day 4: the blood, the implant, and the doctor

We are at the Red Cross office in Tramo by 7:30 am, waiting for it to open.  We have a cooler with ice in it. Fortunately, they have two units of Type O+ blood, exactly what we need.  I thank all the gods in heaven, and promise to be a better girl after this.  We had to bring the blood to Orthopedic Center within one hour, and we have to be careful not to shake it.  We had a companion who was a former taxi driver.  It felt like we navigated side streets which weren't even on the map, but we got there in time.  (Another item to add to my thank-you list.)  I don't know how fast blood spoils, or what will happen if got shaken, but after all the stress and running around from the previous day, I wasn't willing to risk it.

I had to detour to the blood collection office.  I wasn't going to gloat over my two bags of blood, but I was curious about how many people would be in the queue, just in case we weren't able to find blood.  There were about fifty people in line.  Had we been able to find donors, they'd balk at the prospect of being at the hospital by 7:00 am, just to be first in queue on a workday.  I could have hugged my two bags of blood.

The blood is in the blood bank.  Our former taxi driver companion was supposed to have friends inside Orthopedic who could direct us to suppliers of the implant that we need, so we could check for possible discounts.  We couldn't find the friends, so he took us to suppliers.  The implant costs P56,000.00.  I had the money, we couldn't get a discount, so we were ready to buy.  The supplier said they only release the implant a day before surgery, and we have to show the doctor's clearance.  Nobody at the hospital told us that.  The supplier asked about the doctor's schedule for surgeries.  Nobody at the hospital would give me that information, so the supplier asked their agent there to check the schedule.  The supplier suggested that we go back to the hospital, find the doctor, and inform him that we are ready for surgery, so that he can give the order to initiate the clearance.

I couldn't get the nurses to give me the doctor's contact information.  They keep telling us to just wait for the doctor to make his rounds so we could tell him, but they won't tell us when he was going to visit next.  I asked to speak to the doctor on duty, but he just said, "If I see him, I'll tell him."  I was losing my temper, and I'll be damned if I'll leave the hospital without finding a way to let the doctor know.  All that effort to find the blood, raise the money, and buy the implant, only to be told that we have to wait for the doctor to visit?

Ate Malou is still in the corridor, waiting for someone to get discharged so she could get a bed.  Her leg is still lying on a pillow, waiting for a traction to become available.

I prepared three handwritten notes, all saying that we are requesting that the doctor be informed that this patient is ready for surgery, and that we are just waiting for his clearance.  I taped one note to the foot of the nanny's bed, asked that one copy be pasted in her chart at the nurse's station, and carried the third note to the emergency room.  I flirted with the security guard so he could let me take a look at the emergency room schedule, and there I learned that the doctor was supposed to be in the Outpatient Department that day.  I went there, encountered a hundred people on queue for OPD, and encountered a few angry words for getting ahead of all the people in line.  All I wanted was for the OPD nurses to pin my note somewhere the doctor would see it if he came in.  They wouldn't.  They said it isn't done that way.  I insisted, and in the meantime I was suffering from dagger looks and snide remarks, and I was ready to distribute some more broken bones.  The nurse came out, saw that I wasn't leaving without any answers, and she told me that the doctor would be on duty the following day, and I should come back then to give him my note.  It was impossible to reason with them.

I went back to Ate Malou, said sorry, but I couldn't find the doctor.  But I had made sure that the message would reach him, in whatever limited way my love notes would work.  I have to go back to my daughters, who were in the neighbor's care again.  I will be back tomorrow.