“Inside My Body Feels Like Chaos.” By
Paul Howlett
Chaos and my body were good friends a couple of years ago. I had pains in my guts. I thought it was muscle strain, stomach upset
or too much heavy lifting.
Hot showers, late at night were the
answer, or so I thought. This seemed to
give me some relief. This turned out to
be the wrong move, as I nearly collapsed one night, in the shower with extreme
pain throughout my body.
I staggered to the hall, told my wife
to call 000 for an ambulance as I was in so much pain that I could not think
straight. I managed to don a t-shirt and
pants, and staggered literately out the front door of my home to await help.
The ambulance staff proceeded to make
me as comfortable as possible; they gave me a plastic cigar with morphine soaked
inside it to suck on!
This was my first trip, ever, in an
ambulance and we arrived early in the morning at the Hospital Emergency
entrance. I was placed into an admission
nursing bay, which happened to be opposite the desks of the hospital staff. I amused
myself watching the staff in their coloured coded shirts, come and go. A kind nurse came by, recognised that I was
in pain and gave me a nice shot of something to make me feel a little better.
My body still felt like it was
fighting a battle royal, with the republicans winning the fight. I was trundled
off to various machines to be X-rayed, scanned and tested.
Some hours later I was told by
medical staff that I had a fever, and an extremely infected gall bladder. I was moved into the main ward and hooked up
to a number of drips, give no solid food for a week and then sent home for six
weeks to await surgery.
