Hospital Visit The Day After Christmas

Not my intention
to visit the hospital
(where I used to work
for eleven straight years)
a day after Christmas
but I did---not to be seen
but I did---not my plan
but to accompany my wife
with signs and symptoms
of not feeling well for days
of holiday jitters and bugs, unlike me
uncomfortable on early Christmas morn
and the day after, that's today.

Hard to hide, but I have had a heavy heart
and it burst out on Christmas Day morning
but in spite of my unexpected discomfort
I attended the morning church services

the Christmas Day Mass, with my family.

As planned, we had family Christmas
celebration in the afternoon with food
like "pancit" and rice cakes of different flavors
and gifts for/with friends, like the Rileys
who brought us joy in our midst
in the person of beautiful Baby Emily
our friend Mike's cute little granddaughter
the first child to his daughter Jennifer.

Carrying cute Baby Emily, I felt relieved
and that everyone in our party was happy
my face radiated with joy over my pain
and I was overwhelmed with a feeling
that Jesus visited me via Baby Emily
together, we ate our fill with thanksgiving
sharing what we all prepared the gifts
of company, comfort and camaraderie.

Tired but full and happy after the party
I slept with my discomfort forgotten
but felt the morning the day after Christmas
with light-headed feeling and uneasiness
with slight chest pain and difficulty breathing
that prompted me to have hospital visit today.

Yes, my wife and I visited the hospital
we were both seen and examined
separately at different rooms or stations
at the Emergency Room, with our reasons
and concerns and claims why we were there
because we're not at all feeling well
because we're sick, in the first place.

I was seen in the main ER by nurses and doctors
because of the nature of my conditions and complaints
but she in another part of the Emergency Room
by a physician assistant, she said afterwards.

We have had both chest X-rays taken
I in the main X-ray department
by a black guy X-ray technologist
while she in the ER X-ray room
by a former colleague, retired from the Navy
but currently a hospital civilian employee there.

I had oxygen tube on my nose
and vital signs monitored, including EKG
a male Navy nurse was assigned to me
drew blood on my left arm where he set up IV.

As soon as my wife was discharged
she came to my cubicle-room
where she saw me in that gurney-bed
with oxygen and all the attached cables
of those monitoring devices
which made me a little bit anxious
if my condition is not that good
or that it is bad, as I thought.

After three hours in bed for careful observation
I finally got discharged by that male Navy nurse

who I came to find out was a former enlisted
not as a hospital corpsman but with a rating
different from the nursing/medical field.
he directed me to go to the Pharmacy
on the second floor to pick up my medicine
the same disposition order for my wife.

Puzzled I was after the hospital visit
but it was such a good feeling after
to be there again at the hospital
not as a worker, healthcare provider
but this time as an outpatient in need
of medical attention and care.
(c) 2011 by chris a. quilpa
26 Dec 2011