Bubble Boy

I occasionally have these flashbacks and nightmares of my first and second open heart surgeries. I can't tell - when I have the flashbacks and nightmares - which surgery that I am remembering, nevertheless, it's clear that it was a traumatic time in my life.

To put things into context, I was 4 years old during my first surgery and I was 5 years old during my second surgery. The surgery was done at the Vancouver General Hospital at a children's wing which was the predecessor to BC Children's Hospital. The rooms and hallways of VGH were quite stark as compared to the current Children's Hospitals which are littered with toys and animal cartoon murals.

Not only was I young, scared and completely confused on what was happening; I also didn't speak English at the time. This only added to the confusion and fear. My nightmare usually started the same way. I'm on a gurney in the bowels of Vancouver General Hospital. VGH is essentially a series of buildings connected by underground tunnels. The tunnels are dark and the ceilings of the tunnels are cluttered with pipes.

Eventually, we would reach our destination which happens to be the Operating Room. I would be wheeled in and then they carried me to the surgical table. There was a huge cluster of lights that were blinding me. People in gowns and masks were trying to talk to me who sensed that I was scared. Of course, I didn't understand them because I didn't speak English but they did try to use a soothing tone. Finally, a rubber greyish mask descends upon my face with the most distasteful smell in it. I remember trying to fight off the mask by pulling it but the masked people kept on forcefully putting the mask over my face and then....... darkness.

I woke up being so thirsty and so lethargic. I didn't feel like moving. My parents noticed that I'm starting to wake up and they stand over the bed. However, their images are distorted. I try to get my bearings and then I sense that I'm completely enclosed. I realize that my bed is completely surrounded by plastic transparent sheets (kind of like an plastic shower curtain). Only later while watching John Travolta's drama "Boy In The Plastic Bubble" did I realized that I too was bubblized. I now find that being a Bubble Boy is a sense or pride for me. How many people get to have that opportunity to live that way even if it was for a short time. In fact, my heart condition has put in my so many strange predictaments that some of those strange events have become laughable to me now.

As an epilogue to my Bubble Boy situation, I looked into the latest reincarnations of the Bubble Boy. First, the Bubble Boy was mocked in a Seinfeld Episode where George plays Trivial Pursuit and argues with the Bubble Boy regarding a typo on one of the answer cards (Moops vs Moors). Secondly, the youtube movie trailer below is of a 2001 comedy movie called "Bubble Boy" starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal. After seeing the trailer there is no doubt that Gyllenhaal had to draw from his "Bubble Boy" movie experience for his Oscar Winning Movie - Brokeback Mountain.