So... THAT'S What the Inside of a Krankenhaus Is Like.

"Kranken... what?"

Krankenhaus (pronounced crank-in-house all run together) is the local German hospital.

I had planned on posting how Cindy Sheehan wasn't going to protest after all (thanks, Tom for noting that in the comments). In fact, I had a busy couple of days planned.

So much for plans.

Thursday came and I felt fine. Couple of sniffles, but... it's winter! No biggie.

By lunchtime, however, I'd vomited four times in two hours. Things weren't looking good.

After twice not being able to keep down a simple 4 oz. glass of water, I knew it'd be best if I hauled myself over to the clinic... before things got really bad. I could see dehydration coming (hey, I paid attention in all my Army training classes.)

I remember checking into the clinic. I remember not even being made to wait. Soon after, I was placed in one of their rooms, and was injected with something. An IV came soon after. Most surprising is I remember being seen by every doctor, and quite possibly every medic in the clinic (it's a small clinic, so not a huge number, but 4 doctors, 2 nurses, and several medics I recall). Then things get fuzzy.

Apparently, I was sent off to the local hospital. Not even sent to the ARMY hospital! Wow. I don't remember the ER much, except for a fuzzy picture of an MP who'd escorted us there.

I remember waking up in the Intensiv Care ward (not misspelled, is how they spell it). I was shocked. Didn't think I'd warranted an ICU visit. Shucks, I thought I'd go to the clinic and go home...

Nope.

Spent two days at the lovely hospital. They wanted me to stay more, but... I really felt that I needed to get back to my family. There was no one else to take care of them, after all.

The docs would like me to go back for a test where they send the tube down the throat. Sounds like fun.

All this for what seems like a bad stomach flu?

Anyway, the time in the krankenhaus was... dreadfully boring. I had all the CNN I could stand (only English channel)... and CNN only had four stories to report. It didn't matter what they called the show for the hour ("World Business Report", "Your World Today", "World News Now", whatever), it was still the same four stories. Ugh.

No roommate, which was a good thing. And... well, nothing to do.

I did catch up on some sleep, which was a nice thing.

Oh, and the food... for all who complain about American hospital food. Don't. It doesn't compare. I was given plenty of bland soup, some unsweetened peach pudding, and bread. Yummy. One meal, I did get fish and mashed potatoes. It was nice.

One other note... Germans do IV's much better than Americans. American IV's are right at the joint, thus immobilizing your arm. Germans can't stand an American IV, so as soon as they see it, they do their own. They will NOT use it. For good reason, a German IV is places off of the joint of the elbow, thus enabling functional use of the arm. What a difference! The downside is that the Germans will leave the American IV needle in place... until it practically falls out.

Overall, an interesting experience... and a boring one. Felt terribly cut off and isolated from the world. I did receive a couple of phone calls from my unit, but that was mostly to chastize me for the way in which the unit was notified of my hospitalization (though I had no control and little recollection of it).

I do not envy Ellicia her upcoming ten days in the hospital. My two was more than enough.