first time in A&E...as a PATIENT, not medic student

so i woke up this morning, feeling colicky, severe abdominal cramps. thought it would go away and started walking to school. wanted so badly to turn back, but the thought of missing the 1st day under Mr Eljahmel (yes, MR ELJAHMEL) and having to answer to him tomorrow made me walk doubly fast to hosp instead.

so i changed into my scrubs and entered the neurosurgery theatre. was standing beside the operation table, having my hands folded across my abdomen, trying in vain to maybe squeeze the pain out. (btw, it was an op to replace a spinal cord stimulater. was really quite fascinating. remember that electronic bug that was forced into Neo in Matrix? looked slightly similar except that it went into your spinal cord. anyway, would have appreciated the whole op more if i wasn't in so much pain). Was so doubled up that i could have fallen onto the operation table any minute, causing chaos to the whole operation and then get sued by the patient and kicked out of medic profession forever. so i thought i'd better just go to the storage rm to sit down for a while or risk falling over. think i must have looked in a quite bad shape coz the nurse came over and to my worst horror said: i think u better go to the A&E, i won't allow u back in if u don't go there. i won't let u go on like this.
and i was like: what? A&E?? mm hai kua...so i tried to reason out that it's most prob just a case of indigestion and will just wait another hr before i go down. and the nurse, being a nurse, refused to accept any explainations and forced me to go down.

felt quite like a dungu, going up to the A&E reception while still in my scrubs, surgical mask & hat. and then felt even more silly when i had to say to the receptionist: uh...hi...i'm a 4th yr medic student, the nurse sent me down here...erm... coz i am having bad abdominal cramps...but i really don't think it's anything...but the nurse forced me down...

but well, the pain really was quite excruciating. was brought to one of the beds there and had to wait quite a while. i think they most prob think i was some medic student with Munchausen syndrome of malingering and decided that they had more acute pts to attend to. which was, i guess, reasonable.
so the A&E nurse came over, took a full history, took urine sample, and then left me waiting for another half an hour before a dr came to examine me. thank goodness it was this young dr (most prob SHO), rather than some consultant who would most prob ask me to self diagnose myself and start bombarding me with qns, irregardless of the fact that i was in great pain.

the dr ended up telling me that it's most probably just due to a case of over-excited nerves, having to be in neurology ward now and meeting 2 widely feared consultants (that was what the dr said exactly...so he must have graduated fr UoD not too long ago as well to know the consultants). well, honestly, i really don't think that is the case coz i have been getting it quite easily and so far have not had any firings from the consultants. weird...even the nurse kept asking me if i have been studying too hard and have been under stress...and i was like: 'huh? what studying?? stress fr not studying hard you mean??'

so i walked back to the neurosurgery theatre with this (non-existent-stress induced) acute abdominal pain still throbbing hard. went to find Mr Eljahmel in his office and was greeted by this huge smile by him and was asked whether i was alright. i was really quite taken aback. is this really the consultant who is reputed to have made students cry in the past and is all out to make our lives miserable? but anyway, he allowed me to take the day off and even said i could just call his secretary tomorrow if i didn't feel well enough to come in. so you see, he's not that bad after all. ah...better not speak so fast coz i still have a week ahead under him.

walked home for a whole agonising 15 minutes trying to just concentrate in putting one foot in front of another and not think of the pain. heeded the doc's advice, took some panadols and slept for 5 hrs straight. and now i'm so wide eyed i don't think i'll be sleeping at all tonight. and thanks to Lena, had good savoy cabbage soup & steamed egg for dinner, instead of some battered haddock we initially planned to have.

well, it still remains a mystery what caused the cramps. still feeling slightly queasy. most prob just indigestion. i suspect it's the Marks&Spencer's apple pie we had after dinner. gluten intolerant? hmmm...well, pray it never happens again.