During the first semester of my first high school year, I was 11 then, had an accident that required hospital stay. It happened at the end of lunch break that I was tripped accidentally in the crowded hallway next to classrooms and hit the concrete floor hard. Right after I slowly got up from the fall, I felt a serious pain on my left palm. I guess it was because my left hand smacked on the floor really hard, though the pain was so intense that I thought my left hand was broken, it retreated quite fast surprisingly. On the contrary, I felt numbness on the right elbow. It wasn’t painful at first, but a loss of strength to move on its own. I then tried to move my right forearm while gripped by my still-sore left hand, I felt a ‘deeper’ pain inside my right elbow. I was sitting in my seat for the first class in the afternoon, but the pain simply put me off attention of what was going on in the class. After 10-15 minutes or so without any improvement, I couldn’t help but raise my left hand and told my teacher that I had an accident before the class and needed to take go to report that to the school admin office. After I told the staff there what was going on, I was driven to hospital by a priest of my Catholic high school in his car.
Once I got there after a ten minute rather subdue ride in the car, I was going through the usual at the hospital: admission, x-ray, settle in patient’s ward, and my dad was contacted. I remember the first thing I asked my dad after he had arrived the hospital was where my school bag was and he told me that he picked that up from the school already. I was put in a temp plaster cast to hold my right arm at a 90 degree. My left wrist was connected to a bottle of sugar i.v. and left in bed till the day got dark.
My surgery was scheduled to take place after 11 something at night. I was not allowed to eat or even drink anything before surgery. By the time I was on the way rolling in the surgery room, a nurse was asking how I was feeling. I told her that I was fine, but my voice was so ‘low’ that she was questioning if I was really alright. I struggled to tell her that I had not drunk anything in the last 12 hours. She then dropped fill drops of water in my mouth with a syringe and that was really the sweetest water I had ever tasted in my life. Well, to these days, I still not sure if that was water or glucose water which was supposed to be sweet. Then, I passed out on the surgery bed and everything went dark for me….
Well, I struggled to lift my eyelids to see what’s going on. It was already in late morning. I felt very weak and tired. I couldn’t feel my body below my neck at the beginning though I was able to see things around me. Then, I looked down, my right arm was in plaster case with a tube coming out from the heavy bandages to a bottle hanging on the right side of my bed. I could barely feel something from my right hand fingers. After a while, I regain some strength on my left arm and my legs. I remember I felt cold all over my body, though I was in blanket. Later, lunch time started, but I couldn’t move much and didn’t feel hunger for eating. Still, I ate something, didn’t remember what I ate and whether I was fed or ate myself with my left hand.
I had stayed in the hospital for 4 days. I don’t remember too much about the whole experience except two things.
I was in a big patient ward, there was a man in his late twenties or in early thirty with mustache who had similar injury as myself. Certainly, I’m no doctor and didn’t know what exactly his injury was, cuz I’d never talked to him as our beds were far apart. The reason why I noticed him was because we had to take the same medicine for the same frequency – every six hours (6am, 12noon, 6pm, midnight). It was a transparent liquid that got injected to my veins through i.v. connection. It was painful during the injection but it usually last 10 minutes or so before the pain receded. That man in the bed opposite mine cried for pain few times during the injections. I still remember that his brother and a woman who could be his wife/girlfriend/sister (not sure) even stayed behind the visiting hours to comfort him once. I remembered that I didn’t cry at all and was kinda proud of myself that I was able to withstand the pain unlike that grown man, just a silly thought of a boy.
The second thing that I remembered is also related to that painful injection. It happened on the third day in hospital. After taking the 6pm shot, I didn’t know if it was because that nurse that gave me injection was having a bad mood or in a rush, she rushed the injection and simply wanna get that done quick. It caused a much greater pain than usual and the pain didn’t recede as it supposed to be. The worst was that I could see my blood was running up the i.v. tube for almost a foot long from my left forearm. I just had to call someone, someone to pay attention. Fortunately, another nurse walked by and attended my call. She sat at my bedside and began slowly massage my left forearm, gently rubbing down my swollen vein for almost 20 minutes. That was really helpful and got my pain receded at the end. I can’t recall what she looked like, but her gently massage was certainly memorable even in these days. Afterwards, I remembered I begged the doctor to give me oral medicine instead of that injection after that incident, and thank God that he was surprisingly okayed my request. I then thought that if such pill exists, why the hell I had to gone through those painful injections then? Anyway, I’d never got that answer.
On Day 4, I was discharged from the hospital and got transported to a ‘recovery’ center on an ambulance.
Once I got there after a ten minute rather subdue ride in the car, I was going through the usual at the hospital: admission, x-ray, settle in patient’s ward, and my dad was contacted. I remember the first thing I asked my dad after he had arrived the hospital was where my school bag was and he told me that he picked that up from the school already. I was put in a temp plaster cast to hold my right arm at a 90 degree. My left wrist was connected to a bottle of sugar i.v. and left in bed till the day got dark.
My surgery was scheduled to take place after 11 something at night. I was not allowed to eat or even drink anything before surgery. By the time I was on the way rolling in the surgery room, a nurse was asking how I was feeling. I told her that I was fine, but my voice was so ‘low’ that she was questioning if I was really alright. I struggled to tell her that I had not drunk anything in the last 12 hours. She then dropped fill drops of water in my mouth with a syringe and that was really the sweetest water I had ever tasted in my life. Well, to these days, I still not sure if that was water or glucose water which was supposed to be sweet. Then, I passed out on the surgery bed and everything went dark for me….
Well, I struggled to lift my eyelids to see what’s going on. It was already in late morning. I felt very weak and tired. I couldn’t feel my body below my neck at the beginning though I was able to see things around me. Then, I looked down, my right arm was in plaster case with a tube coming out from the heavy bandages to a bottle hanging on the right side of my bed. I could barely feel something from my right hand fingers. After a while, I regain some strength on my left arm and my legs. I remember I felt cold all over my body, though I was in blanket. Later, lunch time started, but I couldn’t move much and didn’t feel hunger for eating. Still, I ate something, didn’t remember what I ate and whether I was fed or ate myself with my left hand.
I had stayed in the hospital for 4 days. I don’t remember too much about the whole experience except two things.
I was in a big patient ward, there was a man in his late twenties or in early thirty with mustache who had similar injury as myself. Certainly, I’m no doctor and didn’t know what exactly his injury was, cuz I’d never talked to him as our beds were far apart. The reason why I noticed him was because we had to take the same medicine for the same frequency – every six hours (6am, 12noon, 6pm, midnight). It was a transparent liquid that got injected to my veins through i.v. connection. It was painful during the injection but it usually last 10 minutes or so before the pain receded. That man in the bed opposite mine cried for pain few times during the injections. I still remember that his brother and a woman who could be his wife/girlfriend/sister (not sure) even stayed behind the visiting hours to comfort him once. I remembered that I didn’t cry at all and was kinda proud of myself that I was able to withstand the pain unlike that grown man, just a silly thought of a boy.
The second thing that I remembered is also related to that painful injection. It happened on the third day in hospital. After taking the 6pm shot, I didn’t know if it was because that nurse that gave me injection was having a bad mood or in a rush, she rushed the injection and simply wanna get that done quick. It caused a much greater pain than usual and the pain didn’t recede as it supposed to be. The worst was that I could see my blood was running up the i.v. tube for almost a foot long from my left forearm. I just had to call someone, someone to pay attention. Fortunately, another nurse walked by and attended my call. She sat at my bedside and began slowly massage my left forearm, gently rubbing down my swollen vein for almost 20 minutes. That was really helpful and got my pain receded at the end. I can’t recall what she looked like, but her gently massage was certainly memorable even in these days. Afterwards, I remembered I begged the doctor to give me oral medicine instead of that injection after that incident, and thank God that he was surprisingly okayed my request. I then thought that if such pill exists, why the hell I had to gone through those painful injections then? Anyway, I’d never got that answer.
On Day 4, I was discharged from the hospital and got transported to a ‘recovery’ center on an ambulance.
