The Most Humbling Experience

I have come through my surgery quite fine. As of now I still have some pain and it is tough to do some things but am getting better every day. The whole ordeal was extremely humbling and something I won't soon forget.

Wednesday afternoon, Jasmine and I went to the hospital to register. I paid the deposit and also paid a deposit for my hospital pajamas. We went to my room and situated some things. I also found out that they did in fact have a Western toilet in my room. I was so happy when I saw that. After talking to the doctor we left and I went home. On Thursday, I arrived at the hospital early in the morning with Howie to have some blood work done along with a chest X-Ray and EKG. I was put to the beginning of the line because I was a foreigner. During the short wait that I had many people were staring at me, which is normal, and asking Howie questions about me. After finishing at the hospital, Howie and I ran some errands and went home. Friday, we returned to the hospital to find out that my white blood cell count was elevated (Gee, surprise! It's been elevated since I arrived in Dalian.). Because of this I had to start IV antibiotics and hang out at the hospital for a while longer. They did let me go home that day though. Dr. Gong also talked to us about the procedure and had Howie sign a bunch of papers for me. We also explained to Dr. Gong how expensive the surgery was and how we couldn't really afford it. He promised to help us lower the costs. Saturday I didn't work because I had to go back to the hospital to have more IVs. That only lasted about half the day. After taking a nap at home, Patrick, Howie, and I went out to Pizza Hut, a sort of last hurrah for me. I ate as much cheese and grease as I could fit in me to last for the next few months. When we arrived home Howie and I packed for the hospital since I wouldn't be allowed to come home until I was discharged. This included cups, dishes, soap, and toilet paper since the hospital doesn't provide those things. After everything was packed we headed to bed. Sunday morning came way too fast. After a call to my parents, Howie and I headed to the hospital. I got my last antibiotic IVs, took a nap, and found out that I had to be shaved and have an enema. I was none too pleased when I found that out. Later in the afternoon I was led to the "dressing preparation room" where I was told to lay on a bed while Howie was sent out of the room and three nurses surrounded me. I was completely shaved from my upper thighs to the bottom of my rib cage. And not just shaved but dry shaved. Not too pleasant. Later that evening I received the unpleasant enema in the same room on the same bed. I returned to my bed after that and began the wait. From what the ladies in my room had told me I would be running for the bathroom in minutes. In preparation for this I untied the waist of my pants and sat on my bed. When it was finally time I had forgotten that I undid my pants and ended up partially loosing my drawers halfway to the bathroom. After all was said and done I settled into bed completely exhausted from the entire day. Monday was the day. I was woken up, as usual, at 5:30 for a temperature check (with a mercury thermometer and all). Since I wasn't allowed to have breakfast and my roommates snored I decided to go back to sleep. I slept until the nurses came in to tell me to change into clean hospital pajamas, remove my underwear, and put my shirt on backwards with the buttons on the back. After a short while, Patrick and Howie's little brother showed up. They were there to lift me from the surgery bed and carry me to my bed (about 5 feet) after the operation was over. Patrick was in charge of my shoulders and head, Howie in charge of my mid-section, and Howie's little brother in charge of my legs. Eventually, the nurses came back in and told me it was time. I got out of bed and got in a wheel chair and was then completely covered by a huge white comforter. (Howie laughed at me and said that I look like a Chinese breakfast food.) By this time I was pretty much out of it because of lack of sleep due to my snoring roommates. I was brought down to the surgery floor along with the three boys. I was wheeled through the family waiting room, which was filled with men chain smoking and women jabbering at one another. This is where I left the guys. I walked to the surgery bed by crossing blue sticky flooring. It was as if they lay down huge sheets of tape so any dust on shoes won't go into the surgery ward. I climbed into the surgery bed and was immediately covered up by a large green comforter. The nurse started rolling me down the hallway towards the surgery room. This was it! Or so I thought. I stopped moving when I got to the operating room door. Then the nurse just left me in the hallway. I lay there for a while and dozed until the anesthesiologist came by and told me who he was and asked if I had any questions. Even if I had any questions I’m not sure he would have been able to answer me in English. I told him no and he walked off. I fell asleep again and woke up in the operating room with doctors and nurses pulling my clothes off of me and telling me how to position myself on the bed. The anesthesiologist then put a mask on my face and simply said, “Sleep”. All of a sudden I was terrified that they would start cutting me open while I was still awake so I fought the sleeping gas as hard as I could. At some point they had put all the heart monitoring things on me and I could hear those beeping. As I was fighting to keep my eyes open I noticed that they were pumping something into my IV. I’m assuming it was the anesthesia stuff because all of a sudden I couldn’t breath. I’m panicking. I’m trying to stay awake and keep my eyes open and now I’m trying to breath but can’t! I wanted to tell them that I couldn’t breath but wasn’t able to move my mouth. I couldn’t move any part of my body. I could feel my lungs not working. I thought, “Well, I might die,” as I heard the heart monitor start beeping faster and faster. I eventually gave up. The doctor’s tried to wake me up after the surgery and all I remember saying is, “I need to pee. I have to go to the bathroom!” over and over again. I didn’t really wake up for numerous hours but I vaguely remember something that Patrick said while I was being moved from bed to bed. It was something like: “They didn’t tie her pants back on? Pull her pants up!” Apparently, my pants had fallen down while I was being moved and Howie’s poor little brother got an eyeful. The rest of the day and the next day was mostly a blur. I remember waking up at one point because I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. I looked at Howie and asked him to put my pillow under my head. He said that I couldn’t have the pillow yet and had to wait a few more hours. I’m not too sure if I got cranky with him or not but he explained that I couldn’t have my pillow until 6:00 and it was only 4:00. I passed out again while playing with my oxygen nose tube thing for a bit. I woke up with my pillow under my head and told Howie I wanted pain medication. Howie asked me if I wanted some morphine to which I responded that I did. (Before the operation I told Howie to ask me this when I woke up in case I wasn’t able to ask.) The nurses came in and shot something into my IV and I slept a while longer. I woke up a while later crying from pain and yelled at Howie that I needed more morphine. He went to tell the nurses that I wanted morphine. They apparently didn’t believe him and came in to look at me. When they saw me lying there crying they ran out then ran back and gave me a shot in the butt. I couldn’t believe that it took me crying in order for them to give me something. When I woke up later, Howie told me that they didn’t have morphine or an equivalent at the hospital but that the nurses gave me something that helped a little. After the shot in the butt I felt a bit better and didn’t need any more. I felt slightly confused why I had an overwhelming urge to pee all the time. I then remembered telling the doctors in the O.R. that I needed to go to the bathroom and vaguely remember them inserting a catheter. After telling Howie that I wanted it taken out he explained to me that the nurses said they had to wait until tomorrow morning. I was not happy about that but too tired to care. Thinking about it now, I’m thankful that I had it so that I didn’t have to get up and go to the bathroom. I remember at one point I woke up to Howie emptying the bag into a Coke bottle to empty into the toilet. I am so thankful for him. Not just for that but for just being him. On Tuesday morning, Jasmine (a girl that I work with) came to visit. She brought me some flowers and left after only a little while because I was so tired. I remember asking Howie about the catheter again. He went and found my doctor and the doctor was dumbfounded as to why I had a catheter to begin with. He then remembered that I kept saying “bathroom” so they put it in. He said it was fine to take out. They did this in my hospital bed with no curtains or anything. There I was for the whole world to see. Later in the day Patrick showed up for a while but I was so out of it still that I don't remember much of what went on. Howie’s friend Wesley and his wife also came by with two huge bags of instant porridge mixes. They don’t speak English so I was in and out while they talked to Howie. Howie’s friend Peggy also came by with two-dozen white roses and a huge fruit basket. I don’t remember who came in what order since I was still quite out of it.

That day we hired a patient care worker. The nurses here don't take care of patients. Their job seems to be doing IVs, taking temperatures, and changing sheets while the patient is being cut open. The patient care worker's name is Yao Jie (her sirname followed by "older sister"). She was very diligent with her job. If I needed anything she tried to do it for me. She probably would have had the surgery for me if she could have. She helped me go to the bathroom (which was really embarrassing), helped me in and out of bed, and did anything else that Howie and I asked her to do. If I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, she got up. She would always put newspaper with a hole tore in the middle of the page on the toilet seat for me. One time, after being in the bathroom, she came out just laughing and hollering about something. Howie told me that I ended up with black Chinese writing all over my butt. I didn't find it that humorous but Howie helped me get it all off while I stood there still slightly delirious holding myself up by the bathroom counter. On Wednesday I was doing much better. I was able to lay on my left side without pain in my right shoulder. I only needed 5 or 6 IVs that day. Julie, my friend from work, came to visit and stayed a couple hours. At one point during a walk in the hallway I came across a small box in Howie’s coat pocket (I was forced to wear his coat when I went in the hallway). He told me it was for me and I opened it to find a pair of white gold stud earrings in the shape of stars. It was my Christmas gift from him. My manager, Tommy, and the main receptionist from school, Freda, came to visit later that evening with flowers. During one of my walks around the halls that night I broke down. I was so fed up with dealing with the discomfort, I missed my family, I didn't feel well, and I wanted some cold water. In this culture, cold water is bad for your health. I was just so tired of drinking hot water that didn't quench my thirst. I was also exhausted because my roommates snore. There were also random people who would come into my room just to look at me. I was also tired of the patient care worker that we had hired. She wouldn't let me do anything by myself and her leg massages hurt. After a horrible night’s sleep I had a few IVs and was told that I could go home because it was Christmas but I had to come back the next day. After the IVs and some breakfast Howie and I high tailed it out of there. His brother had come to help us carry all the flowers and fruit and everything else that I had collected during this. When his brother arrived at the hospital he wouldn't even look at me. He finally waved at me when he saw out of the corner of his eye that I was waving at him. I think he was really embarrassed that he saw me partially naked while moving me from the surgical bed. When we got home we had some lunch then spent the afternoon sleeping. Later that night Julie came over and we talked for a while then headed back to bed. Friday morning I just had to wait around for the doctors to officially release me then Howie and I went home again and tried to catch up on sleep. As of today I am feeling a lot better. I can sleep on both of my sides, eat a lot more than I had been able to, and wash my hair by myself.

The lighter side of the experience:
Each morning in the hospital Howie's little sister cooked breakfast for us and brought it in because the hospital food was so bad.
Although my roommates snored they were very kind and quite funny. One lady was about 40 and worked for customs. Her name is Liang Jie. She had been suffering from gallstones for about 10 years. She ended up getting a fever after the operation and had to stay longer than normal. The other lady is Wei (said like way) Aiyi (said like I.E.), her sirname with aunt. She worked for a hospital and ended up having 20 stones in her when the surgery was finally done. She was funny. Some of the things she would say and some of her facial expressions were the best. Patrick came by a few times and Wei Aiyi had a ton of fun listening to him. She named him "Chi Baozi" because he likes to eat baozi so much.
Dr. Gong came through and the bill for the surgery was 5,000 Yuan less than what I was told it would be. The nurses (one of whom is a friend of Howie's) told us that was the cheapest surgery they had ever seen those doctors perform. I'm very thankful to Dr. Gong for helping us out and for Michael (the school's owner) making a phone call. The surgery, in USD, ended up costing about $2,750.

Everyday I'm feeling better and better and it won't be long until I'm back to normal. I start work again on Friday and I'm sure I'll be in good enough shape by then to do well.

Click here for pictures from the hospital and our apartment decorations.