Hospital Gossip

You can't stay in a hospital for more than two weeks and not notice something. Like for example, in my mind I have conjured a hierarchy of hospital doctors. I figured the interns are the mini slaves of the residents. The residents, who are a little too obnoxious for my taste fall below the fellows. The fellows are like the personal assistants of the "real" doctors or the attending doctors, as some other people put it.



I pity the mini-slaves the most. They don't sleep through the night only to hold bandages, tapes, and occasionally, my daughter's legs (if they're lucky and I'm feeling generous to let them).

There are two sets of residents who visit my daughter. We have the pedia residents, who, I think, toss coins before they come to our room. It seems like my daughter's reputation of being "difficult" during IV line insertions preceded her that they developed a strong aversion to that task. The unfortunate ones are Dr. Sweet-and-pretty-face. She tries to be gentle to my daughter but in her unlucky days she wastes an average of 5 syringes before she could get a good line. The nurse and I often gossip abut her engagement ring and her fiance who happened to be another resident. Then there is Dr. Hayden-Kho-Look-alike. It's given that he's good looking and I heard he's got connections too. Someone from his family is a premier doctor in the hospital, if I'm not mistaken. He's a real pain in the a** though! He bickers at the nurses and he's grumpy 95% of the time. I only saw him soften up one time. Someone called from his cellphone (his girlfriend, I think) and he was trying to be really quiet but I heard him nonetheless when he said "I love you" to the other person.

The other set of residents are from the surgery department. They are like a pack of wolves attacking our room at the ungodly hour of 6 am! It would have been alright but they would always come when we have just slept or when I'm having a really good dream and I'd wake up to the sight of them all staring at me and my daughter. The "leader" of the pack always talks to me and I have grown a slight crush on him even if we all talk about is poop, and poop, and even more poop. I swear, if we get to talk about pee I'd definitely fall head over heels in him!

Now, we have another 2 sets of fellows. Fellows from our Pedia-gastro and fellows from the neo-natal care. We had to take on a Neo-natal care doctor too because Mischa's been having episodes of high fever and melena. Anyway, I like the fellow from the neo-natal care unit. They are so gentle and they seem to really like my daughter. I also had some chats with one fellow about some books, apparently we read similar books (and I wonder how she ever got the time to do that! Amazing, right?). On the other hand, I am not so pleased with our Pedia-gastro's fellows. One is Chinese (I have to be clear that I have nothing against the Chinese) and he's so emotionally detached that I feel like he sees my daughter as merely a case. Apart from that, his Chinese accent is so heavy I can only stare at him and understand 20% of what he said. The other fellow, Dr. Little-Ms.Bubbly, is that--Too bubbly! She's so chirpy and cheerful even during the surgery and especially when she was confirming that our daughter has Biliary Atresia that I had to really restrain myself from smacking her and possibly hurting her. I've gone used to it though so I guess her over-cheerfulness is alright.

The attending doctors are very kind and I cannot stress that enough. Our Pedia-Gastro visits Mischa even at midnight and I am not complaining. When Mischa's blood work-ups were very bad, she lead a prayer for our little girl and I couldn't help but cry. I have been doing well preventing myself from crying-- until then. I guess, her compassion for our baby was just so overwhelming for me. The attending Pediatrician from Neo-natal care is very sweet, and mellow, and she dresses nice too! I guess I could learn a thing or two from her. She dresses casually, boho chic actually, and she smiles a lot and she talks so softly, I couldn't ever imagine her getting angry. Lastly, the pedia-surgeon, he's an average height but thin man who reminds me a little of Mandark, Dexter's arch-nemesis in Dexter's Lab. He visits everyday, which I greatly appreciate and I think he's a little too pleased with himself. I can't blame him though, the Kasai seems successful and I won't contradict him even if he says he's the most good looking pedia-surgeon (which I don't completely agree).

When I'm not thinking too much about the infections, and the antibiotics, and the IV lines I enjoy watching these characters play. They are like a bunch of misfits, each unique in his or her own way, but together they fit like a puzzle  to form a picture that is my Mischa's recovery.

P.S.
Mischa and I were singing and dancing before she finally fell asleep. It seems like she enjoys my singing  (thank God!) and she likes dancing (Just like her Ate Sophia).