All things pass...patience achieves everything!

The smell of formaldehyde overwhelms me as I walk into the Gautum Nagar hospital as I see a Chemist (Pharmacy) and a Casualty room (exam room) to the right and to the left staring at me square in the face is a metal gate, oh its an elevator...wow that's the elevator! They take us up two floors in a very narrow but deep elevator. We walk out to a very small nurse's desk and we are directed to our room. Similar to a dorm room I suppose with a very small window that has AC unit coming out of it, so really no window with pretty purple curtains. And a bathroom, that Ryan squeezes through, but cannot shut the door. I can't help but to think I have gone back in time when they used square needles and didn't know what gloves were and used bosoms to keep blood warm. It made me miss home, well the other hospital where our room is more cozy and comfortable with pictures of familiar faces and letters from wonderful people all along the walls. I already miss Green Park and its only been a few minutes. Funny how you can get attached so quickly to things!

Ryan gets prepped for her procedure looking very cute in her forest green gown and guess who waltzes in wearing the same get up...MICHAEL! YEAH we are right across from each other! But no time for visiting, Michael is swept away from us by cutey Dr. Opi. Michael is getting the longest 3 day procedure, while Ryan is welcoming her lumbar puncture with a tattooed back and a big smile! Nothing breaks this girl! Dr. Ashish loved his surprise and thinks its "fantastic" as he snaps photos of it in the Operating Theater!


The procedure takes no more than 45 mins when Ryan returns, she is carefully placed in her bed and the ward boys hurry back with 4 bricks, 2 for each bed post, she is inverted 2 bricks high and she is ordered not to move her head at all for 6 hours. The stem cells were injected directly into her cerebral spinal fluid, which is suppose to cause excruciating headaches and intolerable nausea. Very few, maybe one in 5000 patients who receive this procedure have no adverse reactions, so with that said we were expecting Ryan to for once need us! But as the clock ticked and the saline dripped she had no reaction. The only reaction she had was pee pee pee. Now she is not allowed to get out of bed, lift her head, and for that matter move...Sarah, lucky girl who has no interest in nursing had the pleasure of helping Ryan for the first few rounds, while I was out with Erin getting dinner and walking in dark alleys, regretting the fact that I let Erin convince me to walk at night time to the hospital. When the girls retired to their humble abodes Ryan and I, well really I started dancing and singing; we were harmonizing! Then I was giving a light physio session wanting to stimulate the stem cells to her legs and toes and keeping her peeless! We all know that babies love when they're sung to! Phew, lights out at midnight...lights back on at 2, 3, whatever time it was, her 5th and final saline bottle was over with. But oh no here comes the headache, just a little one, but if we convert that to our pain threshold, I'm sure her 4/10 is a 8/10.

Maybe someone can answer my question, as a nursing student, I have primed lots of saline bags, but here they use plastic bottles, and after they prime it and have it all hooked up to the patient they stick a needle in the top of the bottle...I'm guessing to help with the drip and so the bottle doesn't collapse inward when the bottle is coming to the end. I think I just answered my own question! Since I work in a hospital back home a lot of things here are done slightly different. For example how they separate trash...just one of a few things that I found were interesting!

Dr. Ashish was so ecstatic how well Ryan was doing after the procedure that he wants to do another one very soon!!
So we might be heading back to the other hospital sometime this week! FANTASTIC!!!

I don't know if you know this, but I am going to tell you a secret. Ryan as much as she would like to blend in, is not like us, she is a creature of her own. Maybe a mystical creature, maybe part lioness, whatever it maybe it is wonderful: a super human!

Yet, she too will step in shit...and boy she did a great job; thank goodness for twigs and wet naps!