Part 4 - Hi ho hi ho it's off to Royal Perth Hospitial we go!

Chapter 7 -  Cashed up on hospital vouchers

After a breakfast of porridge (fine) and some kind of grilled fish (weird), which I obviously didn't eat, I was wheeled up to a private room in one of the hospital wards. I had been asked to provide a urine sample (fun) and once this was 'prepared' and ready for pick up I buzzed the nurse's station.....about ten years later someone arrived. My needs weren't urgent but I couldn't help wondering what would have happened if there'd been some kind of medical emergency in my room shoved all the way around the corner and down a long corridor....Hmmm.....


Between breakfast and lunch I attempted to catch up on as much sleep as possible while being periodically woken up by nurses taking my blood pressure etc. A nice lady came in at some stage and explained that she was the Private Patient's Liason and handed me a little gift bag of toiletries and a book of vouchers e.g. free parking and meals for my visitors (d'oh for being all alone) and free access to pay tv (wooot!). 


Stay tuned for Chapter 8 - A surprise visit!

Part 3 - Hi ho hi ho it's off to Royal Perth Hospitial we go!

Chapter Five - My ride in an ambulance (or Paramedics are nice people)

Post haste the ambulance arrived and the paramedics were knocking on my door, one small blonde woman and a tall man. After asking me a few questions I got a canula shoved into my tiny hand vein...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW. Then I was administered some medicine to stop me throwing up followed by a drip to rehydrate me. 


After only a short while I was ambling outside to the ambulance in my PJs and slippers with only my handbag as luggage. I was asked to lay down on the bed inside the ambulance and was strapped in which felt weird (a bit One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) but it was nice to lie down :P


The trip to the hospital was over in the blink of an eye and I was wheeled in to the Emergency Department for 'sorting'.

Chapter 6 - Emergency Department is never dull

I was wheeled into the main area of the Emergency Department which is bright, loud and busy. Thankfully there was a bed bay free and I was able to have a little bit of privacy. A very young newbie doctor came and asked me a lot of questions especially about the rash I had developed while throwing up earlier. I tried to explain that it had been located on my face, neck and the very top of my chest just below my neck. He asked me if it was still there, to which I replied "I can't see properly why don't you have a look?". To this (what I believed to be a) perfectly reasonable request Dr Newbie looked shocked, appalled and flustered. To my annoyance I finally gathered that he thought I was asking him to look down my top...however (1) I wasn't, I was only wanting him to look in an area that can be decently shown in public circles at the beach and (2) What if the rash HAD been on my breasts? Is he not a Dr? What on earth are we coming to when a Dr is embarassed to look at a woman's breasts for medical reasons? FINALLY he realised where I was indicating and said he couldn't tell if there was a rash as he didn't know what my skin usually looked like....excellent....very helpful Dr Newbie. 


After that brilliant display of doctoring I was left alone for quite a while, with the nice nurse coming in and checking on me and asking if I needed any painkillers. I tried to put it off but eventually I decided I did indeed need something as my back and abdomen were screaming at me. I was given some strong stuff that I was warned might make me feel loopy in the brainpan. Soon after another female Dr Newbie arrived and proceeded to ask me 10000 questions while I was in the middle of a period of melty mindtank. She was a consult from the medical department upstairs and she recommended that I be admitted to hospital and moved to a ward as soon as a single room became available (apparently in WA if you've been in an out of state or overseas hosptial within the last 6 months they like to keep you isolated from everyone else in case you're carrying some kind of super bug). 

I'd arrived in the Emergency Department at around 11pm at night and I was still there at 7am the next day waiting for a room to be ready for me. During this strange, bright, painful, noisy, disruptive night I can't say that I was ever bored. I could clearly hear all the goings on near my bed bay. All sorts of odd ailments, accidents, self-induced damage and mystery rashes paraded through like a strange radio play. 

Stayed tuned for Chapter 7 -  Cashed up on hospital vouchers