My first experience in an OT

After about asking various questions like:

1) What other diseases do you have?

2) Have you ever been unconscious in the past?

3) Have you been ever operated before? and so on…

Plus some bonus questions like” What do you do?”, and the best one, “Are you still unemployed?” finally the doctor with the mask in the OT told me that now I would be injected anesthesia and when I wake up all would be done! It was the second time in my life that I was feeling so afraid, the first being when I was diagnosed with surgical jaundice, gallstones and some other weirdo problem.

But this was just the beginning. I forget to mention the atmosphere and the ambience of the hospital . We reached the hospital “Apollo Multispecialty, Ranchi” by 11 am on 6^th July. It was a very busy scenario with people registering and admitting their people. So I sat down in one of the corridor chairs like a good boy while the registration process was completed. 11.30am -that was it. I was taken to the doctor’s chamber where he told me to lie down and tested if I was ready for the operation. After this I was sent to the test labs where about 15ml of my valuable blood sample was taken out of my veins for testing with the help of a syringe. The USG followed and finally by 1pm all the tests were completed!

So the time had come. I was given a loose cotton garment to wear by the nurse. There was no problem of fitting or size as that hardly mattered! It was the weirdest dress I had ever worn. So I was lying in a hospital bed now with my “new” attire. A wink and I was surrounded by 3 nurses and one of them stretched my left arm and I could see an alarmingly “big” needle in the other nurse’s hand. I enquired how I would be tortured, and the reply was that the needle would be pierced in my hands god knows what vein and kept there for saline and injection purposes. Before I could realize and feel anything the alien needle was inside my vein lying still and calm unlike me!

Then I was seated in a wheelchair and I should appreciate that the attendant asked me if I was comfortable in it. Soon the wheelchair moved due to force applied by someone behind and I was being taken to the luxurious OT for the first time in my life. So down the corridor, then the lift and here it was the OT and the ICU just beside it. I was made to sit in the ICU first where I saw 3 other people with strange instruments monitoring them. They had been operated before sometime and were under observation. I started feeling nervous,really! A nurse came took my BP, temperature, weight and waived the green flag. Just outside the OT there was a white-board in which all the day’s operations were written. My name was shining in black ink at serial number 4.So it was time to enter the dragon!

Lemme warn you friends I found the OT a real frightening place. A single operation table with so many sophisticated instruments attached to it which I had seen in high budgeted English movies only! I was most politely told by the doctor to lie down and “relax”!I lay on the table as if I were an object of experiment and the friendly eyes of the doctor seemed to be the eyes of a hungry hyena waiting to hunt me down! As I lay I was questioned for 15 mins and finally I was told not to worry as I wouldn’t feel anything. An oxygen mask was put on my mouth and electrode stamps were put on my chest .I could see two other docs surrounding me.(Later on I came to know one was the assistant and the other the anesthetist.) Although I tried to not fall asleep when I was being injected the anesthesia but …rest I don’t remember actually! When I partially came to senses I could only hear sounds of myself being shifted to a stretcher and I could feel the stretcher being moved!

Bitan,Bitan…..I could hear the doctor calling me and when I tried to reply and open my eyes I just could see a blurred image of the doctor, mom and sis…Before I could reply anything , it’s simply unexplainable how I felt. That excruciating pain I can never forget in my life. I was struggling to breathe and with each breath a spine chilling feeling of pain ran down my body! I couldn’t simply breathe. I wanted to tell it to the doctor but I simply couldn’t speak. No sound came out of my throat! I couldn’t utter a word. I heard doctor telling my mom that I need to rest and they should leave me alone now. I could also feel an instrument tightening up my right arm at regular interval (which was actually monitoring my BP).Later on I came to know that I was kept in the ICU for 2hrs.But according to me it was 2hours of extreme pain! 4 cuts were made in my body, one in my chest and the other three in my stomach. Then again I could feel my stretcher move. This time I opened my eyes and I could see. Soon I was out of the OT and people were staring at me. I was taken to the Special General Ward and two attendants lifted the bed sheet I was lying on and placed me on the bed from the stretcher. My bed no. was 57E.My god I couldn’t move myself in any direction. Soon I was put on saline. But still I was feeling that pain. I saw my mom, dad, sis all around me trying to tell me that all was fine but a strange pain was troubling me in my right shoulder.

I was continuously counting 1..2..3 in my mind and was trying to bear the pain but it was too much. At last the nurse came to my relief and she injected I don’t know what in my veins but it was like heaven to me. As the medicine ran down my veins I could feel its effect… It was so powerful. It brought relief to me and I fell asleep instantly. Perhaps it was some sedative. When I opened my eyes it was 10 pm and my mother was calling me to have my dinner. I couldn’t get up by myself so she helped me and I managed to get up although it pained a lot. The dinner was like boiled khicdi+boiled pupmpkin+1 glass of milk. I was happy as it was different from my regular diet of boiled rice+potato which I was having for the past 4 months day and night. I tried to eat but couldn’t. Off to sleep again and my eyes opened only the next day at 5am.

A nurse came gave me a new pair of clothes ,medicine and a sponge wash. By morning I was feeling better and I noticed that to my stomach was attached a pipe for drainage of bile and internal bleeding. Soon it was afternoon and now I started checking my neighbors. Perhaps the best variety of neighbors I ever had. My bed was in the extreme left so to my right were 2 beds with an old man with a swollen stomach in one and a man with 3 broken neck bones in the other. In front of me there was a young boy in his teens who had undergone a stomach surgery and was yelling in pain. There were 3 other patients in my ward but I never noticed them as they were quite far. Relatives of these people were always there with sad faces and I considered myself lucky that I was healthiest of them all. Really my fellow neighbors were a great source of strength to me. There was causality too that day so cries could be heard from the nearby ward. My pain was nothing to hundreds of present there.

I have to say that I recovered really fast and with proper medication and support I was able to walk the next day slowly slowly. I should say I was afraid of a nurse in my ward and although I had great problem while getting up and lying down still whenever she was around I would forget my pain and lie down or get up promptly. That was indeed funny when I think of it now. My family was indeed the best support I had and I was never alone in the ward. I’m really lucky to get such a loving family.

I stayed in the hospital for two days and on the third day evening I was discharged. It was really an experience that I would never forget in my life. When we are subjected to pain we think it’s so unfair but out there are people with pain 100 times greater than us and they do fight and bear this pain just to live! Indeed Pain is not about death, it’s about life! While we are fit and fine we never realize the worth of our lives but after this experience, I do. We fight, quarrel, cry, hate and simply waste our valuable lives never realizing its worth! Life is not about just living, more importantly it’s about loving! Do it NOW when u still have it!

Love and Love,

B2