Hospital was the pits!

I hated being in hospital. Had a really bad experience in the ED and that just put me off the whole rest of my stay there. I get pretty quiet around strangers anyway, but when you're having things shoved up your nose and down your throat without really understanding what the purpose of everything is, you get "anti everything". For a while there I was my own worst enemy in hospital. Erin reckons I was tensing up everytime the curtain opened and some new face with these (pasted on smiles, well thats what I thought anyway) popped there head through with yet another breathing machine/excercise/drug, you name it I had it. So I was really fighting all the good work they were trying to do for me, at the time I didn't see it that way tho! It wasn't until I got home and we talked to our usual team of "experts" that we understood fully why what happened.....happened!

The reality was, all of the staff at the hospital were really nice, did things really well, but I had really bad anxiety attacks when ever anyone came near me. We weren't prepared for the treatment I received in ED neither were we prepared for certain questions that were asked but as was explained to me later, when you arrive in the ED you are treated for what you "present with" and I presented with a pretty bad case of pneumonia so they had to do some quick work to get me breathing properly. Not nice, not nice at all.........

But........it brought home the need for me to not be so bloody stubborn in the future. When I'm feeling crook, don't argue with Erin about going to the doctor to get some antibiotics. That could have saved me a whole world of problems, but nah.....I knew better, I can shake it, I'm tough.....eah you find out just how tough you really are when you're on a bed with some male nurse saying RELAX Mr Gardiner, as he's shoving a tube up my nose to suction phlegm from my lungs.....and no I didn't know how to spell "phlegm" my walking dictionary of a wife told me.
Short story is......PREVENTION....DONT LET IT GET THAT FAR....GO TO THE DR, GET YOURSELF ANTIBIOTICS and DON'T BE STUBBORN.

Had a whole lot of questions slung at us from all directions, words like incubation, entubation, resucitation, how's, what if's and all that jazz....we weren't prepared for those.........educate yourselves on the meaning of those words, because believe me we were both shocked at how serious things really were. Because I hadn't had any major medical issues since my diagnosis, we had become pretty blase about the whole thing.....then POW....down I went with pneumonia and it knocked me bad.

But I'm back, a hell of a lot wiser, a hell of a lot more wary, but still positive, although I have to admit it has taken me a real long time to get back to positive again.....I've had some other issues since I've been out of hospital, but I'll save that for my next post.

If there was one good thing about my hospital stay, it was that my mum just happened to be in Tauranga for something totally different, Erin managed to contact her while she was here, so she and my Aunty Anne, and my nephew Bobby made a point of calling in to the hospital as well, that was choice. I thought to myself, come on then you nurses I dare you to come and upset me while MY MUMMY and MY AUNTY are here.....hehehehehe!

Just while I'm on the subject of family....I need to say a huge thank you to My Aunty Pipi and her husband Stewart, who offered me a glimpse of some alternative/hollistic treatments in Auckland. Took my son and I into their home for the night and took us to see her Doctor......that was great and we all really appreciate what you did for me.....we had made arrangements for another appointment but for one reason or another I haven't been able to get there again. Pipi, if you get around to reading this......THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Until next time,
Bill