G News - Hospital Life

Thank you for your messages of support for Vicki's Dad...who had a very nasty episode and is still under observation in Auckland hospital this morning.

The first I knew about this was the front door bursting open as I was just finishing a G News article ( that never got published ) and Vicki in a state saying we have to get to the ferry, Dad had rung with slurred speech - saying only "call an ambulance".

Next we are running, running onto that ferry, as the ambulance service cannot find the address and everything seems awful and Vicki's daughter is on her way with baby in tow over in Auckland.

At this stage nobody knew what he was going through - but it sounded like he had had a stroke, as we found out this ferry stops at Devonport, and news came back he'd been found mostly naked in a state that I won't describe - but consistent with a stroke, and the ambulance staff had arrived and they were trying to talk with him.

Keeping this short, we made it to M2 about the same time Vicki's Dad made it there - and all manner of cables told the monitor his blood pressure was up and his heart rate down, and the warming blanket was applied because he was bloody cold and needed to come back up to normal.

You just breathe ...as they hold fingers up and ask if he can see it in front of his face - and he's obviously in a wold of blurred pain ...and a nurse looks around for a chair for Vicki and I feel like a dumb carrot unable to do anything but be there, almost in the way.

The machine that goes "bing" on Monty Python actually goes "Bing Bong" in real life as I looked up RRI - cos it was bouncing up and down on the monitor as we just sat there watching him and Vicki stroked his cheek and smoothed his hair. She's really all he's got and it's a big thing for him to know she is there.

Time in M2 seemed to dilate as hours went by - as if we'd been forgotten and soon Vicki asked if I could get her something to eat, cos she had not eaten all day and was not leaving his side. My Mission was to go to the other building, find Subway and get her a very specific six inch sub with no onions and a drink.

Naturally I had to say no onions three times and still say no - no onions as the guy went to put the onions on - but I stuffed a small bottle of zero sugar lemonade in my top pocket - the cap protruding and made my way back to Emergency - where suddenly a huge queue of grim, forlorn people had manifested.

The way back inside - was shut electronically and a sign said - you must speak with reception to open this door. Not the queue - anything but the queue said a voice inside my head.

That's when the face of that kid on the cover of the Mad Comics popped up grinning beside me - and he said, "I can see that bottle you are trying to sneak in there Mr".

Ha ha I love cheeky teenagers.

Long story short, I got through that door and followed the rainbow road round the corner to the security door that screened off M1 and M2 - OMG - the way was shut again. Security?

Once it was established I had been in and gone out and was coming back - they opened the sliding security door like on Star Trek and I proceeded to pull back the curtain to M2 - only to see - somebody else - not Vicki's Dad staring back at me in the same bed - a look of ambushed horror on his face - like the guy on Scooby Doo - who says - "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you dammed kids".

"They moved him", said a nurse, "he's been moved while you were out, you need to go to short stay".

Where the hell was short stay? It was over there, around there and way down there and if you get lost just ask - where is short stay again., pretty simple.

Finally after not being able to find the button to the security door I made it to the right room in short stay and pulled back the curtain again. Here's your six inch sub with no onions and your drink I said to Vicki - who was listening to a doctor who said there would be a scan of Vicki's Dad's head soon.

"What did his bloods say?", I asked but nobody knew ...as they decided the heating blanket could come off now...and Vicki sat back and tried to eat that sub without crumbs going everywhere ...on no Jalapeño - it had hot peppers on it - that guy had slipped in the peppers - but well at least it did not have onions and the lemonade I had sneaked in - was a fire quencher.

At this point another patient in agony was moved into the room. A man who seemed to have had a nasty fall and possibly broken his back - as people rushed around looking for opiates and he shouted in pain. I mean - shouted - shouting like for God's sake give him some pain relief. His work buddy with the mohawk, socks and jandals - played an annoying video game with full audio beside him and occasionally said "Mate" as all this carried on next door - but Vicki's Dad - was on the good drugs now - clearing some of the pain in his head through a drip.

Vicki was so great - like a nurse - following up with requests for a pillow or a toilet - cos Hospital life is like that - minutes drag into hours as you wait for people to tell you something - but they are doing their best - and around 9PM they wheeled Vick's Dad away for his scan and soon he was back.

The news was they could not find a brain lesion ( Hooray ) and I thought was tremendous news - maybe this is all a bad case of peripheral vertigo - but the real experts would see him this morning and we would know more - so in the end we caught the late ferry home and now I am taking Vicki back to the wharf...so wow - just thought I would update you.

Sorry about the bumpy interruptions.

Gotta dash now cos Vicki is ready to go.

G News - Hospital Life

Morena

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