Well I've always thought that it's good to experience everything when abroad. One thing not on my list though was a&e. For a whole Sunday morning. I'm a great fan of Sunday mornings in bed - just not a hospital one!
I had a funny heart turn thing in the night which started at about half 1 when I went to bed. It kept me awake on and off all night but I thought nothing of it until it was still going at about half 6 this morning. I laid in bed wondering when it was going to stop, when all of a sudden I came over all funny in a really cold sweat and went quite dizzy. I needed the toilet so I sat up and I was obviously all over the place as Fiona asked me if I was alright. I told her I wasn't and I really didn't feel well and she offered to come to the toilet with me. Being the stupid independent person I was trying to be, I said I was fine and could go myself. Wrong! I turned out of the room and down the corridor and that's where it all went wrong. My vision went, as did my legs, and I fell against the right hand wall, then to the left hand wall, then back to the right hand wall, but in doing so smashed my face against the doorframe and fell onto the floor. I'd blacked out and woke to Fiona panicking that I was covered in blood and I felt awful. I was desperate for the toilet by this point (I'm surprised I didn't do it while passing out) so I wiped my face and went to the toilet. By the time I came out there was a whole group of people, including Jade, the boys from upstairs, the night manager and a few randoms. I was still groggy and had to sit down so they gave me some water, got me some clothes (yes I had completed this performance in my pjs) and the manager put some antiseptic cream and a plaster on it before telling me I'd need to go to hospital. Great. So we got into a taxi to a&e at St Vincent's Hospital. I was admitted straight away and taken to a hospital bed. I was under the impression that I'd need a few butterfly stitches and I'd be on my way. We were meant to be going to an AFL game this afternoon so I was still all set for going to that. How wrong was I?! I had an ECG because of my heart, hooked up to a monitor, X-ray on my chest, 2 sets of blood tests and they tried to get a line into me to give me fluids but my vein kept collapsing so I just had to drink lots of water instead. Then the nurse looked at my eye while we were waiting for the test results and that's when I got the news I didn't want - I needed proper stitches. Holy s***, having never been in hospital before, or had stitches, I was crapping my pants. Jade had stayed with me (love my little kiwi) and she held my hand while I had the anaesthetic injections. Damn they hurt! I only had to have 3 but that was way more than enough believe me!! Plus I'm such a wimp and a self confessed one at that, but I'm sure the nurse could tell as I was struggling to hold back the pathetic whimpering. I soon couldnt feel anything so she did my 3 stitches. I couldn't feel the first two but felt the last one a bit and thought I was going to be sick! It was soon all over and covered up with a steri strip. All my tests came back eventually and all was ok so after 6 hours in total, I was allowed to leave. Was a really clean hospital though and the staff were so nice, even Ray the old boy porter who wheeled me through to the X-ray room. So glad this happened in Sydney too, and not somewhere like Alice Springs where the hospitals are crap.
I definitely wasn't going to make the game and the others said they were too worried about me and not in the mood to go either. They'd spent the day chilling and doing washing etc. We got back to the hostel and I let everyone know I was alright. Unfortunately it was time for Jade to go and stay with her aunty so we took her to the train station and said our goodbyes. I feel bad that she spent her last day in hospital with me but she was adamant she was staying bless her. We said teary goodbyes, even though I was seeing her in a few weeks again. I was ordered by the others to have a few hours rest when we got back to the hostel. The nurse had said I was dehydrated, exhausted and a bit stressed/anxious which combined, is what made this morning happen.
We decided to head to the cinema tonight so I could still go out but have a chilled one. We headed over to Bondi to the cinema and grabbed some Mexican food for dinner beforehand. We were seeing Titanic in 3D which I wasn't too sure about, but it was the 100 year anniversary to the day so I thought maybe I should go! The film was ok, just as I remembered it, but after having stitches in my eyelid then wearing my glasses plus the 3D glasses on top was a bit of an effort! The journey home made it worth it though - we couldn't get out of the mall we were in, got lost in the multi story car park, the only lift we could use went up to the 26th floor and back down again, stopping and opening at each level, it was very funny. Then on the tube, after we'd finally made it out, some little Japanese guy was pissed and sitting on the escalator using his phone. We were watching as we were going up, wondering if his jacket would get caught etc, thinking he would just stand up and walk off when he got to the bottom. But no, he tipped up backwards, legs in the air going everywhere, arms flailing about. The last thing I wanted to be doing was laughing but it was hilarious and all 4 of us had seen it happen. Absolute classic! We made it safely back to the hostel and I took my sore poorly face to bed. You don't actually realise how much you use your eyebrows in facial expressions until it bloody hurts to do so. But still, I wasn't going to let a couple of stitches ruin my time here, it's all just character building......