Barry Deeks The Bizarre and Enchanting Life

Chapter 14

Bowmere and Rosewood Ward

This was a relatively new hospital built to replace the old hospital that was knocked down for student accommodation to be built. This hospital was in Chester and my key-worker or named nurse called Mark was a very fit man. He ran triathlon races swim, bike and run also he attempted the Iron Man which would have taken him 14 hours approximately. The Iron Man was called the longest day because it would have taken so long.

I was going to watch him on television, I had my picture taken with him holding his bike worth a few thousand pounds. He was a very social animal and a people person, he was an amateur boxer, I once held a boxing bag for him, I literally didn't know what hit me, never again! There were many new students coming through here some of them looked so good they were unbelievable.

Before I came there was my all time favourite support worker working there from Grosvenor ward. Rachael who was someone I became quite fond of was somehow beyond exquisite used to work here at bowmere but left a while before I came.

Trouble is if you defend yourself assertively in hospital you are considered unwell, it's annoying. One young man, who was staff said to another patient, "You are a section three patient we can do whatever we like with you". I am myself a section three patient and I found this particularly insulting. Well I can bring this man to justice, the pen is literally mightier than the sword, or in this case my computer keys.

There were various nurses and support workers who had known me from the old West Cheshire building. We went to see films regularly in Cheshire Oaks at the Vue cinema, I went to watch the films but mainly just to enjoy the company. I found the films so boring I usually fell to sleep, when the staff woke me at the end of the film I would jolt wildly. There were three occupational therapists, one qualified and two support staff. In later years I saw my OT assistant, allocated to me, on bargain hunt either that or it was a doppelgänger.

One of my first experiences in Rosewood ward was my trip to the river Dee, I went with two escorts on a rowing boat. We paddled upstream for a while, under the suspension bridge.

We took the lady Diana boat up the river on one occasion. We went on walks and we were taken far and wide.

There was one particular nasty charge nurse, he would grab mens chests and twist them just for fun. He took even more advantage of disabled people and was proud of being a bully, he said he was like a father figure.

I am tormented by the memory of a domineering grossly overweight man who passed away at the very start of 2010, who still irritates me today by the memory. All he did all day was criticise me and say "I can't stand you".

There was a sad bastard, a patient who used to joke about how he could drive people up the wall. He had a heavy punch and was on a constant mission to upset as many people as he could.

We went on different outings all over the surrounding area as the intensive rehabilitation unit filled up. I was the sixth patient on Rosewood so to start off with there was a high staff to patient ratio.

This was were I developed my latest philosophy at the time of the Edward Snowdon affair:

Your business is their business, their business is their own. As regards the National security Agency (NSA), various other security agencies and nurses, that's often the way it has to be.

We would play sports together. Or we would go to the gym in the hospital, the head instructor had known me from the now knocked down old gym.

Each morning we had a meeting during the week anyway, not the weekend. On the Saturday sometimes we would go out for a walk, Sunday we would sometimes go out to the car boot sale or to the church. I read a lot of fiction, like my nurse notes but I didn't have the energy for reading that I used to have as a kid.

Still my life was boring despite all the occupational therapy.

I made a musically educated friend. He too had a head injury and we went to the Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on many occasions. Such a placid gentleman I had the joy of knowing for many a year.

I contracted necrosis of the intestine, I went into medical hospital. I kept throwing up uncontrollably and without warning much to the dislike of the other people, patients and staff. I spent five weeks in the Countess next door. I was suffering from a necrotic, (death of an organ or part of an organ), intestine, lucky I was on a section really, there was always someone there to keep me company.

I sometimes forget that I'm not doing this alone there are millions of elite all across the world not leading life as they would like it. I should count myself fortunate but I am not in the know like one of the Elite at least for now.