Say Eight

The hospital was an interesting experience. Monday night I was not feeling very well at all. I decided to go into the ER. Of course I went to one gate that had just shut, so I had to walk to the other gate. After using the shortcut I eventually arrived at the ER. It was about a 30 minute walk, so my blood pressure was pretty elevated. After waiting about 30 minutes I was seen by a Japanese Intern doctor. The Naval Hospital has 6 interns that are Japanese. After telling him all of the symptoms he said that he thought it was a viral infection, but that he had to check with the Navy doctor. He thought it was viral as well but to be thorough he wanted to do a Spinal Tap in addition to the blood work. He called it a lumbar puncture, I asked if it was a Spinal Tap. He replied yes. I then asked, "pretty painful right." He replied, no more than getting an IV. Of course after the corpsmen took three attempts to insert the IV, I was not looking forward to the lumbar puncture. After the Japanese doctor tried again and again, he finally called over the navy doctor and he got a longer needle and got it the first time.

I then had to wait for the labs to return. While waiting a drunk sailor was brought in to have a blood sample taken. He was very disrespectful to the staff. I was impressed with how they handled the situation. About 3 AM the doctor came in with another doctor and said that they wanted to admit me into the hospital. So about 4:30 AM I was in my room. It was a negative vented room to keep from infecting other patients.

All of the TV material except for the sports and news was about 3 months old. It was a pretty small room. So I did get a little stir crazy. The second morning the doctor came in and told me that they had someone else look at the sample and determined that I didn't have meningitis. It was another virus. The standard treatment is lots of fluid, rest, and tylonal. So I was out of there about 10 am. All in all, it was a pretty good experience. The staff is well trained and courteous.

After getting out, I went back to the hotel and rested. I went into work in the late afternoon to check email. After about an hour I took off back to the hotel. Now i am spending time in self imposed quarantine. I am watching Brian Regan, really funny guy.

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