I was awakened by a young, good-looking male doctor, who came to examine me. I think he must have been the ward doctor doing his shift. (This place has some of the most good-looking men. Its 24-hour outpatient clinic has a tanned hunk with rosy cheeks, who looks more like a body-building athelete than a doctor. The senior consultant who advised me to undergo the hysterectomy operation is a handsome man in his 30s. And now this man that stood in front of me can be described as 'cute' by most young girls.)
I asked for some ice cubes. The Indian nurse on night-shift dutifully gave me two cubes in a glass with a disposable spoon.
I was allowed to start drinking water, then "Milo" for breakfast and then to eat porridge for lunch.
A sprightly, petite lady came and introduced herself to me as a physiotherapist. She said she would help me to get up and walk. When she adjusted the height of my bed, I felt nauseated. She quickly ran to get plastic bags for me. I promptly threw up. So that ended the physiotherapy session. I asked her to come back later.
I saw another patient who had open surgery on the same day that I had my operation being helped out of bed and onto a chair. She was encouraged to walk. After that, her catheter was removed. I thought to myself: if she can do it, so can I.
So after lunch, my drip and catheter were removed. I asked to go to the toilet. A nurse helped me to the toilet.
By the time another physiotherapist came in the afternoon, she was impressed that I could walk the length of the ward corridor, from the patients' lounge, past the nurses' workstations, past the two isolation wards, past the B2-class wards, past the C-class wards and out the corridor to the lift lobby. Of course, I still walked very slowly then and was a little out-of-breath from walking and talking to her at the same time.
Two of my colleagues came to visit me. Besides a 'tonic basket', they also got me a balloon. It was tied to the basket so it kept bobbing up and down because of the wind from the overhead fan. It reminded me of the Chinese Lion Dance! I was thrilled to have it. (It was later 'usurped' by my 12-year-old daughter when she came during the evening visiting hours).
Another floral-cum-tonic basket also arrived from my employer in the late afternoon.
Then, I had porridge for dinner.
My father, husband, daughter and brother came to visit me. (My son was at home studying for his Geography test).
At 9pm, the nurses switched off the lights and the 'overstaying' visitors had to leave. Sleep was interrupted by the 10pm routine check by the night-shift nurses. At about 11pm, two patients checked-in, one to my left and one across my bed.
After that, I managed to sleep till the next routine check. I was looking forward to seeing the 'cute' doctor but I guessed he was not on duty.
4:35 PM
& Any other bits about you (:
