My Heart - ICU
I can imagine how Frankiestein felt when he woke up after being on the operating table and not knowing where he was. He went amok. What with all the gadgets, the meters, the tubes etc etc and the strange environment. I woke up in the ICU, barely conscious, but knowing well what had happened as I was already introduced to the place before the surgery. There I was in bed, light dimmed, cold, wires attached, meters tooting, tubes in, and drains out. I could hardly move. I felt constraint all over, the effect of the surgery, the effect of all the wirings and the tubes, the effect of the drugs and the pain killers, and the effect of the low temperature. I felt I wanted to wee and I did not even know that at that time a catheter had been inserted into my urethra., And I wondered with all these constraints how was I to relieve myself if I had to. Bed pan? Most difficult!
I opened my eyes and there before me was my friend the Doctor, the Cardiologist saying ‘Hello’ to me, he and his wife I think (cannot remember properly) and next came my wife, my daughter in KL and at the back my son, keeping a distance away. I could hear them saying ‘Hello’ to me but I could hardly reply. After that the Nurse came and she told me that I will need to drink some water later and then she would give me Ovaltine (or was it Milo?). Anyway I was not interested in all these drinks, I was more interested to make myself comfortable.
Did I feel wounded? Most certainly, tightness in the chest and a plastered bandage on the right leg (where they took out a spared blood vessel). But those did not really bothered me, I already had mental pictures that would have happened anyway.
Well, time seemed to have been lost, I did not how long I have been there then. But what I was glad about was that I received a stream of visitors, friends and relatives, brothers and sister, colleagues and ex-colleagues, old Classmates an all, and even strangers brought by friends and relatives. I cannot remember all of them but they all came to wish me good health. I was so happy about that.
There were Nurses all over the place it seemed, one Nurse to each patient - and I have a Nurse attending to me all the time. And along with that Nurse was a Trainee Nurse. The Nurse seemed to know everything and what to do all the time, whereas the Trainee Nurse just waited for instructions. The Nurse are really busy bees, do that, do this, take that, take this, record readings and in fact very exact in their duties. They seemed to be very well trained. When they changed shift I could hear them briefing each other during the shift change, clear specific instructions about the patients and the medications and about what else necessary to be informed about. And the time of my surgery then was about the beginning of the Muslim Fasting Month, the Nurses all seemed to be very happy and sharing the food they have at ‘break fast’ time. And somehow in their busy schedules they still had time to chit chat, laugh and share food. I wonder how they squeezed time to eat their food. And the Nurses are mostly Chinese with a few Indians and Malays and probably others but they all seemed to get along very well - typically Malaysian.
In the ICU the part I hated most was during the ‘bed bath’ when they roll you over, wipe you and change your sheets. They have to make you push up to your bed top while lying down face up, they helped in pulling you from the head and you bend your knees and kick your feet, and when that is over they will instruct you to roll over. That was uncomfortable to say the least, with all the tubes and the wires attached to you. They strip you almost naked to wipe your back and a bit of your front, and to check on your catheter while they change your sheets. Probably there would be about 3 to 5 of them to do all these and to be sure that you are as comfortable as humanly possible in that uncomfortable situation. They did this to me almost every morning whilst I was there, and I was there for 5 days and 4 nights.
In the process of ‘bathing’ me, on the 3rd day when I was supposed to get out of the ICU, they bathed me in cold water (warm the Nurse said) and I caught the ‘chill’ - rigour they call it. And I was shivering for two hours that morning with my body temperature reaching up to 40 deg C (was it or did I mishear?). They almost panic. And after about 2 hours of that shivering, after they have covered me with 4 blankets and a heater above me, I felt asleep. When I woke up I have lost the ‘chill’ but felt quite bad. Anyway I was to stay there for another day and only on the 5th day I made efforts to ask to get out of the ICU.
While in the ICU, they really take care of your medicines - not that outside the ICU they do not take care of your medicines. But in the ICU they took very special care. Medicines were varied and very regular, some by oral and some through tubes to you veins. I cannot tell what those medicines were but they must have been for my own good.
But ICU is not the best place to stay unless you are very sick. During my stay there I heard a few deaths occurred, and one was just next to my room. I could hear them saying prayers and then saw them taking the body out. And also the rooms in ICU is so precious that every room was needed for the newly arrived sick and I was considered old sick after 2 days. So I was moved further and further away from the Main Nurses control table. Not that I minded really, I think others who were more ill would need to be closer to the Nurses’ control table, but I found that moving room disturbed my mental well being at getting well quickly.
And whilst in the ICU I could not sleep properly. The wires and the tubes were one thing but being not well and just recently being cut up and stitched back affected my mental picture, and my physical feelings. I had dreams, strange dreams, dream in colours, psychedelic and dreams of something that I can hardly imagine and I can hardly remember now. But they were not frightening dreams luckily, though physically I was in a state of scare, scared to deaths occurring around me.
Somehow I realised that in the ICU they give you something that stops you from needing to go to the toilet. And of course realising this I only asked them for oatmeal for all my meals. But anyhow hospital food are inedible, they do not suit my tender palate, they smell somehow especially the Malaysian food. And I drank water quite a bit as I then knew that I could wee in my pants with the catheter in my urethra. And I took Ovaltine once but I could not keep it down, I vomited. After that I only drank cold water given by hands by the Nurses through a straw, (and I only ate oat meals!).
Not forgetting of course, in the course of being in the ICU, the hospital physiotherapist came every day. Asking you to wiggle your toes and feet, to breath in and out of their ‘toy’ breathing measuring instruments. And to lift you arms up and down and bend them occasionally. And they try to make you cough. And I think, coughing or trying to cough is the most painful part of the surgery. The rest were routine compared. And to do this you must always hug a pillow or your ‘chest will burst’.
I was so happy when it was approved that I got out of the ICU to normal Room 564 on the 5th day. The wires and all the tubes taken out.
I must share this experience on how they took out the tubes from my guts. The Doctor actually pulled the tubes out, and you felt like you have been stabbed and then the stabbing instrument being pulled out. And there were two such tubes, one on the right and one on the left.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
I opened my eyes and there before me was my friend the Doctor, the Cardiologist saying ‘Hello’ to me, he and his wife I think (cannot remember properly) and next came my wife, my daughter in KL and at the back my son, keeping a distance away. I could hear them saying ‘Hello’ to me but I could hardly reply. After that the Nurse came and she told me that I will need to drink some water later and then she would give me Ovaltine (or was it Milo?). Anyway I was not interested in all these drinks, I was more interested to make myself comfortable.
Did I feel wounded? Most certainly, tightness in the chest and a plastered bandage on the right leg (where they took out a spared blood vessel). But those did not really bothered me, I already had mental pictures that would have happened anyway.
Well, time seemed to have been lost, I did not how long I have been there then. But what I was glad about was that I received a stream of visitors, friends and relatives, brothers and sister, colleagues and ex-colleagues, old Classmates an all, and even strangers brought by friends and relatives. I cannot remember all of them but they all came to wish me good health. I was so happy about that.
There were Nurses all over the place it seemed, one Nurse to each patient - and I have a Nurse attending to me all the time. And along with that Nurse was a Trainee Nurse. The Nurse seemed to know everything and what to do all the time, whereas the Trainee Nurse just waited for instructions. The Nurse are really busy bees, do that, do this, take that, take this, record readings and in fact very exact in their duties. They seemed to be very well trained. When they changed shift I could hear them briefing each other during the shift change, clear specific instructions about the patients and the medications and about what else necessary to be informed about. And the time of my surgery then was about the beginning of the Muslim Fasting Month, the Nurses all seemed to be very happy and sharing the food they have at ‘break fast’ time. And somehow in their busy schedules they still had time to chit chat, laugh and share food. I wonder how they squeezed time to eat their food. And the Nurses are mostly Chinese with a few Indians and Malays and probably others but they all seemed to get along very well - typically Malaysian.
In the ICU the part I hated most was during the ‘bed bath’ when they roll you over, wipe you and change your sheets. They have to make you push up to your bed top while lying down face up, they helped in pulling you from the head and you bend your knees and kick your feet, and when that is over they will instruct you to roll over. That was uncomfortable to say the least, with all the tubes and the wires attached to you. They strip you almost naked to wipe your back and a bit of your front, and to check on your catheter while they change your sheets. Probably there would be about 3 to 5 of them to do all these and to be sure that you are as comfortable as humanly possible in that uncomfortable situation. They did this to me almost every morning whilst I was there, and I was there for 5 days and 4 nights.
In the process of ‘bathing’ me, on the 3rd day when I was supposed to get out of the ICU, they bathed me in cold water (warm the Nurse said) and I caught the ‘chill’ - rigour they call it. And I was shivering for two hours that morning with my body temperature reaching up to 40 deg C (was it or did I mishear?). They almost panic. And after about 2 hours of that shivering, after they have covered me with 4 blankets and a heater above me, I felt asleep. When I woke up I have lost the ‘chill’ but felt quite bad. Anyway I was to stay there for another day and only on the 5th day I made efforts to ask to get out of the ICU.
While in the ICU, they really take care of your medicines - not that outside the ICU they do not take care of your medicines. But in the ICU they took very special care. Medicines were varied and very regular, some by oral and some through tubes to you veins. I cannot tell what those medicines were but they must have been for my own good.
But ICU is not the best place to stay unless you are very sick. During my stay there I heard a few deaths occurred, and one was just next to my room. I could hear them saying prayers and then saw them taking the body out. And also the rooms in ICU is so precious that every room was needed for the newly arrived sick and I was considered old sick after 2 days. So I was moved further and further away from the Main Nurses control table. Not that I minded really, I think others who were more ill would need to be closer to the Nurses’ control table, but I found that moving room disturbed my mental well being at getting well quickly.
And whilst in the ICU I could not sleep properly. The wires and the tubes were one thing but being not well and just recently being cut up and stitched back affected my mental picture, and my physical feelings. I had dreams, strange dreams, dream in colours, psychedelic and dreams of something that I can hardly imagine and I can hardly remember now. But they were not frightening dreams luckily, though physically I was in a state of scare, scared to deaths occurring around me.
Somehow I realised that in the ICU they give you something that stops you from needing to go to the toilet. And of course realising this I only asked them for oatmeal for all my meals. But anyhow hospital food are inedible, they do not suit my tender palate, they smell somehow especially the Malaysian food. And I drank water quite a bit as I then knew that I could wee in my pants with the catheter in my urethra. And I took Ovaltine once but I could not keep it down, I vomited. After that I only drank cold water given by hands by the Nurses through a straw, (and I only ate oat meals!).
Not forgetting of course, in the course of being in the ICU, the hospital physiotherapist came every day. Asking you to wiggle your toes and feet, to breath in and out of their ‘toy’ breathing measuring instruments. And to lift you arms up and down and bend them occasionally. And they try to make you cough. And I think, coughing or trying to cough is the most painful part of the surgery. The rest were routine compared. And to do this you must always hug a pillow or your ‘chest will burst’.
I was so happy when it was approved that I got out of the ICU to normal Room 564 on the 5th day. The wires and all the tubes taken out.
I must share this experience on how they took out the tubes from my guts. The Doctor actually pulled the tubes out, and you felt like you have been stabbed and then the stabbing instrument being pulled out. And there were two such tubes, one on the right and one on the left.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
To Shout Back
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