The drinking problem

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What do you do when a tall athletic guy collapses at your doorstep in fultu Devdas style? And just like Devdas, this guy too had a drinking problem. There was one slight difference though - Devdas drank too much, this dude did not drink enough.

Water, that is.

So instead of looking for Paro, he was looking for Pani.

Yup, my temporary flat-mate (yes yes the now-very-popular -in-blogsphere pictionary dude) was at the door, badly dehydrated after a cricket game. After surviving a panic attack which lasted a few seconds, I rushed to the mini-mart in my condominium minutes before it closed and bought some isotonic drinks for him. But he couldn't hold it down. Now if there's one thing Doordarshan has taught me, it's how to make the Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). I made the solution, but he couldn't stomach that either. Then we tried plain water.

Ok, if a guy is unable to drink even plain water, he has to be rushed to the hospital.

I called for an ambulance. The lady at the other end of the phone said, "There's a fee, you know."

"Yes yes I know. Can you send the ambulance quick?"

"It's 80 dollars."

"Okay."

"80 dollars in cash on arrival."

WHAT THE..??!! In CASH?? On ARRIVAL???

Sheesh. I'd asked for an ambulance, not pizza! I don't have 80 bucks in cash on me at any point in time!

I pilfered both our wallets, and managed to put together 70 dollars and 35 cents. I decided to borrow the rest from my other flat-mates.

The lady on the phone said she'd call me after checking the availability of an ambulance. Before she could call me back, I had called for a cab. But even the called cab was taking so long! We waited and waited at the lift lobby and by a stroke of good luck, an available cab was passing by. I flagged it and we were at the hospital in ten minutes flat. (I'd remembered to cancel the ambulance and the other cab.)

Registration was faster than expected, and I was pleasantly surprised. But then they put him in a bed and told me that the doc would be there soon. 'Soon' soon became about half an hour. I was getting angry - did they even realise he was DEHYDRATED?? His face even looked different. I was quite freaked out. So I marched to the nurse and said, "He is dehydrated. The more he waits for the doc, the more dehydrated he's gonna get. Can you give him something to rehydrate him till the doc gets here??" Now I'm a girl who's pleasant as long she gets to sleep at 10pm. 11 at most. I'm not a pleasant girl if found awake at 2 am. The nurse took the hint and within minutes the doc was there.

So he was put on a bottle of IV drip. As I watched them poke the needle into his vein, I remembered my Mom's words. She used to say that if she saw anyone on IV drip, she'd immediately collapse and need two of 'em herself. Luckily the trait is not hereditary.

The doc said that he'd be re-assessing the situation once the first bottle of drip was over. I was asked to wait outside along with the bunch of other worried people. There weren't too many of them, and soon I got really bored. The Germany-Portugal match was going on, and I started watching that. I still can't believe I was watching that. Luckily, better entertainment soon arrived in the form of a baby who apparently had such an urgent sms to send to someone that he kept reaching out for his mother's mobile phone. Watching him relentlessly struggle for the phone made the half-hour go by very quickly.

After a while, I started to feel really cold. Luckily I'd changed into jeans before leaving the house. If I'd still been in my home shorts, I'd have frozen to death right there. I guess when you're worried, you feel colder. I wondered if I could ask the nurse for a blanket. But I was afraid of being reprimanded with a "This is a hospital, miss, not an airline!"

I wanted to call/sms some friends, but it was too late in the night, and people would either be partying or sleeping. So I decided not to disturb anyone. Except a friend whom I'd called earlier to get the number for calling the ambulance.

So I was sitting on the couch, the cute baby was gone, there was no way I was gonna watch the game, I was exhausted and really hungry, and finding nothing better to do, I dozed off. Suddenly I was woken up by an angel who had brought with her bottles of 100 plus, cookies, mouth-freshening mints (thanks to the advice of another friend, in case I had to stay in the hospital till morning. It's so heart-warming when people think of such little details), candy and Hershey's white chocolate with choc chips. As I spoke to her sipping my hot milo and eating the white chocolate, I finally felt warm and calm.

A little while later, we went in to see how the dude was doing. It is a hilarious sight when a guy who could not even stomach plain water a few hours ago, opens his eyes and says, "I want pav bhaji." I'd have laughed my lungs out if it wasn't a hospital.

Unfortunately for the pav-bhaji craving guy, the doc ordered only clear liquids on the first day, and simple mushy food on the second, and no spicy food for three days. Torture, huh?

Finally, he was ready to be taken home. I wanted him to get well as soon as possible so I could start my scolding session on how badly he had freaked me out by not drinking water during a game under the hot sun.

And then I remembered how little water I drink.

How little water we all drink! I think I'm having another panic attack. Go drink a glass of water right after reading this post, all the while chanting:

Here is a little something
That I hope will make you think
Water water everywhere
Why the hell don't we drink? :-/

We gotta take better care of ourselves. Really.

We owe it to those who will rush us to hospital if we don't.