripred. Hospitals charge so much money, it's almost not worth going there. The bills are insane and you just want to go to them and beg to waive some of the fees. That's probably why I avoid hospitals as much as I can.

5) You can catch up on sleep at a hospital. Well maybe when you're not in a busy ER, but when you're admitted or you're moved for observation, you feel like you can take a nap whenever you want. So you do. And as a high school student who doesn't even believe in sleeping before 10, it is amazing. It's the best vacation you can ever have. Of course, you're probably at recovery stage at that point; the pain might have a problem with getting you to sleep.


I think that's it for now...So yeah, topic of the day is hospitals. Lovely, eh?