I finally have a few weeks where I haven’t visited the hospital (knocks on wood) and it’s probably safe to write about it. It’s been an interesting few weeks after I got back from London. My sleep cycle hadn’t quite reset back to normal. I was going to bed pretty late and waking up late, whereas I’m notoriously a morning person.
Visit 1
I went to bed quite late Sunday (July 21st) and woke up quite late too. As soon as I woke up, I threw up. I’ve always been taught that vomiting is dehydrating and I should drink water. I felt extremely weak anyway, and I had water mixed with glucose powder. A while later, I woke up and threw up again. This kept happening throughout the day, I’d drink water, lie down, and a few hours later, I’d throw it up.
Around evening, I went to the nearest medical store and got an anti-vomit. That didn’t seem to help, so my friends (Thanks lut4rp and GnrlMxms!) got me to the nearest hospital. The doctor in the Casualty got me on IV fluids and gave me an injection. They also checked my BP and temperature. Turns out I had a fever of 102 F, and my BP was low. Somehow during all the mess of throwing up, I hadn’t noticed that I was feverish.
The doctor gave me the option of being admitted or going home after the IV fluids was done with medicines for a few days. Since I live alone, I preferred to stay at the hospital. A few days that involved lots of IV fluids, and blood and urine tests later, I was discharged on Thursday. Seems to have been just a viral fever.
Visit 2
A few days at the hospital really did sap my energy. I didn’t feel like cooking or eating really, so I decided to visit my parents for a few days and work out of there. I should describe my setup, which is pretty relevant to what happened – My laptop is an HP, which is mostly plastic. It sits on a stand that’s also plastic. This whole setup was on a metal table, which was in fact my old study table. And I use a wireless keyboard and mouse.
I missed work for large parts of July because of being sick and my hard-disk dying while in Cambridge. On August 1st, I woke up bright and early at 6:30 (okay, that’s late for me to be honest). I talked to my mom for a bit and booted up my laptop. I remember sitting down on my chair waiting for it to boot up. My next memory is right outside the Casualty at the local hospital in a car and my mom asking me to get out of the car into the wheelchair.
I was very confused. My body hurt and I had no idea what the hell happened. When the doctor comes around my mom tells him I got electrocuted. I’m lying on the bed going, WTF. I was hooked up to the ECG and I had a catheter placed and IV fluids again. I think I was given an injection at this point.
My parents later told me, they heard the chair move and what sounded like me throwing up. When my dad came to check on me, I was on the floor, shaking (my leg was still touching the table). My dad switched off the power and called my mom. I’m told my mom screamed so loudly that our neighbors came running. One of our our neighbors gave me chest compressions and helped carry me to their car. I have no memory of all of this. The one vague memory I have is throwing up. But I felt like that was part of a dream, and we were going on a trip somewhere.
Meanwhile, in the hospital, a more senior doctor looked at me. He said I looked fine, my vitals were normal, and he’d let me go after the IV fluids were over. They disconnected my ECG and wheeled me to a different bed. Later, I learned, I was part of the area that’s reserved for the most serious patients (gulp). It had an ECG and oxygen supply right there. There were only 3 beds like that and I was in one of them.
The doctor did let me go after the bottle of IV fluids was over, with pain meds to take if I needed them. I escaped with a scratch on my finger and my neck hurting for a few hours.
Yeah, it’s been a fun few weeks…
TL;DR: I was in the hospital twice in two weeks, once for viral fever, and then because I got electrocuted.
Leave a Reply