Saturday, 24 August 2019

elusivek: (Default)
So I see that there isn't a 23-August Friday Five update yet, and I didn't feel like answering last week's (bugs) theme, and so the questions are from 2 weeks ago:

1. How are you feeling today?
Today I'm feeling iffy. 2 months into the renovations works and my immune system is (finally) starting to revolt. I'm itchy all over, my eyes sting from all the dust, and I'm just overall cranky.

2. Have you gone to one of those emergency/urgent care walk-in clinics?
Not today, though this reminded me about my appendicitis scare last year. I've got a story to tell. Although I've written a short note about after my stay, today I write about my hospital experience. Trust me, a whole year later, it's pretty funny (but definitely NOT funny when I was going through it)

3. What symptoms made you go there?
I had a slight stomach or tummy pain that wasn't going away, and I couldn't lie down and sleep either, so I went to the emergency services in the Hospital.

4. Does it make you feel better to have the doctor translate your symptoms into a medical-sounding diagnosis (e.g., really bad cough = bronchitis)?
I don't care if the doctor uses medical jargon or layman terms, as long as they get it right.
So in the triage ward, they kept saying it's just a stomach pain and I should just try to pooh and go home. I insisted to be seen by a doctor and after some probably-new-trainee-girl-doctor asked me, "do you have insurance?" I looked at her funny and asked back, "yes, why?" and she had the guts to say "Why don't you go to the private hospital then?"

After that, same doctor trainee uses some kind of machine (ultrasound I suppose?) and scans my abdomen area and says out loud, "I really don't know how to read this thing".

WTF. How do you give your patients confidence when you say things like that in front of them?

Same trainee then states really confidently, "it's your gall bladder, you have to get it removed." I look at her suspiciously, and reply, "but the pain is somewhere in my lower right side of my abdomen, it should be appendicitis or something like that? I thought the gall bladder is somewhere up in the middle to the left side of the gut?"

Very confidently, "it's reflex pain!"

Okay.

I figured they wouldn't really let this trainee do an actual diagnosis so I play along.

"Okay, so make me well then."

Then I get scuttled off to the X-ray room, they said I've got a lot of poop and gave me the "bomb" (LOL i don't know what it's called in English, but in Portuguese it's called the bomb) so that I can poop everything out. and let me lay there in the emergency ward till the next morning. They put me on a painkiller drip so by then I wasn't in pain, unless a doctor some trainee or another came to press around me.

Wakeup calls and wet towels for face washing, and the first shift doctor (real doctor) comes around, looks at everyone, comes to me, asks about my symptoms, presses and releases the lower right side of my abdomen, declares "Appendicitis" and walks off. A bit later I'm scuttled off to another ultrasound thingie and this doctor says "you're a bit fat, and the fat makes it hard to see, but that's an inflamed appendix. You've got appendicitis."

Gee, that's brutal, doctor, but accurate. So I forgive your jab at my belly fat.

Then they sent me off to a gynecologist to double confirm it's not something else. All settled, back to the emergency ward to wait for a bit, and in comes a very confident lady doctor (later I hear she's the best surgeon in the government hospital). Chit chats a bit with me, presses my abdomen again, says it's gonna be a keyhole surgery, gives me papers to read and all that, and tells me to wait. That should have been around 10am. Come 3pm, still waiting, doctor walks past me, sees me and says "yes, next one is you." Okay. More waiting. 6pm doctor walks past me, sees me and says "why are you still here?" I look at her dumbfounded. "erm...." but before I can say anything else, she's on the phone screaming at the operating theatre people I guess. "So what if she's young! She's here for almost 24 hours!" snippets of what she screamed.

Less than 10 minutes later I'm rolled away, transferred to the operating table, and the doctors chit chat and (try to) speak English with me, and I just say "I can speak Chinese" to put an end to their misery and they start talking about Macanese people. I think it was when they injected anaesthetic to my IV that it HURT LIKE HELL and I made sure to yell about it. I then heard someone yell over me "pump more! faster! more!" and then black out.

I was jostled awake when the nurses transferred me to my in-patient room bed and one of the nurses commented on my tattoo saying it's probably fake, and I mumbled "it's real", and she exclaimed "oh! you're awake! so did it hurt, the tattoo?" and I mumbled a "it hurts more now" and she laughed. She made sure to tell me the usual "if you need anything here's the button" and all that.

Next morning my friend visits me and comments, "your room is so interesting," and it is only then I figured out I was in a single room... that really was a storeroom..... LOL

Anyway, the things after this point, I've pretty much written about already (see that link I posted above), so I end my story here.

5. What is the worst tasting medicine you have ever had?
Hands down Chinese medicine - bitter tea! So bitter you would rather let yourself die than drink the vile stuff. Now i just claim that "Chinese medicine doesn't work on me" and I flit away.
elusivek: (Default)
Push Not the River (The Poland Trilogy #1)
James Conroyd Martin
Amazon Product Link

A panoramic and epic novel in the grand romantic style, PUSH NOT THE RIVER is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700s--a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are being torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, when Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known. With Empress Catherine's Russian armies streaming in to take their spoils, Anna is quickly thrust into a world of love and hate, loyalty and deceit, patriotism and treason, life and death. Even kind Aunt Stella, Anna's new guardian who soon comes to personify Poland's courage and spirit, can't protect Anna from the uncertain future of the country. Anna, a child no longer, turns to love and comfort in the form of Jan, a brave patriot and architect of democracy, unaware that her beautiful and enigmatic cousin Zofia has already set her sights on the handsome young fighter. Thus Anna walks unwittingly into Zofia's jealous wrath and darkly sinister intentions. Forced to survive several tragic events, many of them orchestrated by the crafty Zofia, a strengthened Anna begins to learn to place herself in the way of destiny--for love and for country. Heeding the proud spirit of her late father, Anna becomes a major player in the fight against the countries who come to partition her beloved Poland. PUSH NOT THE RIVER is based on the true eighteenth century diary of Anna Maria Berezowska, a Polish countess who lived through the rise and fall of the historic Third of May Constitution. Vivid, romantic, and thrillingly paced, it paints the emotional and unforgettable story of the metamorphosis of a nation--and of a proud and resilient young woman.


= + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = +



It was an overall pleasant read. It did take me some time (I wasn't bitten by the book bug yet this year, so I'm pretty happy I persevered actually finishing the book). As usual period pieces do, it did annoy me when Anna seemed spineless and just let people dictate her life. But I had to keep myself in check on that as you know, period piece.

This was also a somewhat tough read because of the names used. I'm not used to Polish names, so soon I'd start questioning "so who's that? isn't that the same person?" and things like that.

The ending also sort of made me question... with all the things Zofia the cousin had done, I really doubt she'd do that in the end... but I guess I need to read book #2 to find out.

Profile

Agueda Umbrella
kat (DW: elusivek | LJ: notte0)
❤︎ loves dogs, dark chocolate, and books.
★ doesn’t exactly hate cats.
◆ hates white chocolate.
more?
I read books :-)

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  12 345
6 789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Page generated Wednesday, 16 July 2025 13:25
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios