The story behind BP in the hospital

Life Health & Fitness
1

It all started around Chinese NY as my wife and I were walking the dogs on a drizzling day. I was descending a concrete pillar on the banks of the river in Sanxia wearing the wrong shoes. Slipped and fell on protruding rock, smack on my butt, it hurt of course and my wife called me idiot, pain for about two weeks on the buttocks and lost face.
Probably from the shock my intestines got banged up and started closing, getting worse over time by running and jumping. Felt nothing weird inside until a little over two weeks ago as they suddenly shut up completely.
Waited about half a day (Saturday late afternoon/evening) before going to the ER after first symptoms showed up. X-ray’d, got some pills (stupid as they make no sense in this case, vomiting). Doctor said that it looked like an obstruction but he didn’t take any action except the pills and sent me home.
Later that night symptoms kept becoming worse and Sunday afternoon I went back to the ER, X ray’d … other doctor same conclusion, obstruction … by now they had to have me on the CT scan for confirmation it wouldn’t be something serious. But no, they put me on IV drip (3 bags) almost all night until early morning and sent me back home with … pills. Dumb-asses!
Monday afternoon, back to the ER, this time other doctor again, he made a little closer guess and put up an enema … put an IV and sent me back home later on with … pills.
That night all changed as the balance in my abdomen changed through the enema. Now I had to burp every 20 seconds and vomit ever 15-30 minutes. Did this for a whole day, Tuesday, until Wednesday. Because everything that went in (water) had to come out the same way.Then we decided to go to the gastrointestinal dept. of the hospital. At least they decided to do a CT scan. Resulting in what they could have known from day one. Complete ileus (obstruction) of my small intestine. And as a bonus they said that there was a possible cancer in my large intestine. Anyways, not fun.
Then they said I to go to the ER again because there was no bed available for immediate treatment. At that point my wife decided to take advantage of her guanxi channel at the hospital I’m in now. In less than 3 hours I was transferred and in the ER of the Cheng Hsin General in Peitou, they almost immediately put a tube through my nose into my stomach to release all the ‘juices’ and air. Uncomfortable I can assure you but helpful. Next day, surgery. 7 days no food and drinks … 2 days pain …

I’ve never thought that ER doctors could be so useless as in Sanxia. Making wrong decisions and half diagnoses. It’s potentially life threatening and they sent me home with … pills.

So, you can see that a stupid slip and fall can lead to something really serious, even a month later. Take care.

2

What about the puss?!!! :lick:

3

:no-no:

4

oh no, that sounds horrible! Hope all is ok now

5

Oh, man, that just sucks!

6

Wow, that was serious, glad that you got the right diagnosis in the end.

7

Not good but glad it worked out in the end.

8

I see what you both did there. :whistle:

Get well soon BP and take care of your ass.

9

Thanks guys.

The ordeal is not over yet, they have to open up the top skin and fat layer to clean out an infection, tomorrow … Healing time about a week … Meaning i’ll be here until next week.

10

A nasty state of affairs.
Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery!

11

Hope it gets better soon, BP. And nice to know those clever Taiwanese doctors now have a pill for cancer as well as everything else under the sun :thumbsup: :loco: :unamused:

Incidentally, the ileum is a part of your small intestine, not a blockage.[/pedantry]

12

They told me it was a mechanical ileus … who am I to dispute this diagnosis … :eh:

13

Best to ya BP.
No witty remark, just wish you a good recovery.

I do hear that beer is a marvelous curative. (taken internally…of course :wink: )

14

[quote=“finley”]Hope it gets better soon, BP. And nice to know those clever Taiwanese doctors now have a pill for cancer as well as everything else under the sun :thumbsup: :loco: :unamused:

Incidentally, the ileum is a part of your small intestine, not a blockage.[/quote]

Ileus … Ileum …

15

BP, after they f*cked up your diagnosis the first THREE days at ER, I think it’s safe for you to question and question some more about their diagnosis. In Taiwan, we’ve learnt to research and research some more before taking any medications or believing any diagnosis our doctors give us. Unfortunately, it does come down to a trust issue. If we feel uncomfortable asking the doctor questions at the time, we go home and research and sometimes email my BIL who’s a Stanford surgeon before agreeing to anything or ingesting anything out of the ordinary. We don’t want to make the doctor feel like they’re losing face at their place of work, so we say “dui dui, oh wo dong wo dong, hao hao” go home, and educate ourselves.

Anyway, glad to hear you are doing well and hooked up in the hospital. By the way, if you get a chance, can you describe what Zheng Xin is like? Is it modern? I know they’re famous for their cardiology department. Any chance you can inquire about their labor/delivery department? :smiley: Do they have an international service department for foreigners? How are the facilities? Modern, clean, quiet? Etc., etc. Only if you have time, I’m going to check the place out one day, but if you’re bored, maybe you can post a few thoughts. :smiley:

16

Oh, yeah :blush:
I promise to use Wikipedia more often in future :smiley:

914 has a point though. They could have killed you, sending you off with a bag of pills even though they had a pretty good idea what was wrong (i.e., something a pill wasn’t going to fix). Anyway, fortunately it all worked out OK.

17

They should have CT scanned me after the second ER appearance, or sent my through to a facility that could handle it … something wrong with their internal working system …

18

BP, after they f*cked up your diagnosis the first THREE days at ER, I think it’s safe for you to question and question some more about their diagnosis. In Taiwan, we’ve learnt to research and research some more before taking any medications or believing any diagnosis our doctors give us. Unfortunately, it does come down to a trust issue. If we feel uncomfortable asking the doctor questions at the time, we go home and research and sometimes email my BIL who’s a Stanford surgeon before agreeing to anything or ingesting anything out of the ordinary. We don’t want to make the doctor feel like they’re losing face at their place of work, so we say “dui dui, oh wo dong wo dong, hao hao” go home, and educate ourselves.

Anyway, glad to hear you are doing well and hooked up in the hospital. By the way, if you get a chance, can you describe what Zheng Xin is like? Is it modern? I know they’re famous for their cardiology department. Any chance you can inquire about their labor/delivery department? :smiley: Do they have an international service department for foreigners? How are the facilities? Modern, clean, quiet? Etc., etc. Only if you have time, I’m going to check the place out one day, but if you’re bored, maybe you can post a few thoughts. :smiley:[/quote]

I was really too sick to complain as I normally do … should have pressed on. But the ER in Enchu Gong hospital, Sanxia is like a chicken cage, people (family) running in and out, scooter accidents, drunks … you name it, and especially in the weekends.

On the other hand, Cheng Xin’s ER is much more quite and more professional, the hospital itself is modern and clean, and huge (total acreage and buildings). It’s one of the best in Taipei I guess.
Regarding noise, well it’s a cultural thing I think, with the noise level they produce here (probably depends on what room you end up in and the other occupants), in Europe you could not get away with. I have to admit that it’s not all day long and by getting better the body also adapts. But overall, our ward is OK. Very professional nurses, but they only provide the medical side, food and bed sheet change, shower, toilet all done by the family. Totally different from Europe, or least my home country, where nurses do almost all. My wife has leave of absence fro her job in China and stays here, already 2 weeks.

The first 9 days the guy in my room had a Taiwanese Kanhu, she was so loud and really annoying … and man, the guy would snore like a sawmill, she stayed 24h and at night she would chip in snoring … the guy was so stressed out of her Taiwanese ‘nursing’ system,( OTT) that he snored that loud, she’s gone now, fired by the family, and the poor man is more relaxed now, snores less.

Anyways, by day 6 the Indonesian caretaker came in and also stayed at our room, making it 5 people sleeping in a 2 bed hospital room ( including my wife), therefor I christened my room ‘Camping Cosmos’ … Rm 9332, welcome at Camping Cosmos, shared cabin.
I’m still baffled about why people bring a rice cooker to the hospital, I mean my “room mate’s” kanhu did.

They have website, there is some information on there about there international service.

home.chgh.org.tw/chgh/english/index.jspx

19

Yeah, that’s typical for hospital food in Taiwan.

I’m glad it is all sorted now. What a strange turn of events.

20

Just saw a poster about their labor/delivery dept. Nice rooms, almost 5 star hotel like, but in another building … 1F it seems, saw trees outside the window. And happy mothers, babies.