I thought I would update you on my recent medical adventures. So, I had a catheter fitted: albeit it only for a couple of weeks.
But on Monday, I had it removed. A wonderful feeling! And it wasn’t just the freedom from discomfort. To pee – naturally! That is a great relief!
The nurse who removed it was a delightful Nigerian called Olu. She calmed me with her good nature and humour.
Anxiously anticipating some degree of pain, I was fretting, as I lay down on the hospital couch. She took a look at me, and commented, that at least I wasn’t giving birth! Then she asked me then if I wouldn’t be willing to change places with my wife. So I replied that women are, in any case, much stronger than men.
I certainly wouldn’t want to go through what my wife did, when she gave birth to our two, now adult, children.
Even if scientists develop an artificial womb, for men to use (which they are working on), it still wouldn’t be to give birth the “usual” way.
As a result of our conversational interchange, no doubt intended to relax me, and with a deft flick of the wrist, the nurse was able to whip out the catheter, without me hardly noticing.
A quick job, and one I was grateful for. A reintroduction to the normal world.
My whole experience in the hospital over the last few weeks has actually been overwhelmingly positive.
Largely, this has been due to the progress in administrative procedures, presumably because of the pandemic.
Whenever I’ve had to go into hospital, for check-ups, over the years, I have, along with others, got used to waiting, for long periods for the appointment to occur. Consequently, we always plan for the worst, because it could take hours, and fill an entire day, for a consultation lasting only a few minutes.
So I would make sure to take a book, to read, along with the newspaper; plus plenty of change for coffees and snacks.
I never blamed the hospitals for this, because I knew they were very busy and under-resourced. But, clearly, a change has taken place.
Now, the waiting time has been cut to the minimum, maybe only fifteen minutes. I didn’t even get started on my book. I was very disappointed, as I had looked forward to a long pleasant read.
Obviously, they don’t want you in there any longer than necessary during Covid-time. Either you could catch the virus, or more seriously, you could give it to the staff.
So it’s a matter of self-preservation. But it also possesses the power of cutting down waiting time. The whole experience is more efficient.
This has been a learning process for the hospital administration. From the initial confusion, and crowding, as the virus hit, they have developed new procedures.
Every cloud thus has a silver lining. The question is whether this is a permanent gain, or if we will revert back to how it was before?
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