We’re home again. Friday afternoon after the PET test the doctor sent us home together with a Santa-size bag of medication. My friend Zhiben came up to Taipei and helped us out with the details. Very nice of him. This was my first step on the road to recovery. To summarize the week:
- the operation on my throat went great. It does still hurt but less and less every day. I can eat and drink anything I like and people aren’t even looking all that much at my gash.
- NTU hospital is certainly the right place. The doctors are world-class. Besides, everything happens very quickly. There was no waiting time for the operation and all my tests were carried out ASAP.
- NTU is very medicalized and technology-centered — and I’m all for it!! But as a result they often forget about the patient — me in this case — and provide very scattered and incomplete information. The junior doctors, in charge of patient care, are not always well informed about the thinking and plans of senior doctors.
- the nurses are exceptionally professional, knowledgeable and friendly. They do everything medical, but everything else — from feeding patients to readjusting their beds — is the task of family members. I actually think this is a great system. You recover so much quicker if your family is around. But of course this depends on who your family members are.
- the NTU facilities are equally first-class. The best medical equipment; nice, spacious wards; a great set of shops and a food-court in a basement that looks more like a shopping-mall than a hospital.
The first step to recovery went well. Let the next step begin. I’m prepared.