Memories in the hospital

Wonder why I can't sleep well these days, even when I feel really tired and sleepy. The other night, while I was staring at the ceiling of my bedroom,I recalled my experience staying in GH before I gave birth to my eldest son.

It was the first time I ever remembered going to hospital, being rushed to the A&E in the middle of the night. My heart seems to jump out from me while I left a trace of blood on the floor all the way to the emergency room. I can't bear to turn round to see the sight. Seeing my huge belly, the nurses naturally called a gynae on duty that night to attend to me. And that was the gynae I met and help to deliver didi 3 years later. I told her I wasn't supposed to deliver yet, that should be another 2 months' down the road.

To cut the long story short, I had placenta praevia type 2, and if the bleeding didn't stop, the baby had to be taken out from c-section or both of us, mother and child, would be in grave danger. Good thing she told me baby was fine, everything seems to be ok, and the bleeding stopped after a day. I was warded for 3 days in that private hospital and the bill came to Rm1k+.

I moved to GH and for the first few days, I was very tormented to stay in that "rundown" maternity ward. It was such a big contrast to the private one, but I couldn't wait to get out of it. The doctor advised me to stay in hospital till delivery and because of the huge fees involved, it would be better to move to GH. Furthermore, if in the case of premature birth, my baby would have a better chance of getting an incubator. The last point totally made me decide to move to GH, no second thoughts were necessary.

I still remember, that first night in GH, it was hot, the ceiling fan was in the middle of the room of 3 bunks and I was weeping feeling so lonely and scared. My hub was in Taiwan, and we kept talking on the phone that night. I asked him to treat me to a vacation, somewhere exotic and faraway after all this was over. He promised instantly without thinking, just like eating "sang-choi" only. Then again, I felt better after "manja"ing him and he just let me. I imagined I was already in a paradise island that night.

Very soon, I get used to life in there. No TV, no internet, no handphones (though I curi-curi kept mine in the cupboard). I took the chance to really relax myself and do some reading. And it felt good. I was reading papers and books everytime of the day when I wasn't sleeping, even squinting my eyes in the darkness in the middle of the nights when I can't sleep.

The order of the day was fairly routine. The nurses would switch on the lights at 7am sharp, even if you have just dozed off a minute ago. They don't tolerate anyone sleeping after 7am. Even if you are, they would push and shove you until you get your butts up. The cleaners would change the bedsheets, tuck the blankets in nicely and made the bed up, ready for the day's work.

So, everyone would be washing up, eating breakfasts, served at 8am, and wait for the doctors to go their morning rounds at 9am. When they do, the whole bunch of them, with 1 or 2 specialists of consultants, senior doctor(s), a few doing their housemanship and some nurses would be making a lot of noise, looking at records, discussing what to do with each of the case study. It was interesting to watch them work, then again, with no other entertainment in my condition at that time, anything would be interesting. That also includes kehpoh-ing on other patients, what their problem is lah, what they are going to do with them lah, how to read the records lah.. suddenly I was learning new things!

Most of the time, the "commotion" comes from the "head" of the pack, and then the nurses would be scrambling around or answering his queries or questions. He does talk to the patients too at times. The rest of the doctors would listen attentively, write notes (or draw turtles) on their notebook etc. When they come around to me, initially he was angry with no past record on on my gestation before I was admitted, and later, they would just came by, chat a little, and told me to just wait. Everything was just running along fine with me, and I would have to wait till the due date. The nurseswould go round to check our bp and baby's heartbeat about 4 to 5 times a day, round the clock, even if you are sleeping. That's their job.

After the rounds, soon the visitors were allowed in and my mom or mil would be dropping by, taking home cooked food for me, the morning's papers, birds' nest and hang around to keep me company for awhile. I was so pampered, as I was the only one who had home cooked food for lunch instead of the hospital's food, and since that was my first child, I need not worry about family at home. Life was getting good.

I get to know one woman in there, particularly, because there weren't many chinese there and we hails from the same hometown. She has 4 kids already and poor thing, she just worries about them endlessly. Lucky all of them are much older kids, like ranging from 4 to 12. And they can't visit her everyday, for the dad needs to work. So it was really happy and heartwarming to see her smiling during weekends when all of them came over and call "mammy, mammy....". For me, weekends were boring because my mom and mil would take a break. Some of the times, I had friends over for a visit instead.

The afternoons would be spent either sleeping or reading with no major events. Teatime served at about 3pm and dinner about 7pm. I guess when evening came, somehow, boredom would sweeps over me. You know? Those kind of time when you seemed to be stoned, not knowing what to do and the mind stares blankly into space. That hours between late afternoon and 10pm would drag like years. After supper was served, normally it would be just 1 or 2 biscuits, or fruits, (can't remember) and milo, then we would wash ourselves up and get ready to sleep. By 10, lights would be off and I would be tossing and turning around.

By the 33rd week of gestation or so, the time was coming nearer and I was becoming excited. Finally when the doctors came to my bed, I was summoned for a final check before deciding on the mode of delivery. I heard the story of someone pushed to the operation room and after a final scan, the doctor said the placenta moved upwards and she can go home to wait for normal delivery.

That day was very important to me (because I get to walk out of the ward). I was instructed to hold my bladder for 1 hour before the appointed time with the doctor on my scan. Not only that, I had to drink a few cups of water, to ensure the bladder is full for the scan to be of high accuracy. And that was the problem.

I think I never would quite forget that time. For I had down lots of water in and held my bladder like for 2 to 3 hours. I was left waiting outside of his clinic for the longest time, and that was made worse with a huge baby pressing down on my almost about to burst bladder. It was such agony that I was seen gritting my teeth and hanging on desperately to keep myself from "leakage embarassment". So much so that a nurse came over to my side and asked me if I had labor pain and if I'm going to deliver soon. I thought it was really funny that I answered her "oh, no!! liew kap jek". And I asked for her help to ask the doctor check me asap. She was my saviour and I was assisted to the "bed" very soon.

The doctor scanned, and said "well, seems like placenta is still there, downwards, and you need to be operated". I hastily replied him "Fine. Now can I go?" And I quickly rushed as fast as I possibly could to the nearest toilet and released myself. Aitelyiu hoh, that immense feeling relief I felt that time, made me not to take for granted of this thing called "small business" anymore. Appreciate that you can pass urine normally everyday now.

There was a time I had some friends over from KL for a visit, and I felt so happy to see them. They came all the way to visit me. Once, 3 friends from my high school came over and we sat outside on the pavement chatting. I worked out a plan to sneak out from the hospital where Hui Ling would just take some gaigai clothes for me to change and Patrick gets ready with the car to drive me away without anyone noticing and we would go out to eat all my favorite food like curry laifun with cham ping. Told them the plan and dammit, we talked as if I was a prisoner, just that the prison clothes are all in pink instead of the striped black and white.

Thank God everything went well and it's 9 years now, with my son healthy and fine.