Basanti and her dad came back to Ahmedabad yesterday for a follow-up visit. She needed to get her cast removed, the stitches taken out, and then re-casted. They arrived by train and it was Dad's first time on the train, so he was really nervous. I had never been to the Kalupur train station either (the main train station in Ahmedabad) so I didn't know what was going on either! Things were really confusing there...you apparently need a platform ticket to go drop or pick someone up, but the window where they sold the tickets didn't have anyone sitting there. I finally found where to get the ticket and went and got them...it was a zoo!
We took a rickshaw to the hospital, and Basanti was smiling! She had lots of fun on the train and didn't know yet where we were going so she was playing. Then we got to the hospital and first went to the paraplegia hospital where the students took her cast off. The minute we stepped foot in the building Basanti knew where we were and was not happy. It took them forever to take the cast off, and when the sir stepped away for a few minutes one student was throwing glances in his direction while the other did everything the sir said not to in order to get the cast off quicker...not very comforting, but then I pretended to be interested in what they were doing and got involved and I think I scared them so they went back to doing what they were told. Basanti made sure everything in the building knew she was there. I promised her an ice cream if she either stopped crying or generated tears while wailing. She did neither.
Then me and 2 students took her to the main hospital to get the stitches out and re-casted. The OPD (outpatient) hours were over in the morning, so we were calling in a favor to have this doctor do this for us. We finally tracked the doctor down and he tried to take the stitches out and Basanti was just not having it. She bent over her legs and wouldn't budge. The doctors decided they would have to put her under anesthesia and finish everything, which is what they did when they re-casted her in the hospital as well. This meant we had to wait for her to have not had anything to eat or drink for the last 6 hours. So we waited in the trauma center waiting room for it to be 2 more hours and have the surgeon free to get this done. Of course Basanti was starving since she was going on hour 7 without nothing to eat/drink so she was making a ruckus. I didn't have anything except my mp3 player and hair clip for her to play with, neither of which was entertaining enough. Then some lady sitting in the waiting room got mad at me and asked what kind of mother I am that my child is crying and I'm leaving her with her dad. I just glared at her and then she turned away. Seriously, no one minds their own business in India! The doctor had told us Basanti would have to stay the night since she'll be getting anesthesia so they'll have to monitor her. So I told the Dad he won't be able to leave tonight and he wasn't thrilled but he also has learned to trust us to do what was best for them, so he went along with it. We made arrangements for her to stay at the Paraplegia hospital and then get discharged in time for the morning train.
The surgeon finally came and they took us first (out of 30 people waiting). Then the anesthesiologist decided that she wouldn't sign off on Basanti's surgery until I took out a "case" - basically means got her admitted inpatient first. I explained to her that she wasn't inpatient, the doctors sent us straight up here, but she walked away before I could even get out a sound. So we waited patiently and then her doctor came and whisked her into the operating theater. I went back to the waiting area hoping they didn't fight and send her back out! But her dad came to get me a half hour later telling me Basanti was out. I quickly ran and caught the doctor and asked what was next and to make sure they'll discharge her on time in the morning. He just looked at me and said I don't need to keep her, go home, bring her back in a month. Seriously no communication among these physicians! So we got Basanti dressed and rushed off to the train station - she knew where she was going because she was all smiles again!
We got to the station with 15 minutes to spare, otherwise they would have to wait another hour for the train, and then reach home in the middle of the night. So we rushed, got a ticket, found someone to sell me a freaking platform ticket who them proceeded to answer when I asked what platform our train would come on "4, but you better hurry it's about to leave." I'm thinking yeah well maybe if you didn't dilly dally for 5 minutes it wouldn't be about to leave!
So we rushed - I grabbed dad's bag since he was carrying her so all the weight slowed him down and we did a very filmy run for the train. We found the train but the general box was way in the back and we were way in the front so we did another filmy run for the end. The train was crammed, but they made it. Basanti was all smiles, as was Dad, though I never did get to give her an ice cream...next time!
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