“Inside My Body Feels Like Chaos.” By Paul Howlett

“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.