Hospital Zine (4)
12/6/20 Remember I stupidly attacked by a goose in summer :)? It was a scary experience! Recently, I went back to that goose attacking road. The road is still dominated by those vicious geese, and my legs felt heavy. BUT hey, we need to stand up where we have fallen, aren’t we?!
I hope to leave all the hospital experience in 2020. So I am hurrying up to finish my “hospital zine” 🙂
Page 5: the special covid era
Hospitals have run some covid protocols: for example, before you can enter a building, people will measure your body temperature and ask about any covid symptoms that may exist. Patients are asked to sit 1-2 meters away from the doctors in the visiting rooms. The doctors, nurses and the patients all required to have masks on and some doctors (not many) weared the face shields.
But after you stayed a bit longer in the hospital, you know that the luck is needed to avoid covid infection. One time a young worker was helping me wear the ecg attachment. I noticed that his mask was thin like a paper and did not fully covered his mouth. He told me, “I am going to attend a friend birthday party next week in another state”. I was like … eh … The other day, I was in the pre-operation room. A nurse was helping me with IV and we were chatting. “Do you guys have periodical covid tests?” “No, we just advised to not come when there is a fever or symptoms on the list”. When I was staying over night at the hospital, the nurse told me “you are the only one who wears masks when I am in the room. The mandatory mask order just came in today.” On the top level connected to the building where I stayed, Mayo kept all the covid patients. When I was waiting in the pharmacy of this building and surrounded by tons of people, my feet were quivering. The worker who pushed me into the pharmacy told me that “lucky that none of our wheelchair cohort have caught the covid yet”. I really respect these hospital workers!
All the patients who do invasive operations will need to do a covid-test (both swap in the nose and antibodies in the blood). The swap test is nasty and I did not recommend it.
Page 6: the modern hospitals
I am a beneficiary of modern hospital technologies. So I have happily detonated my blood, specimen and survey data for their research.
Here is this amazing operation done by the radiology department. The surgeon inserts a wire shaped long probe through my vein into my internal organ to read the hormone level in certain positions. The whole process is guided through the ultra-sound and there is a giant TV in the operating room. I was sedated so I can hear the surgeon and the nurses’ conversations. I can sort of feel the probe moving around in my body. Very few doctors in this world can perform this operation with high successful rates.
My main surgery is laparoscopic. In this surgery, my blood pressure needs to be closely monitored (there were patients who died in such surgeries because of unmanageable blood pressure). The monitoring is not done through cuff on the arm. Instead, they stick a needle into my vein and read it directly from there and thus more accurately. This is all happening when I was asleep. I just noticed giant bruises here and there when I waked up. I think this is due to the blood thinning medicine used during surgery.
During the surgery, the patients need to be supplied with a lot of fluid. When I waked up from anesthesia, my first reaction is not “pain” but “need to pee”. The nurse called the urology team and they used some kind of “vacuum machine” and emptied my bladder in a few minutes. Scary!
I have visited a variety of test departments in Mayo. I know that the blood station in the Mayo Building is the best (fast and no pain) among 5 or 6 blood stations in the area. The nurses gave you shots and IV before high contrast imaging. When the dye goes into the vein, you immediately feel the warmth. The nurse told me that anything going to the vein reacts very fast. The most funny exam is the bone density test. You laid down under a giant scanner. Then the scanner moves back and forth from the top to the bottom of your body. This exam cost me more than $200 even after insurance. Mayo also can do remote tests. See below this iceboxes (bloodtubes are inside) they sent to me lately. I had done once: first freezing my blood and then shipped it back with dry ice through overnight FedEx, lol, it sounds crazy!
Page 7: wow, the handsome surgeons!!
Working with smart and good-looking people is a joy, even as a patient. The surgeon from the radiology department talked very succinctly in the operating room and wrote a beautiful report from the technical writing point of view :).He comes and goes mysteriously and I even did not see his face. My impression is that he is short and has a clean shape and movement.
My main surgeon looks sporty and wears a fashionable bag across his shoulder when he came to visit me in the operating room before the surgery. He said something like “we will take a good care of you, you are in good hands”. I gave him a big smile even I was already laying down on the operation table and waiting to be cut open :D. I also had a very handsome anesthesia resident who helped put a tube in my throat! When the medicine came in, I looked at the clock in front of me and listened to his gentle and friendly voice. I still clearly remembered the process from consciousness to unconsciousness. I was thinking “ah, I understand why people would select Euthanasia”. Then I fell asleep 🙂