Entry

February 11 2007

My hand prepped to receive drips

okay, now on to the serious stuff. i entered taipei veteran's hospital on sunday morning, february 11th with my entourage of father and colin. no list of tests and checks this time. they knew exactly what i had and what they were going to do about it. luckily i had a room all to myself this time, so it was quiet and had a great view. maybe taipei is designed so that all the hospital's get the best views in the city?! i received pink hospital pyjamas that covered my naughty bits pretty well and was pushed around in a wheelchair everywhere. first we had a meeting with dr. chung and two other neurosurgeons to discuss the procedure (which i will describe in excruciating detail later).

my hand was then prepped to receive drips for the next day. the main reason this was done was because the nurses were having trouble finding a vein through which to take a blood sample. i have small veins and am used to medical personnel having trouble getting a needle into one. by this time i was also used to being poked with needles and watching my blood flow into little test tubes. 'get the sterile cotton wool and hold for a minute', been there, done that. but this time it got a bit ridiculous. i had three nurses try sticking needles into different areas of my arms and hands, digging around with the needle trying to find a vein. this hurts like hell by the way and leaves lovely bruises. so, the head nurse came and put a big needle into my hand with a tube with a cap on it. anytime someone wanted blood, they could just open the cap and pour it out. i felt a bit like a beer barrel.

i also had to shave my pubic area again (for another angiography, yippee!) and wash my hair. other than this the day was pretty uneventful until that evening at about 7pm. i started having bad convulsions, which lasted for about two hours. the neurosurgeon on duty took one look at me and said 'NO, sorry, we can't do the gamma knife tomorrow'. you have to be able to keep your head perfectly still, if you can't then you have to have the whole procedure under general anaesthetic. there was no way they could organise an anaesthesiologist for tomorrow. i would have to wait until after chinese new year. WHAT? i was in tears, i had come all this way, i had mentally prepared myself, this was one of my blessings, i HAD to have the procedure tomorrow! i couldn't fathom how i would deal with waiting for another week or two knowing i had been that close to achieving my goal. dr. chung came in to save me, 'i believe you can do it, do you want to try?' HELL YES! i believed i could do it too.