Our Hospital Stay

Rushil had a serious bout of asthma over the weekend. I took him to Manipal pediatric emergency, fortunately I beat the crowds and he was treated immediately.  By 10AM, the ward became crowded and I was unhappy to see the nurses move from one patient to another without taking the necessary sanitary precautions. They had hand sanitizers at each table, but not a single nurse used it. Most of the children came in for gastrointestinal issues and the next most popular was asthma. After repeated treatments, they suggested that I  admit Rushil as he was not responding to the treatments and was still wheezing. I had not expected this at all and  was not prepared, I didn't have any insurance papers or any extra clothing. I had to leave him by himself at the emergency ward for 1 hour while I handled his admission. Even though Prasad was out of town, fortunately, my inlaws were here so I didn't have to worry about Sindhu. After an hour or so, we were moved to a clean spacious private room. At this point, I was happy to get out of the emergency ward, in the past, we always arrived early and had the place to ourselves, this is the first time, I had to stay  longer and I was ready to leave.

Our room was very comfortable. The nurses were excellent, very friendly and competent. Multiple doctors rotated in and out, one particular  doctor made a special effort and checked in on Rushil throughout the day and night.  By the middle of the night, Rushil started improving and was feeling better in the morning. He was itching to leave all day, he had watched as much television, played enough games and read as much as he could.  The cool hospital bed and moving food tray lost their appeal by the 2nd day. Dr. Jagdeesh Chinnappa, his  ward doctor made the final call on his discharge even though he didn't actually see him till today.  He walked in with 2 other doctors who trembled at the sight of him, he was very self-assured and ready to pounce on the doctors, nurses and me if required.Anyway,  he left it up to me and said I could treat Rushil just as easily at home so we decided to go home. I thought the discharge would take an hour or so but it took 6 hours!!   The wait was extremely painful, fortunately, my father-in-law, my uncle and aunt were there for a few hours which made it almost bearable.

And if you're wondering how Rushil is doing, he's practicing his batting with his cricket bat and bouncing balls against the wall. I don't know how I'll keep him sedentary for the next couple of days until this passes.