Thank you very much!

On Friday afternoon I had the experience most parents dread. Being so ill that you can’t get help for yourself and having to ask your child to do it for you.

I was having a mild discomfort in my chest and was planning to go see the Doctor about it later in the day.  However around 2pm, it got markedly and suddenly worse. I was getting my son to lock up the house as I was going to drive to the Hospital to get attention.  By 2:20pm I was doubled over in pain, breathing fast… Had to get my son to call 000 for me (the 911 equivalent here in Australia).  My son is 11 years old and he did amazingly well for me.  He spoke to the operator and I could hear her asking questions and walking him through what to do for me.  The 000 operator was amazing, even though she could tell my son was close to tears she kept him together to get all the relevant details.  7 minutes later an ambulance arrived.  Two female ambulance officers came in and attended to me.  Gave me oxygen, and then put in a canula to give me other stuff.  Amazing people. So very caring for me and my son.  My pain was such that they had to give me morphine to settle it down.. wow – what a drug – never had that before… hope to never need it again.

Arrived @ hospital and the ambulance officers saw to it that I got through there quickly.  They left me to the hospital staff.  I don’t recall their names, but thank you.  Thank you very much for the care you showed me at a time when I needed it so much.  You do a job that is only fuelled by the passion you have for helping others.  Thank you.

The hospital staff looked me over and due to the morphine, the pain was almost no existent… I felt a bit like a fake laying there in the bed.  Nurses came and saw me, took blood for tests, X-rays, and ECG’s all trying to figure out what went wrong.  The Doctor came to see me too – along with two trainee Doctors – he looked over my symptoms and then tutored the trainee Doctors on what to look for.  apparently I was a good patient because I was able to clearly tell them all about my medical history.  I was more relaxed by this point and I was fascinated by they way that these Doctors (similar to our profession) were working through the symptoms to diagnose what was wrong with me.  They eliminated heart attack (which was my biggest fear) pretty quickly due to various factors.  They then reviewed the X-Rays done earlier and they were able to make a diagnosis.  Apparently I had both Pneumonia and Pleurisy in the left lung and the pain was from the lung touching my chest wall… ouch… double ouch.

They gave me antibiotics, more pain relief and then when the nurse took the canula out of my hand was when I passed out… they weren’t expecting that :-)  I woke up 15minutes later in a lather of sweat.  Not good.  I was however able to go home.  I was away from home for only about 4 hours all up in which time I experienced the caring of some amazing people.

All this has nothing to do with IT whatsoever and I hope you will forgive this diversion from my normal blogging topics.  But I wanted to say thank you. 

Thank you to my son.  At 11 years of age you showed such maturity and braveness that you are surely going to be an amazing young man.  I marvel every day at you and am proud to call you my son.

Thank you to the 000 Operator who kept my son so calm and got us the help we needed quickly.  She was obviously well trained and knew exactly what to do to help get things moving quickly.

Thank you to the two female ambulance officers who came to my rescue for the way you helped settle me down and look after me on the trip.  You do it not for the huge salaries you get, but for the sheer desire to help feel man when they are in need of it most.

Thank you to the nurses and Doctors at Blacktown Hospital who tended to me while I was there for your assistance on getting me home as quickly as possible.

To those around you that you seldom take for granted… take a moment and say Thank you to them too.  I’ll be off for a few days so don’t be surprised if there’s not a lot more from me.