5th July, SundayThe ceiling was
spinning when I woke up.
Shivering from head to toe.
Cold sweat wet my top.
I was
panting.
Taking extremely
short breaths.
Hands and legs were
losing their senses.
Soon, complete
numbness took over.
The doctors were doing their morning routine when I was in that state.
One of the doctors instructed me in a stern voice,
"STOP Breathing like that! Take deep breath.""I Can't Control.""No! You have to. You MUST! And you Can!"With his help in repeating all the
"Ok, breathe in now, hold. Breathe out slowly now.", I finally cooled down.
It was so difficult, with all the shivering, but eventually
(though it felt like ages) I regained the senses on my hands and legs. But the shivering didn't leave me. The nurse brought in another blanket, tucked me in tightly like a mummy.
It took minutes before I was back to my normal self. A CT scan was scheduled. The one where you have to lie flat on a moving 'bed' into a 'tunnel'.
My lower abdominal pain had changed for the better. Instead of being there consistently, it became intermittent.
11am:The nurse came and inserted another cannula on the back of my left hand. The pain was almost unbearable. The feeling was so different from the one on my right hand, which was inserted by the A&E doctor. I wonder if it was due to the lack of experience of the nurse. *Ouch*
Later did I found out that the 'plug' inserted on my left hand was the THICKEST of all cannulas. The purpose was for the CT scan. After the 'plug' was inserted. The same nurse flood me with water. Cups and cups of water. PAIN PAIN PAIN!
My gastric was still not accepting intake from mouth very well. With my poor bladder control, I had to pee almost every 30minutes. The wheel chair came to bring me to the 'tunnel'. The nurse at the CT scan room pressed my lower abdomen and felt my bladder was not full enough. Gave me another huge glass of water. *Faint* The cup was as big as a regular Coke you buy from McDonalds. She demanded me to down the cup of water fast, 'cos there was another patient waiting for her turn after I'm done with my CT scan.
Gastric was screaming
"PAIN!" I thought the worse was over. I was wrong. The doctor connected a tube, to the still-very-painful cannula on my left hand, which linked to a machine that pumps liquid to illuminate the organs in my entire tummy for better visual. The pain was excruciating!!!
I screamed! My gastric was in pain due to the huge intake of water and now my left hand was in worse pain. He stopped the machine and checked if the cannula was inserted properly. And it was. So he gave me 2 options: Either he remove the 'plug' and re-insert another or I must bear with the pain. I chose latter.
Ok, this must be it, right? No more testing of my tolerance level, right?
WRONG!Here comes another doctor. She showed me a tube 2-3 times the size of my thumb and as long as my wrist to the tip of my middle finger. It was filled with clear liquid. She said,
"ok, now that your bladder is full, we need to insert this into your anus, so as to enlarge the rear area too for better 'visual'." *Faint*
Inserting was painless but my tummy started to growl. As if I had eaten curry gone bad. She warned,
"You MUST control your anus! Don't let the water come out." Right after that sentence, the machine was switched on. Medicine start pumping into the cannula on my left hand. *Ouch!*
My gastric hurts. My hand hurts. And now I can't even scream 'cos my anus would lose its grip and I'll probably '
diarrhea' on the scanning bed! *EEeeewwww*
I could only grip tightly on the pillow with my right hand over my head. In I went into the tunnel. A voice came from outer space
"Take a deep breath and hold." Then 'Snap'! A picture was taken. The alien voice came again,
"Now breathe normally."This repeated itself again before I was finally done.
I told the auntie to push me up to my room as fast as her 60 year old legs could, 'cos I needed to pee and spatter almost any moment. She tried. Thank you auntie! I reached my room without any 'traffic jam'. Went straight to my toilet and completely release everything from the rear and the front. A complete mess was what I created in the toilet bowl. *Phew* What a relief man!
4pm:A doctor came and told me that the CT Scan showed nothing was wrong (again!). *Arrrggghhh* My emotion changed from frustration to anger.
What the hell is wrong with ME!???9pm:A Doctor came and told me that my latest blood test result was NOT good.
I WAS REJOICING! Call me insane. But I was surely rejoicing!
Finally something is NOT RIGHT! She told me that there was lack of oxygen in my blood cells. So instead of taking my blood from my veins. She needs to take blood from my arteries for further testing.
You can see veins on the surface, green lines running under my skin on my forearm and hand.
But you cannot see arteries! It has to be taken at the wrist. She bent my right hand backwards and warn sternly
, "This is going to be much more painful than normal collection of blood sample. Please do not jerk." I gripped my blanket covering my mouth. The needle went in, I shut my eyes and she was '
PLAYING' WITH THE NEEDLE
IN MY WRIST, finding the artery.
First attempt failed. She pulled out the needle. Add pressure to the punctured spot to prevent fountain of blood from gushing out.
"Sorry, I had to try again. Was it unbearable?" "No, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. It can't be compared to the pain on my the back of my left hand, caused by the 'thick' cannula." I replied.
WRONG CHOICE OF WORDS! I regretted when she made her second attempt.Before she attacked my wrist the second time, I asked,
"By the way, how do you know you are getting blood from the arteries and not anywhere else?""The blood would jump in the syringe."Ohhh, that's so cool! I thought.
Second attempt:
Since me and my big mouth said
"Not as painful as my cannula on my left hand", she held back no more! Oh God! It hurt so badly! It felt as if she had hit my bone or something! Guess what?
Second attempt > Failed! *faint*
Third attempt:
She gave up on the wrist and turned to my
GROIN! Oh my! That hurts a hundred times more! Such a sensitive area and you've got a needle moving left and right, retrieving back and forth... Use your wildest imagination, you can't be too wrong about that pain you imagined in your brain!
Third attempt > Failed! *I thought I was dying*
She gave up and called for her senior, who came 2 hours later.
11pm+:He attempted on the right wrist again. DID IT TWICE!!!! Still failed! I'm starting to wonder if I have arteries in my right wrist in the first place!!! *eyes rolled* Or are they experienced enough to do this?!
Soon, he gave up on my right wrist too.
He did not go for my groin, he went for my left wrist. I shouted
"NO! The cannula on my left hand is already causing alot of pain. If you bend my wrist backwards, it would be worse PLUS you will be poking my wrist, it would be doubly or triply worse!""I'm sorry, its easier to reach the arteries from the wrist then the groin. So please bear with the pain." *I think my soul left my body for a couple of seconds before returning back to this 'guinea pig' body*
Blanket over my mouth, tightly squeezed by my bruised right hand. I Screamed! But I had to control myself from jerking, in case the needle broke.
After
4 attempts on my right wrist,
1 on my groin,
1 on my left wrist, finally the second attempt on my left wrist succeeded! He was happier than I was
(it seemed), he went,
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Got it. Got it!!!"I opened my eyes and saw the blood 'danced' a little before the entire syringe was filled with my blood from my arteries.
They kept apologising, before they finally left me alone with my bruised wristS and groin.... *eyes closed*
(Please tell me I'm a warrior!?)
