halloooo!
i know it's been a while, and i can't possibly update everyone on everything as of late, but i can say hello. (and apparently i can say halloooo as well)
i just wanted to wish everyone a belated Christmas greeting, and a happy new year :)
okay, now that that is done, and i'm still under a pile o'work, i want to paste in here a letter i wrote from Hong Kong in the fall of 2003. some of you have read it, some not, so i figure i can put it here for safe keeping. i hope and pray you all have a wonderful new year... and stay out of socialist hospitals...
Original message dated 12 July, 2003 (pardon the spelling and grammar errors, this was all written after a bit of trauma)
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What Jason did in Hong Kong today (July 12th):
Okay, I take the little shuttle bus to the customer site, and before it leaves the hotel Saturday morning he sees the opportunity to practice his english and let me know some of the sights of the city as well. After he drops me off, I had to walk a block or so to the customer site - and he drives by there but there's not a stop, which is why I got out of the bus where I did - and when he sees me walking that way, he opens the window to the bus and asks me if I needed to go somewhere else. Well, I'm walking kind of fast so I just look back and am trying to tell him I am okay and that I'm just going a few more buildings away and trying to understand his broken english...
I walk into a steel lightpost at full stride with a little access panel at about head height.
My head hurts so I put my hand on it for a minute and it's covered with blood.
What do I think,
a) "Wow, that's not good - I should probably get this looked at"
b) "Hmm... head wounds are always bleeders, it's probably not that bad"
or
c) "Shoot, I have no time for this, I have to get to the customer site and take a look at the logs for yesterday"
Sadly, it was (c).
And a little bit of (b).
Well, I walk into the customer building and the security people ask me if I am okay ("I'm okay," says the taller than most people there foreigner, with blood covering most of his right hand and forehead.).
They don't believe me, so I just ask if there is a restroom nearby where I can wash it and have a look.
They follow me with a first aid tackle box and show me to the staff restroom (they were very nice and helpful) where I proceed to wash it off and can't wash a big section of hair out of the way of the cut.
Ow.
I notice that that is not a clump of hair, it's a 1-1.5 inch long 1/8 wide and equally deep gash in my forehead.
("now it's going to be really hard to get these logs at this morning.")
Nice Hong Kong security guards keep telling me to go to the state hospital and that they will call an ambulance for me... I think they really wanted to call the ambulance... or they were distressed at the sight of my forehead.
I tell them (after giving up, and not being able to explain to them in chinese that I will probably be okay) that I need to wait for the customer to get there (I was a half hour early) so that they will know where I went... so they give me the little security guard chair and with Hong Kong precision place the chair nicely behind a large shrub in the building so that I have plenty of room to sit, and so people coming in the door don't have to see the bleeding guy. Half hour passes... man am I getting tired of applying direct pressure.
Customer (partner) shows up, and decides to take me to SARSville - the East Hong Kong hospital - where I find they have english writing but don't speak english so well. Plus (bonus), I get my free SARS mask. (Starts to make you feel a bit uncomfortable... open head wound, lots of sick people around... lot's of SARS posters... you get the idea).
Socialist medicine is odd.
First I sit in the waiting area until they take me to the triage station (after I paid my flat foreigner fee of $HK 550... or the partner did as they only take cash... in case you ever plan on getting hospitalized in HK) look at it... "Hmmm... might need sutures... it does not seem to be bleeding too much, this will be a priority 4 case (where 5 is the lowest).
I question myself as to why I was a good boy and applied more direct pressure and iced it a bit... I just slowed down my process :)
They use shiny scotch tape and take a big stipe of it across my head with a little gauze over the cut, take my bp 80/135... not to bad for having rocked my head on a pole and not being in anywhere near familiar surroundings.
I get sent back to the same waiting area.
Fifteen minutes back, I get to go back to curtain 12. Dr. asks me questions... does not seem to believe evil vicious lightpost did the damage after taking off scotch tape and gauze... it does quite look like a cut, but I hadn't gone back to see the lightpost yet, so I didn't know if had a bump out on it at my forehead height. He seems to think someone cut me, but he doesn't push it. He just asks me 4 more times or so, and then is done with it.
Dr. thinks I need an X-ray... wants to make sure there is no concussion on contusion (I mention that I already checked my pupils, but he checked them too). He gets ready to send me to the waiting room again, but then gives me a paper and let's me follow the green line to the X-ray dept. Oh. He puts some gauze on my head with scotch tape.
I get to the X-ray, and after giving them my paper, I sit down to wait again, only for about five minutes. They call my name, and I get my head bombarded with sub-atomic particles. (at least I think they are subatomic... yeah, not a single atom) and... you guessed it, I get to go back to the waiting room.
Oh yeah, early on a middle eastern man sees me, and he is there for something with his wife. He asks if I am from America, and I say yeah - almost hesitating first as I already have a gash and don't want extra reasons to stay at the hospital. He says "God Bless you."
I am flattered, but assure him I am just a normal guy, but he blesses me anyway, nice to know everyone from that part of the world does not hate us.
Okay, back to the story, I'm typing a lot here, so I'll wrap it up before going in search of Mah jongg.
After another 20 or 30 minutes or so, they call my name (phew... I finally get them to sew this thing up) ... I go back to good ol' curtain 12, he looks at my X-rays, and tells me that they look fine, but he is concerned about my headache ("I hit my head on a steel post at full walk... what do you expect?") and gives me paperwork on signs of a contusion/concussion.
Hospital Authority
Accident and Emergency Department
CARE AT HOME OF PATIENTS WHO HAVE SUSTAINED HEAD INJURIES
Bring the patient back to hospital IMMEDIATELY under the following circumstances:--
1. If the patient ---
(a) Has a convulsion or fit. >> okay, I think that should be understood. <<
(b) Complains of severe head-ache. >> Yeah, okay, this is migraine boy who just smacked his head on a solid object... I think I'm gonna have a headache. <<
(c) Vomits repeatedly. >> Now no matter what strange tentacled things I eat at lunch, I have to keep down, or I'll have to come back. <<
(d) Becomes irritable. >> What if I am naturally already that way. <<
(e) Becomes increasingly drowsy and difficult to rouse.
(Children should be woken every two hours during the first twelve hours after the injury to make sure that they are still rousable).
>> Let's see... I'm jet lagged beyond belief, not getting much sleep at night and yesterday I got sleepy at two. That's in three hours. must not let partner see I am sleepy. <<
2. If you are worried about the patient's condition any time.
Okay, I go get a can of coke. $5.50HK They're out of Vanilla coke, shoot.
One regular coke later they call me back to curtain 12 where I get pointed to the blue line that takes me to the "Minor Surgery Theatre"... hmm... no one said anything about a movie... I get back there to see a guy cleaning up the old supplies and calls me back to the bed (having flashbacks to every movie with an operation being performed in less than favourable conditions). It has some mostly dried blood on the sheet so he lays down a gauze sheet over it and has me lay down (nice enought to give me one for my head too). Numbs me, covers my face up and starts stitching... luckily there were only three as the subcutaneous injection didn't numb me so well until we were finishing number two
Anyway, stitches get done (just three), and I peeked at it and they don't look so good, but hey, it's just my forehead. :)
Oh yeah, I went to the pharmacy (with another place to wait in line and then in a chair) and picked up my meds... I thought I was getting an antibiotic... nope. Just pain killer and antacids... (hoping he cleaned it well before stitching as I didn't get to do too much with it). Headed back to customer site and did the job, had another lunch (with too many tentacles in places I didn't expect them... fried rice for one). And then ended up back at my hotel.
I went across the street to the grocery store to buy some film and I am happy to say that I found a Kinder Bueno bar and finally tasted it. (candy bar Kim told me about in Ireland) But they are very good...
So anyway, I am a little loopy, but I checked my pupils again and they still seem okay, so I am off to shop. If you don't hear from me again by Sunday morning, well... hmm. (really, I am joking about myself... I should be just fine).
Okay, just about fell asleep there... so I should go shop and then come back to bed.
I hope you guys are well.
Maybe by the end of the day tomorrow I will have more stories...
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