TW ED / MENTION OF HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT ‼️
A dramatised piece of writing I had to do for college based on my ED experience:
People are abundant in this suffocating space. Elderly folks nodding off, children wailing, and drunks spitting out incoherent remarks. There’s a broken clock tripping over itself on a pale sterile wall. God, the sound is deafening and yet my mind’s symphony outweighs their chorus.
I just want to go home to the comfort of my own bed. I don’t even need to be here. I’m not sick enough to warrant this visit.
Urgent, she said. Ha! Life-threateningly urgent!
Honestly, I’m not sick. I’m just…
Shit… I didn’t expect to be called in so early, the lady at the front desk said the wait time is around 4 hours, but I managed a mere 2 1/2.
I stand up abruptly. Bad idea - the room won’t stop bobbing up and down as if i was on the fucking titanic. All I could think is “Please don’t faint, that would be so mortifying”. I can feel the concerned and slightly jealous stares following my back as I leave the waiting room.
I’m fine. Not sick. And yet I have to now somehow explain the reason I’m there.
A tired doctor motions me to sit in front of him, he’s obviously sick of his job, sick of patients, and working night shifts. He uninterestingly listens to my bumblingly idiotic attempt in explaining the situation.
“To be honest I really don’t have expertise in this area, I’ll have to refer you to one of my colleagues”
My heart rate immediately rises, to the point of feeling it in my throat.
A nice lady, whose face I can’t really recall listens intently to my retelling of why I’m there.
I’m stripped, measured, hooked up to an ECG, and I then I wait patiently to hear when I can go home.
I left that hospital 2 months later. And almost 2 times heavier.