How does it feel like to be hospitalized in the midst of COVID-19

Dude, I know right this has nothing to do with plants haha.

And if you not interested in grandmother story again you may skip straight to the highlighted part.

7th May 2pm. Driving for 3 straight hours. Delivering flowers. I got wear mask and kept safe distances. Weather was m-fking hot. Felt light-headed by the last 2 trips.

Came home. Took a nap, thinking it would as always be better after a sleep. 8pm. Still light headed. Actually i think i felt worse. But yknow i thought maybe it'll go away after a while. Ate dinner. Still can play 1 round of DotA. Won. Ok about this time i buay loon and couldn't continue for a second game.

I went to rest on my bed. Oddly, lying down made it worse and i started to feel like something was not right. I called out for my mom for help and she gave me some head massage and my helper helped to give me some coin gua sha too. Still didn't help. My mama suggested I went to her room to sleep with her so my dad went to the living room to sleep instead (haha sorry daddy).

I tried to sleep, rolled here and there to try for a comfortable position to rest. I puked my salad + KFC out like trice in an hour. I felt like i was spinning. Buaytahan already my dad suggested we should see a doctor. OHHH DR ANYWHERE! It was really easy and convenient to use. The Dr was confident that I had BPPV through the camera and prescribed medication, all within 10 mins. By 00:28 8th May I had my MC issued to me. Although the Patient's name was wrong cos I used my dad's account hahahaha but the IC verification was correct. Ok not good enough to make me feel better because the medication only can come 8am the next day. Also, i feel like shit you tell me all i'm having is what BPPV ah like some amateur disease you think i believe you. Of course i think i more kiang than Doctor la.

Eventually I got myself in a crossed-leg-crouching-position and fell asleep lol. I managed to shift myself (with my eyes closed) to a better lying position throughout the night, then slowly to my back and i fell asleep. Still giddy.

At 3am, for some reasons I woke up and I felt TERRIBLE. I tried to open my eyes and THE ROOM was spinning. wtF? I couldn't open my eyes because when I did the room was shifting like crazy. I didn't realise it was my eye that was twitching like mad on its own. Like legit left right left right without stopping like cartoon character kena the wall then become sot plug like that. Obviously I started to panic already and after multiple tries I wanted to puke so badly.

So I woke my mom up telling her "Ma I can't open my eyes I can't open my eyes. I DON'T KNOW WHY!!!!!!!! Help!" I felt super nauseous and then i believe I started screaming. Which I thought i only clapped my hands really loudly just to feel something haha. Idk, my sister said the scream woke her up. Ok just as you don't understand me, I was equally confused at this point. I also started to bite my fingers. Because I hyperventilated and started to feel numb at my hands. My sister woke up. My dad woke up. My brother... wasn't asleep.

"Daddy can you please call the Ambulance for me. BUT WAIT WAIT WAIT DON'T CALL FIRST LET ME CHANGE MY CLOTHES FIRST LET ME PREPARE EVERYTHING FIRST DON'T RUSH ME BRING MY CHARGER MY PHONE MY IC MY...". Yeeeeeeeeah my father didn't care about what i said lolololol while my mother went to grab my clothes and changed me into my tweety bird underwear. I took a glimpse of what's going on in the midst of struggling and saw that but i couldn't grab another so fuck me. I MEAN THE NURSES LATER SEE THEN HOW. I MEAN I LOVE IT BUT THEN I SHY MAH.

Ambulance arrived. My brother directed them to my parents' room and they started to paste shit on me and do this test that test and ask me many questions (standard blood sugar blood pressure heart beat test etc. la). Are you working from home now? Are you feeling stressed? I could still respond. I just want to say they were so fucking calm and professional I don't know what did i do to deserve such good medical help. I didn't even get to see their face and say thank you.

It was 3am+ right? Thunder and lightning came and it rained quite heavily as soon as the ambulance arrived. Fucking channel 8 drama. Ok but i was feeling really like shit. They (the ambulance crew) helped me walk to the main gate and put me on the chair as i curled myself up in a fairly comfortable position. I could hear my family packing my stuff for me, talking to me, calming me down in the background. And then I started crying in distress for a bit. And then I vomited along the way while they were pushing me to the lift.

I would like to think everyone was in their masks. My eyes were shut 98% of the time on the trip there. I tried to look at them just to remember their names and say thank you but I couldn't. Anyway, I could feel myself downstairs already. Raindrops on me. My dad shouted "Korkor will follow you okay!" I think i nodded or said ok. The trip there felt so quick yet unbearable. Also can I just add that talking to someone blind/unconscious/dying is so important and comforting.

{ Here's a 毛站 (hair-standing) part I want to input. Desmond is my boyfriend and i was telling him how shitty i felt too, before sleeping. So he told me he fell asleep at 2am (normally he wouldn't wake up after falling into deep sleep) but woke up at 3 when the ambulance went past his block toward my block. He only lives 2 LRT stations away from me. AND THEN he was thinking if it could be me. Shrugging, he went back to bed. And then my sister called him. HAHAHAHA. This blog post is a 4 day worth Taiwan drama sequel. }

We reached the hospital, they put me in an emergency ward, which is in a corner i think not very far away from the door. My view was literally the counter and everyone moving around rooms. Doctor 1 came in and calmly asked a few questions. I can't remember any of it. But she was so sweet and nice i kept saying thank you. A nurse tied the bag of stuff my brother passed to them to the side of my bed and described to me what was inside. I was wearing long pants so they gave me a jab in the butt instead of my thigh. TMI?

A while later Doctor 1 came in to ask if i was feeling better and if she could apply epley maneuver on me that would supposedly make me feel better. I said ok and i regretted lol. The Epley maneuver is a type of exercise help that helps to treat the symptoms of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).

The jab should take 1 hour to take effect. NOPE still shitty. I plead them to take blood test for me. Just take my blood or give me ANYTHING... I just want to feel better even after the exercise. They gave me 2 white tablets. I puked them out together with yellow stuff hahaha okay you didn't need to know that. So they injected the medication into my veins instead.

Every hour or so Doctor 1 and 2 (or so i thought were both doctors) would come in to talk to me and that made me feel better. Still can't remember the conversations.

I suppose this is how usually emergency wards behave? There was no panicking, no messing up of procedures, no COVID-19 traces at all. However I did hear a few small conversations on accepting new COVID-19 patients here and there. They still have time to consider if they wanted to accept a new COVID-19 patient. Everything. is. fully. under. control. They aimed to discharge me, not to ward me. Of course, subjected to my progress.

To my understanding, strictly no visitors allowed unless: 1) Your family is really dying. 2) You have COVID. 3) You work in the hospital of the same department. 4) You are hospitalized in the same ward. However, you may deliver items to the ward via the counter downstairs and somebody from the hospital will deliver the items to you.

I mean I really was expecting maybe some more conversations and discussions on it i guess? Considering all the A class wards were full for me due to COVID-19.

Still couldn't open my eyes, still feeling giddy and nauseous.

I was transferred to a temporary ward. Suddenly this gentle sounding lady came to chat with me and talked to me about her personal symptoms of Vertigo and how she managed them on days.. and I got to found out that she was actually one of the SQ jiejies that came in as a caregiver to take care of patients. I enjoyed having her company and she treated me like i was blind even though i wasn't hahaha. A**** Service 💯. I tried to get a glimpse of her while she was around (they do Mon-Fri shift only) but i can only see her eyes (duh, masks) hahahahaa. Her nametag says Vivian Lin. If you accidentally read my post can you please be my friend I just want to talk sometimes. Hahaha.

SQ JIEJIE STILL CAN TAKE CARE OF ME, OK WHAT! I'm not a COVID-19 patient lei!

I lost count of the doctors who came to see me and did tests for me. There was a neuro doc, 2 therapists, 2 random docs, 1 senior neuro doc..... All I remember is they mostly all young and good looking. LOL. They all did similar tests on me, and one by one confirmed that it was very obvious that the "stones" in my ear have shifted position. Watch this video to understand more. I think the twitching was so bad they had to do a CT Scan for me just to make sure it's nothing else. I really was like... sot plug to the max. BPPV is believed to be caused by trauma/knock/chronic headache/infection but most of the time we can't specifically tell which one is it. Watch this other video to understand how the twitching looks like.

Considering in the COVID period hor, still so many doctors. nurses, care givers, therapists can come and attend to me. Quite steady ma. Also not like i kena cancer or some weird disease. It's just a more serious common Vertigo.

I'm not sure if it's just their daily to-do, but in the midst of COVID-19, I felt that the pandemic probably had brought everyone together even more? There was more understanding... more hearts. If it's you or anyone who volunteered, even if you are a SQ lady or a very good person, you may not be able to handle what the nurses do everyday. But in this case as i experienced, i can safely say the caregivers and care ambassadors had displayed zero status differences. I mean if not for COVID-19, no one would have had to help out like that, right?

It didn't feel scary to be inside the hospital. It didn't feel like I was gonna get COVID anytime despite being without mask most of the time. As if COVID-19 had died.

I would like to sincerely thank every single one of them working in the hospital for staying strong and optimistic no matter what. They are literally the best.

They found some uncertain shadows in the CT scan so just to make sure it nothing they scheduled me for MRI. "I am too young to have stroke". I hit the weekend so that means another 2 days of being in the hospital. Ok cool.

I was later transferred to a C Class ward. Over the weekend, even though they were short-handed, every single nurse were so helpful and reminded me to call them if i ever want to go to the toilet. I was categorized under "Fall Risk".

There was this really funny Chinese Aunty with mild dementia who had conversations with the doc that cracked me up while i was half asleep. She: 你是谁？(Who are you?) Doc: I'm your doc (In chinese)

She: 你华人啊？(You Chinese ah?)

Doc: Yaaa I'm Chinese. I'm your doctor. (In a very sayang voice) She: 你是我的医生？(You my doctor?) She: 你住哪里? (Where you stay?) - my ultimate favourite.

Just imagine this in a very old ahlian voice with mild dementia. I loved it.

The aunty fell at home, broke her leg and required surgery. She was making noises and giving the nurses in Malay some instructions at midnight. A Malay Aunty on my right side replied her in Malay that she wants to sleep so I was kiap-ed in the middle lol. Since i couldn't do anything else these small talks entertained me a lot. Other funny stuffs: My drip dipped in curry while I was eating. Mostly conversations between patient and nurse and patient and doctors. My least favourite part of the hospital stay: Couldn't eat, sleep or bathe properly for 3 days, some mosquito bites, witnessing the death of an old ahgong .....

Maybe i should change my title to "My first experience at the hospital" uh.

I also think the landscape team nation wide should start working to prevent the mosquitoes ya.

Third day i could finally open my eyes long enough and feel improvement. Started using my phone more.. da da da but i still couldn't watch videos or play games that move a lot. The Drs could tell I was looking better. Yay.

I continued to do therapies and eventually got discharged on 11th May to go home and rest. Thank you for your concern.

Anyway. Home sweet home.

UPDATE:

I am today years old and I realised that SCDF will ask for feedback with the emergency medical service. Dude, 5* with a kiss. Thank you guys so much.