IV's, photos and whatnot.

I got home this evening from the hospital. 

Yes, I know. Only one week in India and I land myself in the hospital! What is up with that?!

I begged Andrew not to take me, but when my fever reached 103.6 and wasn't budging, he insisted. Or was it when I flat out fainted into his arms and he thought I was dead? Either one of those. 

We headed to the hospital (this is all a feverish fog to me) and were put in "casualty" which is the equivalent of "Emergency" in Canada. kind of..

They started the poking. Oh the poking. Canadian nurses are so gentle! The needles go in on the first try, its hardly painful, usually.

Nope, thats not how it went. It was painful. In fact, my left hand, where I had the IV, is swollen so much, I cant bend the wrist! 

The doctor didn't seem to happy that I woke him (and trust me, I woke him. He was in his PJ's and rubbing sleep from his eyes) 

They started at array of tests, most of which were not necessary (in my humble opinion) but were so smiley and sweet, and I was so feverish and sick, I let them do whatever they wanted. 

I believe they injected me with something to make the fever rise, so as to break it. Thats what I think, although I don't know if that exists. Perhaps my fever just rose at a fast rate? Hmm, anyhow, it went from 103.6 up to 106.

 106 people. 

I thought I was on fire, but also, I was so out of it that I didn't care! 

They did an ultrasound and I was going to joke about "Are you seeing if theres a baby in there yet? Mom and dad would be so happy!" but I couldn't seem to make my mouth work. 

Then an X-ray, where they made me stand up. Well, I ended up almost fainting (Andrew noticed I was swaying and got me just in time) and then, voila, we ended up in a "special room". Thats where I stayed put for the next 40 hours. 

I wanted to share some of our observations. I was blessed to be in a newer hospital, one thats "westernized" and I was thankful for that. 

But, there are still plenty of differences! 
Things that show just how different India is from Canada:

-We upgraded to an A/C room, payed extra, then had to pay a bill for the "additional electricity" that A/C cost. 

-At any given time, 2-7 nurses (and some cleaning ladies) would come into my room to check on me. They would stand around my bed, stroke my arms or pinch my chin/cheeks, or rub my ears (yeah. ears) and tell me "You so cute". 

-At any given time, said 2-7 nurses would take pictures of me. sick. passed out. on a hospital bed. 

-The nurses would come into my room (at ANYtime) and turn on lights, turn off A/C, open/close blinds etc. 

-At 3am, the nurse came in, flicked on the BRIGHT lights, to change my IV. When she saw that there was still a little bit left, she took a seat beside my bed and stared at the IV for 5 minutes, until it was empty and she could put the new one in. 3am people. 

-The cleaning lady would come into our room (at least 10 times a day), come and check me for fever, say "Any problems? You need more medicine?" and insist that she help me use the bathroom. (I begged off, saying I had just gone)
-The many many times Andrew had to run off to purchase supplies so that they could use them on me (IV's, saline, antibiotics, even the needles and hoses!)
-The 5 times Andrew had to go and pay for different tests they wanted to do for me.
-How they had results for my stool sample and wanted me to pay for it. I didn't do a stool sample! I don't know who's results those were, but certainly not mine! 
-The man who would come into my room (3 times), thrust a paper at me to sign and say "complaints?" then walk out, no explanation.

Theres just a small sampling! I wish I could name them all, maybe I will as time goes on. India is a who different world! 
I am really thankful to be feeling a lot better. It was a pretty horrible 48 hours, so Im feeling AMAZING, I can walk without fainting! Yay!

Oh, for some reason I simply cannot load pictures onto the blog! I don't understand but I am trying to find a solution, either a link to a different site? I am posting some on facebook, as it is working on there. I have many pictures I want to share!