This is probably one of the most annoying kinds of pain, it totally threw me off for the last few days. I was changing in the morning about to head to work when I stretched my arm in one direction to put the undershirt on while trying to stick my hand in another way. It looks like a complicated procedure but I was trying to get the cloths on quick, when I heard a certain click and then pain. Seems I moved my arms in a directions that didn’t agree with my torso and neck, so now I can’t turn my neck completely to the right without feeling a ridiculous amount of pain.
This resulted in me being not completely functional, I went to work but moving my neck around is annoying. I feel like I look like a damn ostrich in the position I’m holding my neck so I can move it comfortably. Deep heat and Vicks were my first option with some Tylenol throw into the mix which helped but didn’t completely fix it. The annoying part is I know that it takes a couple of days to heal, but a friend was telling me to take some muscle relaxants and he said it would make me a bit drowsy/dizzy so I would chill at home when I take it. Its annoying that nothing can be done to solve this ailment.
Its a little while since I went for a check up, at least some blood work to see whats going with me. So I decided to go to BuHamra Clinic just off of fourth ring road while entering Salmiya. I was going for a full check of everything you can think off that would can be made from a blood and urine sample. The whole thing didn’t take more then 45 minutes with the preliminary results. Overall everything turned out to be good, I thought my cholesterol might be off the charts due to eating so much meat but it wasn’t bad, and my iron level was a little on the high side but thats better then being on the low side. The Clinic is owned by Dr. Mohammed Buhamra who is a famous dermatologist, but this was just a check up so I didn’t need to see him. Some tests will be sent to Paris and the results will be out in about 8 days and then I won’t have to do another check up in a while. At least my blood test doesn’t seem I’m overweight, it says I’m in pretty good health.
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I was walking down the stairs the other day and I heard a click in my left knee, just above my knee cap and something felt oddly wrong. I think I placed my foot slightly in one direction and the knee didn’t rotate correctly so there was that click. Later on as I was walking I felt some pain in my left knee, felt like shooting pain through my knee. Even when I was laying down something just felt odd about that joint, I wasn’t sure what was causing the pain but I could clearly feel it. Even when I would walk quickly it felt like my knee is going to bend in the other direction, and this is probably the weekend which I moved the least so I’m not sure what physical activity caused this little problem, but I know I need to get back in shape and this pain is ridiculously annoying.
I got this form when we first landed and there was a lot of warning about making sure that we do the check up. I don’t even know how they want to cross check all the people traveling so they make sure they don’t have the H1N1 virus. Its a 50 KD fine or a 1 month jail time if you don’t follow up with one of the clinics designated in the back. I left it to the last day and head toward Sabah Al Salem since I am in the Hawally Area, I found it fairly easily and its relatively close. Once we went in, my friend knew where to go, there was a lady at the register I gave her my form and my Civil ID. She said this is Sabah Al Salem, you live in Mishref so you must go to Rumaithiya. I told her I called before and they said its fine, and the airport said any of the ones in your Area, and today is my last day. She said no, so I told her, your name is “something something” and I will be reporting you to the police for refusing to check if I have the Pig Flu and that if I am jailed I will be filing damages against you. She said fine, and took my paper wrote my name down and the Egyptian gentlemen in the room stood up and point a little red laser to my forehead to take my temperature which took all in all about 30 seconds but the arguing took 10 minutes. She was rude and it wouldn’t have taken too much time, and what would have happened if someone didn’t argue like I did, bureaucracy is annoying as hell.
Didn’t get much sleep the last night it was pretty messed up but happily the pain was lessening by morning. I was awake in bed pretty much flipping from side to side from 4 am to 8 am. When to Mubarak hospital with my friend, got an XRay of my leg, hip and back area to see what exactly was going on. The Doc asked me a couple of questions, and put on some gloves, put some pressure and made me do some movements. Turned out to be inflammation of a ligament and I did something about 72 hours ago, which I would probably relate to water activities. He just told me to take it easy for the day and relax and gave me something for the pain, there isn’t much I can do for it except some physical therapy at a later point.
Right about in the afternoon I got some strange feeling in my left leg, just ignored it and kept doing what I was doing. Later on in the day towards 3:30 pm the pain got worse, and its a strange feeling. It didn’t feel like a joint or muscle pain, it was a strange throbbing pain the increased or decreased in pain. I was doing anything suddenly I would feel a shooting pain at the top of my left leg, and if I stood it made no difference, I tried walking it off but that didn’t help much. Later on the evening the pain increased to a immobilizing amount, I couldn’t really ignore it since it would stop me from walking and I would lean on the wall. I called up a friend and he told its one of a few things which I couldn’t remember their names, but he said its probably tendinitis and if that’s the case then I should just rest, if it consists until next morning I should come in to have it checked out. Based on his recommendation I put some deep heat and I’m hoping to pass out, but it was really annoying.
We were sitting watching TV after dinner Friday night, five of us were enjoying the show, I heard a hard not and it was one of the staff of the house. He told me Anthony, a young house boy, slipped and hit his head and he is bleeding. Got up and asked where he was, luckily the dewaneya is in the basement, went to staff bathroom and the cook was coming out from behind the door with a holding a towel to the young man’s head and his shirt and face was drenched in blood.
Told them we are going to the hospital now, had my wallet and phone on me, I took the spare key to the Landcruiser. Asked Z to come with me to the hospital, I asked about his civil ID but the young man wasn’t answering, he was in shock. We took him to the Landcruiser outside, and got him in, Z got in the front, other people in the house were looking for his civil ID. We took off, I called S and asked him to bring the Civil ID with him. I kept talking to him while we were driving to make sure he was conscious because he was still bleeding a lot, and no time for an ambulance. Got on Fahaheel Expressway (30) and we head to Al Hady hospital, and I was going as fast as possible, flashers on, Z called the doctors he knew to see who was in the hospital at 10:30 pm on a Friday night. We got to Al Hady Hospital and from the door they refused as entry saying they are a private hospital and they don’t accept causalities. We got back in the car and took off to Mubarak Hospital, it took us two minutes, and even when I was trying to get through there was a woman trying to argue when she wanted to get her car out of parking, I couldn’t care less at this point. I kept talking to him to make sure he was awake and not passed out.
We got to hospital, called for one of the wheel chairs, Z went in with him while I parked the car at any spot. Went back in running, Z took him to the Emergency room doctor on with wheel chair without paperwork and the cook was still holding a cloth to his head which was now completely red. The patient was inside was in shock and didn’t say anything say anything about us barging in. He signed his paper and said that he must have an X-Ray first before surgery to check for head trauma. We went straight to X-Ray and skipped the people there as well, you can see the look of shock on their faces. We went in gave the paper, and his name wasn’t even on the paper, but by that time S and B arrived with his civil ID. We wrote his name but the X-Ray Doctor refused to take him saying that he is covered in blood and should be cleaned up by surgery before coming for an X-Ray I was about to blow up and I told him he is hurt and I don’t care if I clean it up area, the doctor told us to come here first. Z told me not to argue, we went to the surgery area got him a bandage across the whole, wound and this was the first time I saw the wound. It was at least four inches in length, from the side of his right eye all the way across the middle of his forehead. We then went straight back to the X-Ray department, then again another doctor said that he needed to be completely cleaned at this point I wouldn’t leave and we all got in his face until he decided to do the X-Ray. I went in with him, helped him up form the wheel chair on to the bench for the X-Ray, he asked what happened with obnoxious tone I said that he fell and slipped in the bathroom, he then said “are you sure he slipped in the bathroom?” I answered right away saying yes, before I registered his tone. I waited outside, and the Doctor spoke to him in Arabic, I told him he doesn’t speak Arabic, and if he needs I could speak to him in English. At this point I was standing outside waiting and I want to rip that doctors’ throat out for being so rude and uncaring. After the X-Ray the guys waited for the X-Ray while me and Z went to the surgery room, walked in and waited since there are two rooms and both were occupied. The young man was aware of his surroundings at this point, that was a good sign, then we went into one room and got him on the table. One munaqabah was outside arguing with the nurses about her head scarf being too tight, which preoccupied the nurses before one could come into the room. I was there and the doctor was waiting for the nurse. I asked the doctor to give him a lot of local anesthetic so that he wouldn’t feel any pain. I explained everything to him while he was on the table as it was happening, this is a very scary situation for him and it was his first time in a hospital in Kuwait, and hopefully his last. When the nurse came in he went to clean the wound right away and I told him it will burn, then I told him not to move while they inserted the local anesthetic into his wound and it was about 9 times and I could tell he was afraid because he was shivering. I asked the doctor again to make sure that he doesn’t feel the stitching as it was happening, I know how it felt from previous injuries. I kept talking and I was asked to step out by the nurse, so I did.
I waited outside about 25 mintues, the other nurse saw his X-Ray and asked a few questions, luckily there was no head trauma or other damages, by that time the mandoob came and waited with us. They wheel him out and he looked better, his was was cleaned and was awake, we went back to the emergency doctor to get the medication for him, antibiotics and pain killers. I asked the nurse it was 15 stitches and she said that was a lot, its going to be on for 10 days before they remove it and bandages changed at the local clinic every two days. The mandoob took him back home after checking with the doctor while we finished up some of the paper work, hamdilla it was taken care of. We got the medication and paid the fees, and I’m happy the admin in the front desk help us in the beginning and thanked them. Went home and my friends headed home, gave the medication told him to rest for the next couple days.
Next morning I got up, checked on him and he was resting he had a headache but the pain killers helped. I then got in my Landcruiser and took it to Al Falah Car Wash since the back seats and floor were covered in blood. After a little while my car was nice and clean, went home and rested all of Saturday.
Over the past couple of months I have been frequenting hospitals, sometimes in the ICU and other times in different wards. I don’t know how much longer Kuwait can go on like this without having a new hospital. All these hospitals just refurbishing the front of the building and taking donations for the wards on all the different floors. Amiri hospital has been fixing its wing for the past two years and the same thing for the elevator without any results, does it really take that long? I have to say that there are some really good doctors in the hospitals but you can even tell they are mistreated, and they bring in mediocre doctors from outside of Kuwait for the sake of quantity and on contract so they can use them as they please. The worst is the Ministry with their permits, there are private hospitals who want to get better equipment but they aren’t given the permit for it even though it is extremely beneficial for all people, I have heard of private institutions in Kuwait who works in government doctors to scan their patients at their facilities when its an important case or the wait is too long at the government facilities, an example is the MRI scanner, a private institution wants to pay for a high end MRI scanner but the government won’t let them for one reason or another except the same as their’s which is of lower quality, a high quality MRI scanner means better details and being able to see things clearer.
The nursing is another blunder which is appalling in Kuwait, the most important part of the successful surgery is the recovery which involves nursing and their is no adequate nurse training in Kuwait or advanced care.
I think all this frustration stems from what I have been dealing with as well as the cases I see in front of me when I am in the hospital. Most hospitals feel like military bunkers with tiny windows and are depressing in Kuwait. Politics takes a precedence over real medical care and you can see that clearly but for how much longer.
This throat thing has developed to be really annoying, I sleep at odd times due to the strength of the antibiotics. Went to the dentist for the third time this week to have this tooth work done, and there is a horrible after taste. For a whole 48 hours I couldn’t taste anything but that horrible taste, as if there is Clorox in my mouth, and that makes you nauseous.
In the first stages of this infection it was pretty bad but after Mubarak Hospital and the new antibiotics it was improving at about 15 – 20% rate, but now that has dropped down to 3-5% rate. At least the lump under my chin has shrunk, but sometimes in the morning it gets worse but thats the course that I’m faced with. The most annoying thing I think is this type of pain, its like a constant pain throughout the day, like a constant beep just behind the eye which causes a headache and it originates from the jaw, its a strange description. Its like there is a bunch of marbles stuck on the left side of my jaw under my tongue. These meds are doing the job but the side affects can be felt, and nausea and keeping food down is an issue, but I’m hoping this will end soon since it has been sometime now.
 
I woke this morning with a throbbing pain in my head, I thought that I was done with the tooth abscess after the dental work, and for the most part it was the case.
Until in the morning I couldn’t open my mouth let alone talk. The gland grew to a huge degree, I took the meds and waited for an hour for it to take affect but there was no improvement. I called up my friend and we went to Embarak Hospital, with a few X-Rays it turns out the the procedure was good but the bacteria was working on my gland. At this point they said no surgery was needed so they put me on an IV with two types of antibiotics and one pain killer. Its really sad to see the state of things in Embarak Hospital and the lack of facilities they have. Some of the X-Ray machines were here since before the 1990.Â
I’m just happy that the meds took affect and were helping the pain stop for a little while. The inflamation has decreased a little and I’m feeling a little dizzy, but at least I can talk now unlike in the morning.Â
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