I have a serious problem with hospitals and doctors. I don't know why, but I am scared of doctors and afraid to go into a hospital. although, i am very fine with injections, needles and medicines, which generally create aversion. why am not fine with doctors ? its really a mystery but i know why i hate hospitals, its because of the sanitary smell of the disinfectant. the smell makes me feel sick and fall ill even if i am healthy.
so i avoided going to hospitals or doctors from my childhood but unfortunately, i had to visit a hospital for an endoscopy procedure, in the USA of all the places. why endoscopy, that's due to my recent H.Pylori infection and a chance of stomach ulcer, which caused my health to go bad. I was not willing to go do the endoscopy due to my phobia and postponed it for quite sometime. but things became worse and i was pushed/forced into doing the procedure. so the description of the day as follows.
for those who don't know what am talking about... Endoscopy is a procedure where they send a optical tube with a camera inside your mouth through the food pipe and into the stomach and intestine to check for any abnormality in the tissues. I imagined it the whole thing and got really scared about it. the day before the procedure, i was asked to take only clear liquids such as water, soda, Gatorade etc... no solid foods and definitely no eating or drinking after midnight. unfortunately i had attended a birthday party that night,which had delicious chocolate cake and food and yes.. i couldn't have any of it. :(
the next day, a friend took me to the hospital, i finished my registration and they asked me to go into a room where the nurse checked me in. i was taken to a small section surrounded by a wall of curtains and inside it was a bed. i was asked to change into a hospital gown. the nurse made me lie on the bed and covered me with a warm blanket and then, an inflatable cuff was strapped to my left arm to record blood pressure. I was injected with a needle in right arm for the saline, a small sensor was put on my right index finger to check my oxygen rate. lying on the bed, i was feeling so scared, i felt like a seriously ill patient, going for a radical surgery. the saline started to flow through my veins and it had a burning effect initially, later it subsided and i started feeling quite sleepy. I tried being awake all the time but was not able to control it, even though i was lying on the bed for 15 minutes it seemed like hours. a doctor then came to me, introduced himself as the anesthesiologist and asked me a lot of questions for the paperwork, i answered them all in a sleepy state.
After sometime, the whole bed was pushed into a series of rooms and later into a small room where the endoscopy was supposed to take place. the room was very small and i felt like i was in an operation theater. indeed, things started happening after, made me more scared and thought i was mistaken for a surgery patient because they put an oxygen mask, told me that i was going to be given a Anesthetic to put me into sleep. a small thing with a hole was put into my mouth, so i couldn't close it. the doctor then was explaining what is going to happen and as she was explaining things, the Anesthesiologist told me he was injecting the Anesthetic and i felt a cool liquid rushing into my system. that's the last thing i remember, i went unconscious, into a bliss, no dreams, no subconscious state. the first time ever in my life i was unconscious.
I later remember someone shaking me and i woke up with a jerk, it was a nurse. i was in a new room and my friend was sitting in the place where the doctor was before. I didn't know for how long had i been sleeping. i was then given a apple juice, the doctor came and told me there were no ulcers and only stomach inflammations were found. then i was discharged after sometime, i was feeling drowsy and tired, one part of my mind was trying to remember what happened during my unconscious state but in vain. I came back home, had food and slept like a baby again for a long time.
It was one of a kind experience i had in the USA. i really admired the level of sophistication they had in the hospitals. no wonder health care is s**t expensive here. the procedure actually costs a whooping $1200 dollars without a health insurance. I am not sure, if I'd want to go to hospital again, but the experience of Anesthetic unconsciousness intrigues me a lot. i really wonder what happened, why the brain doesn't remember a single second and why no dreams.
I want to have that experience again, it was roughly two hours of the unconsciousness, but i enjoyed it without actually experiencing it. Funny Ain't it.
