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Published: October 12th 2007
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Nurses
Me and my nurses Ok, let's be honest. I spend 22 hours of my day stuck in a hospital room in Bangkok, there's a limit to what I can write about in my blog right now, which is ironic, because right now I more time than ever to write about it. So I thought that for those of you still reading my entries, presumably either because you're bored or are trying to get out of doing some work or something, here is a run through of my typical day:
6am: Wakey Wakey Even here in hospital with nothing to do all day I don't get a lie-in, the nurses come in at 6am to take my temperature and blood pressure....... a test I always pass with flying colours.
6-7am: Dozey Dozey I doze on my bed until my breakfast comes at 7am, this is either two fried eggs and some ham or scrambled eggs with some poor excuses for sausages, with a bowel of cereal, some fruit and a glass of juice. Fascinating.
7-8am: I eat my breakfast and watch TV, the previous nights rugby game is usually on which is good, or an old James Bond movie, which are obviously timeless.
8-12pm: During
Nurses 2
They loved taking care of me...who wouldn't? this time I usually read but two events also occur that also help break up the morning.....
1. The cleaners come to tidy my room. Now the cleaners; they are a couple of curious characters. When I was first admitted they would come into the room, barely look me in the eyes, do what they came to do, and leave. But as time has gone on, they've obviously grown more and more accustomed to me, (must be my boyish good looks and inviting smile) as after a while they first started to smile and even say hello when they came in. Now with each passing day they seem to get a little bit braver and at first seemed to just test the water with the odd short passing comment, but then jokes, and now, now they come right over to my bed, lean against it, ask me about the film I'm watching and talk to me. Yes, they love to talk away, pointing at my knee asking about my injury, gesturing at my crutches beside my bed and asking me questions. Now, given that neither of these cleaners speaks a word of English and my Thai is limited to 'hello',
'yes' and 'thank you' the chance of any real coherent, profound or even vaguely comprehensible conversation is limited. However, this does little to discourage them as they seem quite happy to carry on chatting away, maybe the response I give them to whatever question or comment proceeded it is the correct one. If it is, then it's purely down to chance because nine times out of ten I just nod, smile and say 'err, yes'. I do of course throw in a couple of 'no's' from time-to-time just to mix it up a bit, but it seems to matter little.
Bath Time. In the morning between breakfast and lunch I also get my daily bath, which since I'm bed bound due to a large cast on my leg, involves a bed bath. I would now like to go on and say how two young, beautiful Thai nurses come and clean me in a very sensual way........buuut that would be lying. Instead, it's simply a case of two rather motherly looking nurses coming in and spending 10 minutes rubbing off the tan I worked so hard to acquire on Koh Toa. Gutted!
12-1pm Lunch time. The standard of which is pretty
Wound Watch8
Who's getting bore of photos of my wound?? variable, some days it's actually really nice but some days I am presented with something that I wouldn't serve to my worst enemy for their last supper.
1-5pm Watch a DVD. After a week of hassling the nurses I got a dvd player in my room and after Greg came to visit I sent him into Bangkok to buy a collection of DVD's to keep me busy. So a brief word now about DVD's in Thailand. I haven't seen anywhere where it is possible to buy a genuine DVD, as far as I can tell they are all counterfeit and cost around 100Baht (1.5GBP). The quality of the DVD's is generally pretty variable but can be surprisingly good, despite often being produced from a video camera recording in a cinema. After watching the seven DVD's Greg procured for me I do have one small point to make to any budding DVD pirates out there. If you plan to go into the business of selling pirated DVD's copied by means of a video camera in the cinema, my small piece of advice would be to at least make the effort to turn up early, buy your ticket before anyone else and get into the cinema first so you can chose a good seat in the MIDDLE of the screen. After watching the first 5 minutes of the new comedy with Robin Williams I had to turn it off. I came to the conclusion that the pirate DVD recorder had obviously sent his young apprentice along for this particular recording, who being a bit inexperienced, must of turned up late and was left with no option but to sit in the isle for the showing, since the whole movie appears at an angle, on a complete slant. Brilliant!
5-11pm Eat my dinner.
Use the internet.
Read.
Listen to music
Brief visit by doctor for my daily update
The nurses come in again to check my blood pressure and pulse, they also tend to ask me about my toilet habits for the day. I'm not sure if this is just their attempt at some late night casual banter, or whether they need to know for medical reasons. I'm guessing it's probably the latter.
When I first started writing this blog I had little to report on my knee (hence the mundane subject title), but it happens that I now have some news to report.
As mentioned in my previous blog the skin from my graft was not attaching itself and the doctor eventually declared the skin grafting operation unsuccessful since only 15%!o(MISSING)f the grafted skin stayed attached. The good news is that in the time of waiting for the skin to attach the wound shrunk in size from the edges. In addition, since my leg has been kept straight in a cast for the past 2.5 weeks, the skin on my relaxed enough that it has been possible for the doctor to close the wound with stitches.
The size of the wound prevented the stitches from closing the wound completely so some healing time is still required, but I am scheduled to leave hospital in around a week from the operation. YAY!
I will still have to take it easy for a week and return to hospital to have the stitches removed, but good news all the same, probably the best news yet in fact. So lets hear it for Rob and his stitches.....
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Christine W
non-member comment
Yay for Rob and his stitches...
Hey Rob!!! Just wanted to let you know that there are some of us out here still very much enjoying your blogs... Its my little escape from an otherwise mundane routine... And great to see you're on the mend! However, I do need to question exactly who your sponsers are for your stay in hospital...? The Ads appearing down the side of this blog are offering Thai Women for Dating, Cheap flights to Phuket, and the latest information on wound care. All of that, coupled with the photos of the lovely nurses and the lovely knee make me wonder whether you aren't simply part of some strange advertising campaign...? C.