Sunday, January 01, 2006

The Saga of Cookie's leg

Cookie has been having a bit of a bum Christmas. She was playing badminton with us on Christmas day and pulled a muscle in her calf. We decided she should come and stay with us to recuperate since she couldn't walk properly. Poor thing only had the couch downstairs because it would be more difficult to negotiate the stairs everyday. At least downstairs there was a toilet and the kitchen, and the front door, outside of which she could have a fag! As opposed to proper bed and shower upstairs. Hmm what a choice. Anyway, her leg got briefly better after a tortuous trip to a chinese doctor. Her foot could go flat on the ground after that. But somehow her leg started to swell a couple of days later. Maybe it was because we took her for a walk to BSC for lunch at Esquire Kitchen.

Anyway,on New Year's eve - or rather on New Year's day because it was already 1a.m. by then, we thought we should take her to the hospital.

Fanda, Webby and I drove to Pantai Hospital, which was our nearest A&E. The doctor there suggested that Cookie be admitted for tests. He suggested an x-ray and when she was admitted, the orthopedic surgeon would come and take a look at her. Cookie didn't want to be admitted but since the doctor advised it, we thought that it would be a good idea to get it checked out properly. Being admitted, she would also get immediate attention from the Orth (sounds like some creature from Lord of the Rings, doesn't it), rather than wait til Tuesday for his clinic. Fanda kindly put his credit card down for a 3K deposit, but got a bit upset with the admissions nurse, who wanted him to basically underwrite all costs for Cookie. The admissions nurse didn't explain what costs were incurred and was rather rude. Maybe she was pissed off that she had to work on New Year's day. But there is no excuse for rudeness. Cookie and I were secretly rather impressed with his putting his foot down. Our chivalrous knight in shining jacket!

Anyway, while Fanda fought with the admission process, Webby and I went home to collect Cookie's stuff. We returned to the hospital, passed her her bag and cookie monster, said our farewells, promised to visit in the morning and left. We dropped Fanda at KL Sentral and went home. Just as we drove up to our house, Cookie rang to say that actually we could come and pick her up because she was checking out. The Orth appeared and said that she needed an MRI and that wasn't available until Thursday so she might as well go home til then.

So we went back to the hospital to pick her up. An x-ray, one pair of crutches and about RM500 later, we managed to leave. By the time we got home, it was already past 4 a.m. We finally slept around 5. It was a rather novel way to bring in the new year!

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