Hospitalization, Take Two

Apparently I was not quite fine after last weekend's adventure in the Emergency Room.

Throughout the week I have been feeling curious soreness in my lower back on the sides, but I brushed it off to being sedentary for too long.

This Sunday morning (though some may have called it Saturday night still) I woke up in a pool of sweat and found out that I was peeing blood again, only worse than before in color and pain. Upset, I ended up in the hospital for the second time within a week. I was a crying wreck, which I think helped me get help a lot faster than the week before...despite the overdosed druggies and drunks permeating the ER floor again. I was answering questions between sobs and a flood of texts messages and phone calls to family in the US.

The doctors speculated that my previous doctors were not as thorough as they should have been, and that my antibiotics dosage was not strong enough for what I was battling. Ultimately, they thought that the UTI had crept into my kidneys a bit.

I ended up staying there for about 7 hours and got an IV drip with some powerful antibiotics, bled a good amount, and was kept in a more private room until later in the day for a thorough ultrasound evaluation.

What a harrowing experience.

The good news is that my kidneys are alright, aside from the infection, and I was released with a prescription that should stomp out my infection (finally). I have to go to the doctor in a few days for a follow up to make sure the medicines are actually working this time. After this fiasco, I hope to not need a doctor again for a while.

This time at the hospital, doctors were not shy to observe/admit that last week's doctors messed up on me. I heard doctors say with scorn, "Why on earth would they have prescribed you with that antibiotic? That would not have done the trick! Is that even used for UTI cases?!" And, "They didn't do an ultrasound on you last week??" Let me point out that I was in the same hospital as I was in the week before.

In another instance, I heard one young doctor admit that hearing someone referring to her as "Doctor" was soooooo weird. And another doctor said to me, "We clearly did not do right on you last week since you're back in here."

Throughout my confusing and tiring journey through the corridors of the hospital, I felt confronted with a lot of apprehension whenever I heard doctors made these remarks. I kept thinking in response, "If they said that in the US, they'd have a malpractice lawsuit on their hands!" Part of me was relieved to hear the doctors criticize their fellow medical colleagues because it helped me feel like it was not my fault I was in the hospital a second time for the same problem (despite trying really hard to take care of myself). Another part of me, however, felt less sure of the treatment I was getting because of their doubts around their predecessors' treatments on me. Weren't they all working on the same team?

I talked to an Aussie I know in the medical world, and they let me know that Australian-based doctors do joke about how so many things in the US system - in words or actions - would get them sued.

During my stay, locals have questioned me in amazement about the lawsuit culture of the US, and have asked me questions about people living in fear of getting sued, or living with hopes of suing. What is it like to know that no one is safe from the legal hounds?

It is kind of a joke that Americans are so susceptible to lawsuits, I agree. However, as a scared and sick short-stay patient, more votes of confidence from the medical team would have helped me ease my anxiety while I was there. My blood pressure was wild as I battled minor panic attacks, and I felt like I had to think of even more questions to ask before leaving the hospital to make sure that I was getting the right treatment. With little to no sleep all night, making sure that I had asked enough questions was frustrating and only made me more worried.

Also, this is the second time in the last few months (if you recall/heard) where I have had to go to the doctor's office soon for a persistent problem, and the more recent doctor begins to question the actions of the previous doctor, as I was not given the right treatment.

It is so bizarre to miss the American healthcare system while I am in a developed country with a perfectly acceptable medical industry, simply because I am not quite sure the doctors are doing a good job of ensuring my healing process.

Edited note: I understand that doctors in the US likely make as many mistakes as they do in Australia. What I am trying to illustration is that how they express it to me as a patient did not make me feel better, but more anxious. Wording their thoughts differently to me, I suspect, would have given me some more peace of mind while I managed the pain and fear I had.

What I Like Here, Today

I never thought I would ever feel homesick for the US, but right now I am. I have not been silent about this, I know, but I feel that it bears repeating because it is so surprising. I have been meeting up with classmates over the last week who are sharing the homesickness with me - it is nice to know I'm not alone.

I think it is mostly because we are on holiday from school, and Brisbane is (as I have pointed out) a pretty quiet city for broke, car-less young non-married folk. A bunch of us come from louder cities that never close down, and we share our new-found appreciation of the busy-ness of our towns We also share how we are trying to cope with the quietness until schools starts back up. Some of us have taken up baking and crocheting. I myself have bought a coloring book and am practicing bike riding on the bike my CT Lawyer got me. I still ache sometimes for the impromptu and last-minute performance or festival NYC offers at almost all moments of life.

While I am currently fighting the homesickness of being down under for a long time, I thought I would motivate myself by noting some of the local things I have come to love here.

• Vegemite: Well, really, I love Ozemite, which is the gluten free version, but I am still shocked that I can honestly see what Aussies enjoy about salt-lick goo. What is it? Basically yeast paste from the dregs of brewing. Delicious sounding, I know. But if you toast up some bread and spread a lot (a. lot.) of butter on it, and put a pinch of Vegemite on top, it is a tasty toast with a kick.
• Cheese: Alright, I have always loved cheese, but Aussies do cheese really well, guys. Their simple grocery store cheese is scrumptious, and I've discovered Persian Fetta, which is kind of like if soft goat cheese and Greek Feta had a child together. If the world decided I must be vegetarian forever and always, I would be fine with it as long as I can still consume my cheeses.
• EFTPOS: It is probably not a great invention if you lost your credit card or get it stolen, but chips in cards here make shopping much easier, as you simply tap your card on the screen and you're good to go - called EFTPOS. I don't have to sign for things anymore, which really isn't that big of a deal but it can be obnoxious.
• Pawpaw Ointment: Aussies ferment papaya and make it into an ointment that is a less greasy version of Vaseline or A&D gel, and it is awesome. I can put it on almost any kind of discomfort on my skin, and it starts feeling almost immediately better. Even the label states it's for "boils, burns, chafing, cuts, cracked skin, gravel rash, splinters, open wounds, insect bites, and nappy rash." I am not sure I have ever used anything as multi-functional before, and if you know me you probably know how much I love that.
• Quiet Nights: It is nice to come home and know that more often than not, I will be able to fall asleep with only the noises of nature rustling outside of my window. There is something very satisfying about falling asleep not worrying about the downstairs bar releasing the bloodhounds at 2 AM. And there is not even a bar near me, so I am really set on this front.
• Patient Passerby's: While I have been practicing my bike riding, I have really come to appreciate just how patient people here are with me on the road. The cars patiently slow down or stop while I panic and swerve off of the road to avoid impact. And observant pedestrians have walked around me in large arcs onto grassy knolls when I am barreling down park paths (whimpering). I know if I was in NYC practicing, I'd be chewed out by impatient walkers and hit by at least a handful of cars by now, both parked and in motion. I know this because it has happened to me before. Thank you, Brisbane, for having immense patience and compassion for those of us sorry souls who are still learning basic life skills as adults!
• GF Industry: Australia, my CT Lawyer proposed, has a robust gluten free food industry because there is so much wheat in most foods in stores and restaurants. We have posited that it is due to a larger wheat industry comparable to the booming corn industry in the US. Whatever the reason is, though, it means Celiacs like me can get a delicious meat pie for lunch, and lots of decadent chocolate desserts. Well, maybe too many desserts....
• Meat Pies: Also known as pot pies in the US, the Aussies are really big on meat pies. The nice thing that they have mastered pies beyond the American standard chicken pot pie - and really there are very few times over the years I have really wanted a chicken pot pie. But Australian meat pies could be a regular thing for me! Today I had a beef and pale ale (gf) pie at a local bakery, and I would get one again tomorrow if I lived closer. 
• No Snow: Winter here is like a crisp fall in New England. I am not complaining.

The Boyfriend Visits!

My boyfriend (Mr. CT Lawyer) came to visit me from NYC for two glorious, short weeks. It was a sigh of relief to have him with me and share some of my life here, and I am so sad that he could not have stayed here longer. We had never been with each other nonstop for longer than a four-day period, and the two weeks helped us learn more about our relationship and our boundaries in a way that I believe has helped us get closer to each other.

We have already agreed to meet up for the holidays in a few months somewhere (Hawaii? Japan?), though I wish it was sooner.

We had a good amount of down time during his visit, and I realized that my lifestyle here is much quieter than it is when I’m in NYC. This should have been obvious to me before arriving here, but I am still surprised just how different it is from my normal life. We were able to scale all of Brisbane in about three days, and we had another week (and four days up north) to figure out what to do around town. We rented a car so that we could take some road trips around the area and explore the beach towns. We even bought me a bike and he patiently helped me navigate my newly-acquired skill around campus, so that I would have more possible activities to enjoy when he is not around.

What we did figure out to do was great. And having him meet my local friends over dinner and chocolate was comforting.

We shared some pretty fun experiences I think are worthwhile telling.

Cairns & Port Douglas: We took a four-day trip up north towards the tip of Australia, where the tropical rainforests and Great Barrier Reef glisten and shine in the equatorial heat.

Cairns is like a big hippy town that reminds me a bit of Atlantic City. We actually did not spend any time in Cairns once we landed and got our car; honestly it looked like we would not have had as relaxing an experience had we stayed around.

Instead, we made our way an hour further north to a small yet fancy beach resort town called Port Douglas. It had one main drag with the quintessential tourist shops and al fresco restaurants you’d expect in any decent beach town. Little bungalow-like resorts speckled the lush landscape.

We stayed at a colorful gay-friendly resort called the Pink Flamingo, and we could not have had a better experience with the disco music-playing pool area hosting an inflatable flamingo float named Bruce. And, of course, with our large, airy apartment-style room. We spent hours leisurely walking up and down admiring the shops and food options, and took time to relax in our quiet room, recuperating from city life.

Great Barrier Reef: On our second day up north, we headed out on a family-owned reefing boat to visit the Agincourt Reef (on the Outer Reef) and admire one of nature’s biggest successes with some snorkels. The boat had maybe sixty people on it, which meant our day on the water was quiet while we visited three sites (though the water was choppy). We did not end up staying in the water snorkeling very long – he did not feel up to managing the deep waters for too long, and I ended up getting very seasick from swimming in the undulating ocean.

What we did end up seeing was beautiful and worth the sickness and anxiety we felt floating on the Pacific. The colors on the fish right under my feet were unreal (electric pink!), and the intricate curves of the coral and plant life was mesmerizing. I might have felt sick as a dog for most of the time, but I am so glad I was able to witness such incredible natural beauty.

The crew on the ship were also super patient with our sad team of two and helped me feel better with sickness medicine and advice for managing my queasiness. They even kept an eye out for us while we floated in the choppy waters. Even so, I was very happy to be back on land when we returned to port.

Mossman Gorge: A World Heritage Site is only 20 minutes away from our bungalow, so we drove to the Daintree Rainforest area and enjoyed hours walking along the green paths and bridges around the mossy green gorge. (I mean, I was not huge on the swaying bridges part, but that is because I apparently cannot tolerate neither water nor height-centric experiences. Low-level land will do for me just fine.)

I was happy to learn that the area was managed by a local Aboriginal community, and that we were experiencing an area that has been respected for its nature by the locals for a long time.

Australia Zoo: When we returned to Brisbane, we headed off to the Steve Irwin Zoo on a rainy day because I had booked a special experience for us. We walked a wombat! The zoo does a great job keeping the animals active and happy by getting them to socialize with humans and explore other areas of the zoo with walks, and we happily reserved the wombat’s enrichment time for the day.

I have been looking forward to this experience since I arrived in Australia, and it was just as awesome as I had expected it to be, rain and all. We got to the zoo early in the morning and we were brought over to a big, pudgy wombat being trolleyed around in a wagon! Her name was Laura, and she was a fluffy ball of power – she ended up walking the zookeeper and us (not us walking her) for about 30 minutes. She ended up dragging us back to her enclosure when she was done walking us. We got to pet her and see how strong, stubborn, and smart wombats are. I could have squealed the entire time, but I controlled myself.

We also walked around the rest of zoo so that we could feed some kangaroos, espy a jerk cassowary, and get my CT Esquire to do the mandatory holding of a sleepy koala. Despite the rain, our day at the zoo was pleasant! We got to see a lot of animals, which was the point.

Noosa (& Cabarita Beach): What is Australia without its beaches? With our rental car, we drove a few hours north for a brief day visit to one of the prettier beaches in the area called Noosa. The town itself was similar to Port Douglas, but the beach was more dazzling I felt. The beach was lined with a rainforest on one side, and we lounged on the sand for a few hours (well, I napped) and walked around the cliffs of the beach to watch surfers doing their thing as the sun set.

We also went south to Cabarita Beach in New South Wales for another brief beach day. We got to play with some puppies running on a big open beach and relaxed on the cooler rocky shores before getting some delicious seafood. We ate a lot of seafood on his visit, but this one place was particularly tasty.

Wheel of Brisbane: On his last day, we decided to fork over the ludicrous amount of money to sit on the city’s large Ferris Wheel. It was a brief 15-minute ride around the wheel, and my feelings for staying on the ground was reinforced as we dangled from the top of the wheel.

The wheel also showed to me just how quiet Brisbane can be for me. In the 15-minute ride, we had an audio tour of the landscape, and most of the mentioned points of interests made us chuckle and scratch our heads. Why would we need to learn more about a bridge that was used for the filming of “inspector Gadget 2”? That was even a film? When did a convention center become an important part of the city’s history?

I am glad we got to laugh about it all, but it reminds me once more just how much I miss him when he is not with me while I live in my quiet little town city.

I took him to the airport Saturday morning, crying my eyes out as he walked towards the security check point and became my long-distance boy again until Christmastime. I continued to cry as I walked out of the airport and headed to a local food festival, where my friends were waiting to comfort me.

Office Work

I had a fortuitous happening about a month ago with regards to employment. In a serendipitous stroke, someone I know from the water program here (who knows my background and had my resume) had a contact who needed an immediate and flexible consultant for social media on a WASH-related program. The woman called me, and 36-hours of a whirlwind of emails and communication, I became a consultant.

It is a really great opportunity! It is a program directly related to the work I am working towards in my program, and I am getting paid to do some work here and there, which is a relief for my bank account. The women I work with are very knowledgeable and we get along well, and we talk about WASH-related topics while I work on creating their social media presence. It is almost like being in my own personal heaven. I am, surprisingly, learning a lot more about social media and packing away good information about WASH programs I want to research more during my studies here.

Another perk about working in an office setting occasionally is that I get to see Brisbane in a completely new light as a professional, not a student. Being a student, my lens on the city has been more relaxed and youthful. Perhaps even a bit more bohemian. Being a professional, on the other hand, has let me see the more edgy, responsible adult aspects of the city. Waking up for the commute with the rest of the city gives me the chance to see that Brisbane’s rush hour for workers is very similar to how it is in NYC – crowded, somber, and efficient. Getting on the train with everyone else as we blearily power walk to work has reminded me that I am an adult, which I have forgotten a bit while studying.

Though I would say the work atmosphere is much more laid back than in NYC. For example, people relax more during lunch hours (dare I call it lounge?) in a way with which I am almost uncomfortable. I’m used to the rushed lunches of Manhattan, but here people in the office unwind a bit and appear to relish every single minute available for lunch. I wonder, how can people seem so calm?! I think their work-life balance strengths really shone out to me in the office setting. And people are pleasant and chat more in the office where I’m working. They joke and take moments to chat and connect throughout the day. My client even acknowledged a Friday and told me that I should go out and have a life – a comment I was surprised to hear from a non-governmental organization!

I am learning a bit more about other smaller pieces of Aussie culture in the work place. Like the word “Look.” In the US, I feel like when people preface their response with “Look,” it usually means they’re irritated or irked talking with you at the moment, and you’re taking their time in a way they’re rather you didn’t. Here, people use it a lot more in conversation, and for a while I thought I was just skilled at bothering people. But, after talking with Photosynthesis Drew, I’m realizing now I think it’s more like a pause for people when they talk. Kind of like how people can start their sentence with an, “Ummmm…” which seems much more agreeable.

Another thing I have gotten to ask my colleagues about is about dating life in Brisbane. I am not on the market for dating, since I love someone back home, but I am always curious about dating cultures, and here I have felt like it has been invisible to me. It turns out, according to the ladies at work, it’s because this city does not really have a dating culture. Guys are not as aggressive with approaching women (surprisingly), and people often end up staying in relationships from when they were in college or some other young age, and living the simple life of what I call the “Next Step Lifestyle”.

The Next Step Lifestyle means going through the normal Western lifestyle of finding a partner in the early twenties, getting a stable job, getting hitched, buying a house, having a dog and/or child. Apparently this lifestyle is huge in Australia. The women at work grumbled about their unfulfilled love lives and unconventional lifestyles, and I realized that it’s true that I have not really ever seen people newly dating here or courting – most people I know are already in long-term relationships or are planning to move out of dodge to some other glorious country.

The funny thing about Australia, in addition to everything else I’ve ever written about since I moved here, is that it kind of feels like a parallel universe of the US. So much of this place is eerily similar (even identical) to the US, yet there are certain pieces and aspects that are clearly not the same as what we have stateside. In a sense, that is what is making me feel most homesick while I’m here – I am feeling comfortable enough yet certain things I want as a result I am unable to get, which is both bewildering and frustrating.

Adventures in the Hospital

I have been delinquent in writing blogs, and I hope to rectify that this week. I have been working a lot (as in, working a consulting job…more on that later), and my boyfriend has come to visit me from the US for the last two weeks (also more on that later). And other excuses. But I think I will first start with a little experience I had last night.

I don’t think my body likes Australia very much. I’ve gone to doctor offices quite a lot the last few months because of health snafus that have cropped up – things that have been peculiar and “first ever” problems for me – a bit too close together on the timeline.

My boyfriend left yesterday morning, and despite crying a lot I felt fine. By 7pm I started feeling the hints of something not quite right, and I went to the doctor’s office before they closed to get some medicine. By 9:30pm, I had gotten antibiotics but was feeling worse quickly, and was calling nurse hotlines to see if the swift progression was normal. By midnight I was in amazing pain and driven to the Emergency Room at the nearest public hospital by my roommate (Ecuadorean Monica) and admitted.

If you must know, it was all for a UTI. Normally, those are not too big of a deal…but I don’t know if I’ve ever had such an aggressive UTI before! I was peeing blood redder than I had ever seen before, hence the hospital adventure late on a Saturday night.

I have been to the hospital a bunch of times in recent years for others, but I had never gone to the hospital for myself as an adult. In fact, the last time I was in a hospital for myself was when I was dragged there as a teenager while on a mission trip in San Francisco because of a UTI (I swear I do not get them often!).

The public hospital I was in was like any other public hospital I have visited in the US – in design, décor, and system. I was put in a dressing down and plopped on a bed in a large room lined with semi-private bed areas for other fellow patients and scurrying medical staff. They strapped a wrist band on me with my basic information and a bar code. That was comforting for me, to know that in some ways modern medicine has made it easy to transfer ailments from one national hospital system to the next. The doctors were all pleasant, but obviously tired – it was, after all, a Saturday night in an urban area with a heavy drinking culture. I was honored to witness many sloppy drunks wheeled in while throwing strong and belligerent slurred words to the patient medical staff.

Because it was busy, and I was only peeing blood, I was not given priority, so I waited for 3 hours to be seen. My roommate thought I had been forgotten, but I could tell I probably was not forgotten, as a hospital bed is high-cost real estate in busy hospitals. Monica was patient and chatted with me about life and politics and healthcare for hours and hours, while I texted my boyfriend and friends about my well-being and status of the last red colors that had painfully come out of me. It was difficult to stay awake, waiting for someone to see me, and I did not feel like badgering the clearly weary staff. While I was in pain, I waited, thinking about the experience and the questions I wanted to ask.

Last month I had gotten first aid certification training and felt a minor urge to walk up to the busy nurses and declare my competencies in first aid, in hopes to maybe even be some help. They were busy, though.

The medication given to me hours before was delayed in working my complicated body. Halfway through my hospital visit, though, the medicine finally appeared to do some good, and the blood was getting less obvious and the pain started to dull a bit. I started going to the nurses about 2.5 hours in asking if I could leave now as the pain and blood had subsided a bit, but they refused. Because of the blood, they wanted to check me for kidney issues before I was released. I sighed and waddled back to the bed in my over-sized gown. For anyone in the hospital who saw my behind last night when I tried to negotiate the nurses, you’re welcome.

It is amusing to me that lately when Aussie doctors hear the medications I have taken in the past for similar things, they have consistently responded with, “Oh, that pill is a bit outdated…” I wonder sometimes if outdated medications, then, stay in the US because of the expensiveness of American healthcare, or because they’re the “tried and true” medicines. All I care about is that whatever they gave me yesterday, though I ended up in the hospital, have been working at last.

The hospital was a bit of a hike from where I live. There are a lot of hospitals here, and even one that is three minutes from my house. A lot of them, however, are private and are super expensive and not covered by my overseas health coverage. I think it is odd that there are not a lot of public hospitals in the area, especially since the city has been rapidly growing over the last few years. I asked Kylie why this was the case, and while she noted the hospitals outside of the city, she mentioned that there were some budget cuts that have made it harder for the current public hospitals to accommodate everyone. Having watched the zoo that was the hospital last night, I think that might be a good place to put money back in, guys. 

Though I know this is a challenge in a lot of the world, and I am mulling over what kind of solutions there could possibly be to make people peeing blood able to peacefully get out of the hospital before 3am.

Don’t worry, I am fine now. I’m sore and not 100%, but the kidneys are functioning alright and the antibiotics have been working. And now I know where the hospital is!