Hospital Day 15

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This is the car I travelled in today. More below.

Last night I slept slightly better than usual. Two hours from 12:30 am to 2:30 am, and two hours from 4:30 am to 6:30 am. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't coughing at all when I woke up. As I said yesterday, I was due to be transferred to another hospital today, Robert Bosch's lung clinic in Gerlingen, so I didn't bother trying to get back to sleep. I had a shower, I got dressed and I packed all my stuff.

At 10:30 am I was picked up by a car from Reha Servicemobil. It's a taxi company that only drives patients from one hospital to another. I would have thought it wouldn't be a busy job, but my driver told me Reha has 20 cars in Stuttgart, and he's busy all day.

In Gerlingen I was given a bed in a three-bed room, but one of the beds isn't occupied. It's a pleasant room, bigger than the rooms in Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus. Even if there were three patients in here, we wouldn't be tripping over one another. I'm in Station P2 Room 227.

I'd hardly unpacked when the examinations began. First I had an ultrasound examination of my heart. I'm not sure why, but I was told afterwards that there aren't any problems. Then I went for a lung examination with an excitable young doctor. I had to blow into a tube, while she yelled at me, "Hold your breath! Now blow hard! And stop!" All the time she was waving her arms to emphasise her commands. It was a strange but enjoyable experience.

After this a doctor showed me the results of the two CT scans that I had in Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus. I could see my lungs breathing. At the bottom of my lungs white particles were in constant motion. I asked the doctor what they were, and he said he didn't know. He wants to give me another bronchoscopy on Monday. If I understand correctly, the word bronchoscopy is a cumulative name, which can refer to different sorts of lung examinations. On Monday a fluid will be squirted into my right lung. After a short wait it'll be sucked out again. After extraction from my lung, the fluid will be examined to see what's in it that shouldn't be there.

I asked if I could have a copy of the CT scans, and the doctor told me he'll give me a CD. I hope he won't forget. I'll remind him.

One bad thing is that my rash has spread today. Yesterday it was only on my upper body, but today it's spread to my back, my arms and my legs. I've been given a cream to rub on it. I hope the rash is nothing serious.

So that's my first day in the new hospital. I don't expect much will happen over the weekend. My next big examination is on Monday.