Helga’s Hospital Experience

8-21am

Yesterday all went as planned. I pitched up at the hospital and went to the day ward….got issued with the finest hospital wear out and settled in to wait for my turn….cross-stitch to keep me busy…

A very nice anaesthetist came to see me pre-op – a Dr. Moodley. I had been to  pre-admission last week to expedite hospital admission and was interested in all the forms and consents I had to sign. On leaving pre-admission last week, I pondered how many people took in their own forms. I imagined typing up a simple form and asking the nursing staff, anaesthetist and surgeon to sign it. It would say,

“I Dr/Sister/ENA/Staff Nurse (circle applicable) ………………………………………      (full name in print) promise to keep to the oath I made when I qualified into the medical profession and take care of you in the capacity in which I am trained, to the best of my ability.”

And then their signature.  Even on admission to the hospital there were more forms to sign. I probably signed in about 10 places altogether. So one signature from a nursing staff member, the surgeon and the anaesthetist wouldn’t be too much to ask, would it?

Well of course, I THOUGHT that was a good idea but I didn’t carry it out. I did, however, ask Dr. Moodley if anyone had done that. He said ‘no’ and reminded me that he had sworn the Hippocratic oath.  I said I know he has, but they have so many patients, it’s easy to become a bit blasé and people become numbers. He agreed that sometimes the medical profession need reminding! This was at the forefront of my mind, because when I arrived at the Day Ward, I was not greeted….no eye contact…just another patient requiring more work! Then I ‘fell through the cracks’ as far as the hospital day ward admission was concerned and while I was being wheeled off to the theatre, they were still filling in the final forms! Oops!

People are important. It’s so easy to get swallowed up in a job and not notice them. It’s something I have to remember as well. Each and every listener and blog reader is important! Overall the experience was positive in that the nursing staff (when they discovered I hadn’t been fully admitted) introduced themselves by name and thanked me profusely for going to pre-admission a few days ago! And  Dr. Moodley hauled them over the coals for letting me fall through the cracks! So he gets 10/10 for a good bedside manner, taking a full interest in me, defending my cause, and looking after me while I was in surgery.

My last recollection of before the op was having a mask put over my mouth and Dr Moodley saying, “Okay Mrs van Niekerk I’m going to give you something that puts you into a nice sleep” And that was that. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery with the nurse calling my name. I was so sleepy, I felt I could hardly respond. I was taken back to the ward, had dinner (it was chicken), dozed on and off. Was put in a wheelchair;  fell asleep on the way out & snoozed all the way home. Like helping a drunk, Mike helped me hobble up the stairs (I remember him telling me it reminded him of helping Granny!). I got into my nightie and went to bed. I vaguely heard my saint of a husband return from taking the CCFm keys to the studio (I had forgotten to leave them there!) and the next thing I knew it was midnight. I got up, went to the loo, took pain pills and went back to sleep until 4am. THEN I woke up! And was fully awake. I got up, hobbled downstairs, very very slowly, made tea, got my Bible and hobbled back up again. At about 5am, I went back to sleep, only to wake up at 6am and take more pain pills.”Every six hours pain or not”, they said.  Mike woke up at about 7am and made me breakfast in bed…

Mike, meanwhile has gone off to have surgery of his own…

This big cyst has been growing by the week. (He’s just called to say the deed is done and it wasn’t a wart as we thought!)

And I am sitting contently in bed watching the sunbirds scavenging for any leftover grapes on the vine. Poor little things…I wish I’d put up the bird feeder.

And once this blog is posted, I will reach for my cross-stitch and quietly do some more! At this rate, it will be finished sooner than I thought.

In my Bible reading this morning, I read about Caleb. He and Joshua were two of the 12 men sent into the Promised Land by Moses to go and check it out. They were the only two who came back with positive reports. Caleb was 40 when he went as a spy to check out the land of Canaan. By the time he gets into the land of Israel with Joshua and they are beginning to defeat their attackers, Caleb is (wait for it!) 85!  Joshua 14: 10b-11

“So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.”

Ta daa! Attitude is everything! Life begins for you (and me) TODAY, regardless of our age. If you’re 85, life begins for you today! Use your vigour to go out and live in obedience to God!

God bless you loads!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂

Gratitude/Happiness pic….roof painted…Truffles approves…