Tales from the Hospital - Number One
By Gus Kilthau
@Ceerios (4698)
Goodfellow, Texas
June 5, 2017 1:31pm CST
Tales from the Hospital - Number One -
I just finished reading a post by my namesake, "Gus," in which he wrote about his continuing fears with the multiple surgeries he had undergone. Understandable.
I have had some surgeries, and you always get a little wiggle around your stomach when you are about to allow some masked person to stick knives into you and mess around inside. Scary stuff - always.
I remember one time they poked around on my belly. It turned out to be kinda fun. Scared the "Willies" out of the good doctor - the one with the knife and fork in his hands.
There I was, laid out onto the table, bright lights shining down ( unseen by me at the time ), and some sort of a towel raised up over my chest to prevent me from sneezing all over my innards. The docs had just about finished their rearranging my insides and were sewing me back together once again.
I felt a bit of a tickle as they stitched. So I raised up and looked over the top of that towel deal and, in my usual big-mouth manner, asked whoever it was doing the tickling and the sewing, "What's going on down there?"
The top doc yelled out to the nurse (or to the techie, or the person with the knock-out drops ), "ZAP HIM."
They zapped me really good, too. I think that I woke up in a bed on the ward a day or so later.
Now in these years later, I am surprised that I remember this stuff.
Image: Surgery - Gus Kilthau
6 people like this
6 responses
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36847)
• Pamplona, Spain
5 Jun 17
Sorry that happened to you Gus.
Not a nice thing to find yourself there under those bright lights.
One I had was not very nice but he saved my newborn Son´s life with his very quick action but was very abrupt and rude with me myself as I was very scared.
I had to have a C/Section done in the end all very quick but very scary for me at least.
Nurse stroked my hair as she put me to sleep she was nice.
2 people like this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36847)
• Pamplona, Spain
6 Jun 17
@Ceerios
Now I get you.
It must have been more scary for you than most then being on the other end of it all instead of "dishing it all out" as you say.
2 people like this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
6 Jun 17
@lovinangelsinstead21 - I do not remember thinking about it that way, but you make a good point. It often hurts a lot to see another person hurting. -Gus-
2 people like this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
6 Jun 17
@lovinangelsinstead21 - Hospital stuff... Mostly I was on the "dishing out" side of things and so being a receiver I just figured it was about my turn,My first night of work in a hospital came about when I was but 18 years old. Did many other things in life, but finally left medical work at the age of 76. (You could possibly consider that I liked hospital work...) 
- Gus-
- Gus-2 people like this
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
5 Jun 17
Zap him? hahahhaha
What the heck is a zapper?
What the heck is a zapper?2 people like this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
5 Jun 17
@TiarasOceanView - In this situation, the "Zapper" is the person who squirts the "go back to sleep" stuff into your vein. He or she did so. I don't remember anything after that until I heard the voice of the ward nurse sometime later. Fun and games are normal in the hospital, and that's a fact. -Gus-
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@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
5 Jun 17
@Ceerios Well I am glad they took care of it Gus. To wake up, sit up, and ask what is going on down there is hilarious..I bet they were laughing their heads off lol
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@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
5 Jun 17
@TiarasOceanView - It scared the socks off of the lot of them. I saw that much on the doc's face when it came about, but they talked to me about it later, too. -Gus-
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@KrauseHome (36445)
• United States
6 Jun 17
Surgery is no fun. Especially this last one that I just had. It can be a little scary due to the Fear of the unknown and seriously, I hope this is the last one I ever have to have.
2 people like this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
6 Jun 17
@KrauseHome - Scared... I am scared of bugs - but they are "known" things, some of which bite. Surgery? Not so much since surgery is now "old stuff" to me. 
-Gus-
-Gus-
. Certainly not the food. Incredible that you managed to survive so long in this hostile environment@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
5 Jun 17
@topffer - Hello "Digger" - I was hospitalized from October of one year until the end of January, the following year. Many adventures and misadventures are stuck up there 'twixt my two ears.Kind of like "Gus versus the needles, the nurses, the food, etc." unfortunately still resident in my mind. As you suggest, I am not surprised at remembering those days and those events. The only benefit of all of that is probably the remaining ability to "spin" some funny tales about it all. -Gus-
2 people like this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
6 Jun 17
@topffer - Hello once again, "Digger" - What was amazing to me was that I was still alive following that long hospital stay. The worst part of it, I suppose, was having to exist on intravenous feedings because I was not allowed any kind of food in my tummy. I weighed 105 pounds when I left the hospital - down from around 160-170 pounds,
It was a US Navy hospital that had me as their captive and for the practicing of their docs. The Air Force sent a pair of their finest from the Pentagon over to check on me one time - to make sure that the Navy was doing right by one of their boys. After their visitation, I noticed that the needles used to jab my hide were no longer those old dull and rusty needles. (Only kidding, but it did seem that things were a wee bit kinder and gentler. )
The photo above this post is one I made at one of the USAF hospitals in which I worked prior to the Navy hospital deal, The surgeon on the right side of the photo was my boss at the time, and the other guy was a techie like me. They were actually working on the patient at the time. The film used in the photo was regular black and white film. The photo was one I hand colored using photo coloring pencils. (era 1960 or so ) I am glad now that I scanned the photo and kept the image. -Gus-
2 people like this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
6 Jun 17
@lillywriter - To some degree, almost any stay as a patient in a hospital can be a "horror story." -Gus-
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
5 Jun 17
@jaboUK - Ms Janet - I do not like to disagree with you, nor would I characterize my thoughts from so long ago to be those of "having fun," but that whole thing was very funny - and so was the aftermath (when I was awakening at last) . During the process, there was no fun at all. -Gus-
1 person likes this
