2015-12-19
【Aiden in English】
Everyone in the Greater Philadelphia area is familiar with CHOP, considering the name already includes "des "Philadel" hia." Based on what my mom tells me, I've been here since I was admitted to its Emergency Room at about two years old due to a fever of 108oF/42.2oC. This time around wasn't much better. The fever I had, which reached 104oF/40oC just today, has lasted for 10 days. And so, it's nice to meet you again. From what Mom keeps telling me, I'll be here until the morning. It could be true if it were a little later than o'clock, as I rushed into this ER. Unfortunately, I can't spend six hours determining what bacteria are infecting me if bacteremia is diagnosed from the blood culture, or what virus is so invasive that my immune system has been compromised over the past ten days. Anyway, tonight should provide some answers on why I am still sick despite a standard X-ray and no other typical flu symptoms. Pediatric medicine did nearly nothing. It temporarily stopped the fever when I took Advil, a fever reducer. As soon as the medication was gone, I was burning up as usual. The fever became worse, too. SSA wasn't even lasting four hours. On the first day of fever, I took one 200 mg pill of Advil and felt fine for the entire day. After the meds, I needed around four pills a day, and the fever was still up there; I couldn't bring it down anymore. I went to see my pediatric doctor on Day 5 and was given 500 mg of Azithromycin daily. At the time, Dr. Galena instantly thought I might be suffering from a bacterial infection because the fever had lasted longer than the viral flu could account for. After a 3-day course of antibiotic treatment, the fever returned. Mom had to pull me out of school for one day, which piled on a lot of work. As she noted that my pants weren't working, she decided to go CHOo'clock in the evening. The emergency room I was in was simple, with a bed and three chairs. A bunch of hospital supplies was located behind me. Five hundred nurses came and went, each giving me something small or checking my temperature, and hadn't dropped, even though I alternatively took 650 mg of Tylenol and 400 mg of Motrin for 6 hours. I put on two blankets and still felt like I was in the Arctic Circle in the room. My body was like a microwave, and they didn't seem a bit worried. That bothered me because either they were missing something, or this was normal, which was not for me. At around midnight, I got an IV line in my right arm. The blood was drawn for C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in addition to the comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP) and the complete blood count (CBC). We won't describe it; let's leave it as it hurts—a lot. But I guess Mom was right about one thing. The process was going to take until three in the morning. The doctor returned two hours later while I was sipping some electrolyte-boosted Gatorade that tasted like poop and watching the college football replay of yesterday's game. My CRP and ESR behaved normally, except for the fact that the virus was going through me. With the perfect results for both inflammatory markers, I might have a simple, everyday viral syndrome, excluding Epstein–Barr Virus, Which Wasn't worth going through all the trouble to come here. Mom said it was "just in case" kind of thing. Well, "just in case" you don't know, I'm still alive, and the virus is quite normal up to date, and I'm not going to Chinese school today because the doctors said so. 【紅霞譯】
在大費城地區，費城兒童醫院可謂家喻戶曉，人們顧名思義，單從名稱上就能鎖定它的地理位置。據媽媽所述，我在不到兩歲時曾因華氏108／攝氏42.2度的高燒而被送進該家急診室；十年後恰逢相似的冬季，本人健康狀況再度堪憂，這回雖說體溫僅有華氏104／攝氏40度，但到目前為止高燒已持續了十天之久，正因如此，我才會與費城兒童醫院不期而遇。
媽媽有言在先，時鐘若不指向凌晨三點，我休想出院離開這裡，誰叫我晚上九點多鐘才來急診室報到。如果患上菌血症，六個小時不足以完成血樣培養，弄不清哪種病原菌也就談不上確診一說；假若懷疑病毒感染，要找出過去十天來肆無忌憚破壞我免疫功能的病灶絕非一朝一夕的事情，總之，今晚我起碼可以得出專家診斷，為什麼胸部透視正常、沒有咳嗽鼻塞等一般性感冒症狀卻仍然發燒不止。兒科藥物對我幾乎不起作用，布洛芬只不過暫時降溫，藥效一過，我立馬又像先前那樣發起燒來，而且越燒越高；沒吃多久，降溫藥效甚至達不到四個小時。第一天發燒時，我只要口服一片布洛芬就能頂住全天；漸漸地，每天連用四片都撐不過來；再往後熬，即使吃了也不管用。發燒第五天，我去看了兒科醫生，格利納大夫一聽說發燒天數，不管三七二十一即刻開處方每天500毫克阿奇黴素，因為他認為通常病毒引起的發燒最多不過五天就完，而細菌引起的炎症才持續這麼長。哪知三天抗菌素療程結束，我繼續發燒。媽媽不得不勸我休學一天，結果請假並未倖免堆積如山的作業。她十分清楚抗菌素治療無效意味着什麼，於是決定帶我直搗費城兒童醫院，哪怕時間已是當晚九點鐘。
我所呆的急診室布置得非常簡單，一張病床、三張椅子、背後還有醫療用品。護士們猶如走馬燈跑龍套一般進進出出，幹這干那忙個不停，一會兒查查體溫，一會兒好好脈搏。六個鐘頭內，我交替服用了650毫克泰諾和400毫克美林，身上加蓋了兩層毯子，但仍舊感覺房間冷得像掉進了北極圈，此時體溫宛若加熱的微波爐，醫生見狀似乎無動於衷，不能不引起我的憂慮，難道他們疏怠職責，或許早已見怪不怪，可我畢竟是臥床不起的病人呀。 午夜時分，我右手臂掛上一條靜脈輸液線，抽出的血漿除了用來做綜合代謝檢測和全血細胞計數外，還要分析C反應蛋白和紅細胞沉降速率，我不想贅述細節，但疼痛令人難忍，感覺極其明顯。有一點媽媽說得沒錯，這麼折騰下來至少要捱到第二天凌晨。兩個小時後醫生來的時候，我正在一邊喝調節體內電解質平衡的佳得樂，其味道臭不可聞；一邊觀看昨天大學橄欖球比賽重播，我的C反應蛋白和血沉水平正常，沒啥好說的，病因只能被推斷為病毒感染，因為一旦兩項感染與非感染指標毫無變化，恰好說明我得了極為簡單且又常見的病毒綜合症，完全將人類疱疹四型病毒排除在外。早知這樣，我大可不必風風火火趕赴此地，當然媽媽自有說道，不怕一萬就怕萬一。假如你尚不知情，順便通報一聲，我尚無大礙，仍然健在，感慨這年頭病毒防不勝防，好在今天醫生大發慈悲，要我不用去中文學校上課。
Today in History(歷史上的今天): 2013: Submarine in Male, Maldives(馬爾代夫首都馬累水下世界) 2012: Capital Santiago, Chile(智利首都聖地亞哥) 2009: 新西蘭懷托摩螢火蟲洞(Waitomo Cave, NZ  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (費城兒童醫院)
 Emergency Room (急診室 12-19-2015)
School Excuse (入院就醫證明及病休請假條) Crosslinks(相關博文):
YMCA Camp─Day @ Home(基督教青年會營─賦閒在家) YMCA Camp─Stuck @ Home Day-2(基督教青年會營─第二天病休在家) YMCA Camp─Stuck @ Home Day-1(基督教青年會營─第一天病休在家) 7th Grade(初中二年級) |
