Lucky : Live & Learn...

Discharge

I was brought into the hospital at approximately 3:30 – 4 am in the morning. As I couldn’t sleep; the entire time I was there felt like an eternity. When I look back now though I realise I was actually dealt with quite efficiently. Considering the amount of other people who were there and the other waiting times I’ve known people to endure I was in and eligble to be out within 8 hours.

The extent of my injuries had been wholly assessed, and was now known. I had quite a lot of bruising, some lacerations, some abdomen muscle pain and a fractured pelvis, but I was ok. Nothing immediately could be done. Time, patience and persistence were what was required so it was time for discharge. Other people would be needing my bed!

They weren’t going to throw me out immediately however. A fractured pelvis couldn’t exactly just be walked out with..  I was struggling to sit up even! They informed me I would have a meeting with a physiotherapist before I was discharged and asked how I would be getting home. Before the doctor left he did one last check of the sheet that records all the notes of medications given, blood pressures, temperatures etc. As I had refused all pain killers offered he was stunned to see the part where medications administered are normally recorded, was blank. He started to get very upset and I was confused. I soon realised he was shocked and embarrassed that I had had no painkillers given. He started apologising profusely. He obviously didn’t realise it had actually been my choice! I wanted to suffer for my stupidity. I didn’t tell him that part though, it was hard enough to get him to realise that I had actually refused them. His staff had offered, but I had said no! Eventually he understood though and then there was nothing else he could do for me. With one last strange look at me he left me to my new mental stresses of how I was getting home.

Is someone coming to pick me up? No. As far as I knew, no one even knew I was there. A taxi then? This was looking like my best option, but how would I pay? My wallet wasn’t in my ‘belongings’ bag. I didn’t know where it was. Was it at mine? At my friends? If I caught the taxi to my friends and it wasn’t there would they pay for me and I pay them back when I found it? I just didn’t know! The panic took over again. I had a fractured pelvis, no car or license, I didn’t know about work, I was totally alone and I didn’t know where I was going or how I was going to get there.

I’m not going to lie.. many tears were silently shed during all these thoughts. My reasoning that I knew I was tough though started to win through. I was getting edgy and my stubborn strong minded self was setting in. Crying wasn’t going to get me far!

Whilst waiting for the nurse to return I started trying to move around myself. Slowly sitting up, attempting movement and where possible stretching. It effing hurt. Simple as that, but it was better then nothing. When the nurse came back she looked slightly shocked at my half sitting up, wincing state, but she said nothing about it. Instead she informed me that while waiting for the physio I would be moved to the short stay ward. They would also suss out my discharge and travel home options from there.

So I was wheeled down a few hallways to this area. They set me up in a bed with access to a tv and showed me the door to the toilet if I needed it. It was approximately 6 steps away from my bed – an eternity and hard work for someone in my situation, but I had time. I watched a little bit of tv as a time distraction and tackled the toilet journey to prove to myself I could! Not even 10 minutes after arriving in the ward one of the nurses came in carrying a phone. A ‘Sue’ was on the phone for me. My mother.

Did I want to talk to her? Of course I did! The emotion of knowing her reaction and wishing she was there in person with me however took over and I started crying. The nurse honestly did not look like she wanted to hand me the phone. She looked concerned, but handed it to me anyway and hovered to double check she had made the right choice.