Poked, probed and pricked

Both my arms are sore and aching all over from being poked with all types of needles. When I was re-admitted into the Lohguanlye Specialist Hospital last week, two peripheral cannulae were inserted into my lower arms for the intravenous drips.

Two days ago, one of them was removed from my arm when the flesh around it became swollen and tender. This morning, I had the other removed because it had become tender as well. But because I still needed to be on the drip, a replacement cannula was inserted into my arm. Ouch!

Apart from this, I've had been subjected to countless attempts to draw blood from my body. My haemoglobin level has to be monitored daily and I really dread having to face the lab technician every morning. Ouch, ouch!

And as if all this poking were not enough, there's the time that I had to subject myself to the nurses pricking the ends of my fingers in order to test for blood sugar. Three or four times a day, I've lost count. Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Last afternoon, I decided to seek a second opinion from the other surgeon at this hospital. I just felt that I was going nowhere with the first one. Already, this is my seventh day at the hospital and being monitored like what I've gone through so far, there must be something else that can be done. He had recommended surgery - and it would be major enough - but it was not what I wanted.

Luckily, I remembered that I do have an old schoolmate working at another private hospital here and I sought his advice. I told my friend that changing hospitals now may not be an option and he replied the next best thing to do was to consider a different consultant to look into my case. Luckily, he recognised that there was a seasoned second surgeon at Lohguanlye who was quite an old hand at this sort of thing. And this is why I made this decision. After all, it is my health at stake.

I was quite surprised that the first surgeon so brusquely removed himself from my case. A patient, he said, cannot be under the care of two surgeons and if my decision was to have a second opinion, he would no longer be caring after me immediately. And as far as I could make out, he was driving as he said that. A rather abrupt response from him, devoid of any warmth, I should say! Anyway, I asked the nursing station to make the necessary changes and so, I am now under the second surgeon's care.

The second surgeon came last night to see me and ordered some blood tests before he could decide the next course of action. I hope it is all smooth sailing from here. I really do want to be out of this hospital as soon as possible.