Hospital Day 12

This is an aerial view of Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus, taken from Google Maps. If you look carefully, you can see a bus stop at the bottom. The main entrance is just to the left of it. My ward is in the building to the right of the bus stop, next to the roundabout. I'm in the first floor, on the right hand side of the building. At a guess I'd say that I'm under the third white dot (air vent) from the front.

This 2D picture isn't quite as attractive, but it gives a better overview. Both photos are with South at the top.

This photo shows the whole of the hospital from the air. Note that it's surrounded by vineyards. Stuttgart is a beautiful city.

Now to the day's events. It's been my busiest day in hospital so far. I slept about four hours last night; two hours from 10 pm to midnight, and two hours from 4:30 am to 6:30 am. That's more than average for me. I was due to have a bronchoscopy at 10 pm, so I wasn't given any breakfast. At 9 am I was taken downstairs for an unannounced ultrasound examination of my stomach. At 9:45 am my bed was rolled into the corridor to wait for the bronchoscopy. I was told I was second in the queue, but I had to wait in the corridor for two hours. This was an awful time for me, almost as bad as the sleepless nights in my room.

But on the positive side, the head doctor, Dr. Katja Rothfuß, saw me in the corridor and came to talk to me. She was troubled by my red eyes, so she took a closer look at me. It's the first time my eyes have been examined since I was admitted to the hospital. She didn't ask me about pollen allergies; she could tell it was something else. She said I needed to see an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) as soon as possible.

Eventually I was rolled into the room for the bronchoscopy. After all I'd been told about the examination I was scared, but I needn't have been. The anaesthetics were dripped into my vein, and I slept through the procedure. The only problem is that soon after I woke up I started coughing and couldn't stop. The nurses kept telling me to stop, as if they thoughgt I was doing it deliberately. My assumption is that my throat had been irritated during the bronchoscopy. I was coughing non-stop for 45 minutes.

I fell asleep some time in the afternoon, but it was only a brief sleep, 15 minutes at most. A nurse woke me and told me I was being sent to Katharinen-Hospital (one of Stuttgart's largest general hospitals) to have my eyes examined. Thank you, Dr. Rotfuß. I was picked up by a hospital taxi service. It's like a normal taxi company, except it only carries patients from one hospital to another.

Before I went I was told that an appointment had been made for me, but the whole thing was a mess. Nobody at the Katharinen-Hospital knew I was coming, so I had to wait in line with the walk-in patients. This was frustrating, but at least I was going to be treated. After a long wait I was finally seen by a young doctor who examined my eyes. She told me that the problem is that my eyelids are dried out, probably as a result of my original infection. They need to be bathed every day.

I was driven back to Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus, totally exhausted. It was almost 7 pm, and I'd hardly had any rest since 9 am. My throat was aching. I collapsed into bed and slept for two hours. Now I have time and energy to write this blog post.