I Hate Hospitals

This fact I do not hide to anyone. It may have something to do about my fears or my guilt. But that is another story.

2 am, my wife woke me up. There was a commotion in the street in front of us. I wake up just in time to hear my wife storm down the stairs and ask the kids outside what the heck was wrong. Apparently, their grandmother was having an asthma attack and their parents were nowhere to be found. Having overheard that, I scrounged up whatever pair of denim I could find, put them on, pocketed my wallet and got the car keys in under 5 minutes. The car was out the gate by the 8th minute. All this I did while I was still half-asleep. My mind was wandering and I was fighting hard to get myself to concentrate. My body sort of just moved automatically.

We got to the nearest hospital (a government-run one) and most of the nurses there just semi-ignored us. One of the nurses did stand up and approached my wife. He asked if she was Reggie's twin. She didn't even allow the volunteer nurse to finish the question and said yes. She then politely stated what she knew about the old woman's condition. It was the nurse in her that kicked in in these situations. He quickly wrote up a prescription and i went off to buy them. When I got back, the nurse was explaining Reggie had been his instructor in one of his classes. I asked my wife to excuse me, as I told her that the smell of hospital disinfectant gave me goosebumps and reviled me all at the same time.

I had to spend the next 3 hours going back and forth; buying meds (for the old lady), getting sandwiches (for my wife and me) and getting coffee (2 for me). When I wasn't doing that, I staked out the front of the hospital talking to the tricycle drivers about how frequent early morning patients were at this government hospital's ER. I also had some time to continue reading my ebooks when I got tired of the small talk. I ate a hotdog & bacon sandwich while I read Geek Mafia by Rick Dakan.

The old lady was discharged at around 5:30. My eyes were tired, my head heavy and I was looking forward to going home. When we got home though, I could not sleep. I am still awake and I'm hoping I won't be too sleepy tonight as I go to work. I have a few more hours to sleep, so see ya.