Sick

I'm sick. And not in the cool way. Although I am getting better, it was quite bad. I have been vomitting, dizzy, nauseous, had stomach indigestion, and intense stomach pain, and the general sick feeling. The stomach pain got so bad that I had to go to the hospital. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I LOVE going to the hospital (even when I'm sick). Although when I am sick at the hospital waiting for the doctor, I get worried that I may require a procedure, maybe a surgical one, and I am quite afraid of those. I don't mind doing them, it is just that the idea of surgery scares me. This is quite ironic since I want to be a surgeon. Ever since I was a little kid, I just loved the hospital. To me it is such an exciting place, filled with highly trained people who want to get you better. To me that idea is very appealing, and I would absolutely LOVE working at the hospital, at least for a little while. I remember when I was really young, I used to love the vending machines in the waiting room of the emergency room. My mom would always let me buy 1 thing. Sometimes I got chips and sometimes I got skittles. Also when I was about 3 I had to stay at the hospital for a few nights. I don't exactly know why, but I was either vomitting blood or defecating blood.

I had a great time at the hospital as always. Well not always. The only time I didn't have a good time at the hospital was when my grandma died. So aside from when someone dies, I have a great time at the hospital. Anyways, I went to the emergency room because I had some really bad stomach pain. The charge nurse ( I think that's what they are called, the nurses at the ER check in desk) was quite annoying though because when I showed him where it hurt, he said "you have to be more specific, there are a lot of organs in there". Umm ok you do realize more than one organ can be hurting at once right? I didn't say that but I wish I had something similar to that, maybe not something as rude though. But I liked the medical student who assessed me the first time, and the ER doctor who assessed me as well. The medical student was compassionate, but you know the feeling you get when you get a really good knowledgeable dotor and it just feels like you are in good hands? I didn't really get that with her. I mean I do think I was in pretty good hands being in the student's hands, but I just don't think she had that strong knowledge base, and maybe lacked a bit of confidence. It could be because of experience though. She could be a fresh Year 3 student doing her first ever clerkship shift, because it is the 2nd week of school. So overall the student was good because she was compassionate and competent. I really liked the ER doctor too though. With him, it felt like you are in very good hands. He was telling me about appendicitis studies and that sort of thing. Also, he was very compassionate, which does not always correlate with a sound knowledge base. But he was very compassionate and even gave me some pain meds for the pain I was in. When they asked me on a scale of 1-10 for the pain, I said about 7.5. So that is pretty high. I wonder what the cut off is for pain meds though. The ER doctor kept me at the hospital for a few hours to monitor me for a few hours. Apparently what I had is really going around Vancouver right now, as the ER doctor said he had seen about 5 cases within the past few hours. So that is unfortunate because there is a lot of pain with it. When I was buying tylenol at the pharmacy, the pharmacist said she had the same thing, and it took her 8 days, with antibiotics, to get better.

The only bad thing about my hospital stay was that I didn't get a meal. I was there from about midnight - 6:30am on Monday morning. I am not so much concerned with the time I was there, but with the fact that I love hospital food. They made me put on a gown so I thought I would have stayed overnight, but nope.

Also I was at Vancouver General Hospital. After I was released from the hospital (I wouldn't really call it released since I love being there, more like had to leave), I went to Tim Horton's. All I can eat is bland food, so I decided on chicken noodle soup from Tim's. It is pretty nice that there is a Tim Horton's one block away from VGH. There are also a lot of restaurants on West Broadway in Vancouver, which is one block away from VGH. I was thinking it would be nice if I work at VGH, to have a lot of food options, since I'm not sure if VGH's cafeteria is 24/7 or not. But anyways there used to be a Wendy's right beside the Tim's but on google it says it's closed. I did not look when I was there. But there is another Wendy's one block away from the other one. I find it weird that two Wendys would operate so close to each other. But I guess that may be why the other one shut down. But there is a lot of restaurants on West Broadway. And since I will have a car I could even drive like 10 minutes away too. So if I'm at VGH I will have a lot of options, which is good because I'll need to refuel myself for those long shifts.

VGH is my favorite hospital. It is the best hospital I've ever been to. I would absolutely LOVE working there. I don't think I would want to be an ER doc though. Instead I probably want to be a surgeon. But realistically, I would be excited to go to work everyday no matter what hospital I was working at, and no matter which speciality I was in, as long as I'm a doctor.


I am feeling better today though. Unfortunately I have missed 3 days of school. I also have a quiz on Monday, so I need to try to get the class notes from a classmate.