All locations have a certain energy, or vibe. There's the energy of the family home back in Earlwood. There's the energy of my apartment in Hong Kong. There's the office energy, which differs on a Monday compared to a Friday. Hospitals also have an energy, for me it's an emptiness intertwined with expectation and anxiousness.
It's 1:00 pm, I've just returned from Clearwater Bay, I have a long shower and pack my overnight bag. Unsure of what to bring I pack a warm change of clothes, my kindle, my laptop and the preauthorisation form provided by my insurance company. At 1:30 I leave my apartment and make my way over to Adventist Hospital. It's a bright, warm fall day, unusually warm for this time of the year as I bag some last minute Vitamin D while I wait for the 23.
I get to Adventist Hospital at 2:00 pm and proceed with the in-patient check in. I'm shown the semi-private room (505B) in which I will be staying overnight, it's basic, it reminds me of a 3-star business hotel except with a decked-out bed and what looks to be fairly dated medical apparatus above the bedrest. I wonder if I'll be sharing the room with somebody. I'm greeted by a Customer Service officer, Kristy introduces herself, gives me a wrist band and runs me through the details of my stay. I'm currently scheduled to go in at 4:45 pm, but that's dependent on the procedure in the operating theatre before me. It's like being at a resort, except there's no warm towel or lemon grass tea to welcome me.
Over the next couple of hours, various people stop by room 505 to introduce themselves to me.
My Anaesthesiologist, Dr Chu comes in and explains to me in broken English what he will be doing. "I'll be p-p-putting you under local anaesthetic for the G-G-GPS mapping, and then will bring you under general for the actual procedure. You won't feel a thing, but you might feel t-t-tired the next day. Do you have any questions?". Straight forward enough.
Nurse Wing comes in, she's Australian and after some small chat tells me that because the incision point will be on the right fermoral artery next to my groin she'll need to groom the area. ie. Shave my balls. Not known for my wild body hair, this seems to be more of a precautionary step as they'll be applying a compression bandage post-procedure and don't want any hair to be caught up when they eventually tear the bandage off. I've never had a Brazilian and this won't be my first.
At 4:50 pm a nurse comes in, I'm told to lie on the bed as I'm shuttled off into the theatre. It's a little weird, as I could easily walk down, but they insist I lie on the bed as the push me through the hospital corridors. Along the way various medical staff check my identity: "What's your name and date of birth?" and ask me to explain the procedure that I will be undergoing (I can see why it's important to check these key points).
At 5:00 pm I'm pushed into the theatre room, shifted to the operating bed as an IV is inserted into left hand. The assisting staff all look so young, like graduates, they attach EKGs and various nodes to my body as the large displays bursts to life with realtime information. I can see my heart rate, my blood pressure as well as other bodily readings. Dr Fung, the Cardiologist and Dr Chu, the Anaesthesiologist both come in and run over the procedure once last time: Electrophysiology study, 3D Mapping and RFA to address symptomatic premature ventricular complexes.
My glasses are removed, a barrier is erected to block my view from the surgeon as they proceed to slowly inject me full of painkillers, a wave of tiredness hits me. I touch my right and left forefinger against my thumb. "Derek, we're starting the GPS mapping". I can feel them wiping topical anaesthetic around my right groin, I feel a pinch and then I feel tubing being inserted. Around 45 minutes later, drifting in and out of sleep, Dr Fung tells me that they have identified the area of the PVCs and will be putting me under general and that I can go to sleep. I close my eyes and darkness comes.
At 7:40pm , I hear "Derek, how are you feeling? We're all done", I briefly open my eyes, bright theatre lights, my body is jostled about (most likely being shifted back onto the trolley) before I fall back into darkness.
Currently reading: "The Art of Living"
