16 March 2007

Another old lady

I am out on the corridor on the way to the toilet as I see another demented woman. That woman is hyperactive and always busy doing sth. She often comes to the nurses' desk which is right opposite of our room. She is very small, the expression of her face is without any emotion. If it wasn’t for her moving around constantly she seems like a figure in a museum of wax. This time she sits at a small table and has a cigarette in her hand. She sucks on the cigarette which is not lit. I have already passed her as I hear a nurse’s voice telling that Mrs. ... should put on her clothes. I turn around to see the old lady naked except for huge diapers which she wears.

A night at the hospital

One night after my operation an old woman, who has cried „please, please...“ the night before, screams for help.
The nurses go to the lady’s room and take care of her. I reckon the old lady gets tranquilizers.
There is a second lady in another room who also starts to scream for help. That makes a kind of a weird stereo effect.
The second woman does not calm down. I am out on the ward passing by her room. I get a glimpse on an old woman who tries to get up from her bed to open a window and cry for help.
„Help, criminals, thugs... “ the demented lady screams.
Accidentally there is a strong wind that night which makes bizarre noises like in a horror movie.

Meniscus

I have an operation of my right knee's meniscus one year after my injury in New York. Back then I could not get any medical treatment except for a physical therapy which helped and made me walk again.
This year in January I finally find the time to have my knee examined. An x-ray does not produce any result so I go to get a MRT. The result tells me a rupture of the meniscus.
My doctor sends me to a hospital to get some advice. Quite typically for a visit to the doctor's in Vienna I don't get any information but instead a date for an operation: 03/12/07.
One week before the operation I go to get blood tests. I also try to get some information whether an operation is necessary or not: i manage to get a doctor's opinion which is not clear.
Finally in the hospital I get to speak to a doctor when he visits our room on his ward round. It is one day before the operation. That doctor asks me why I get the operation and gives me some info in the most impolite tone possible.