Family is Forever

Chapter 34-day treatment

Ali looked around. All the people in the room looked entirely normal. Some were thin like Elsie some were normal size. Even slightly bigger than average. They all looked at her but looked welcoming and happy. Elsie sat down on one of the padded chairs and Ali sat down next to her.
"I'm Claire" one of the ladies said "I'm a clinician here in day treatment, shall we all introduce ourselves."
"Hi I'm Susan."One of the older ladies said smiling over at Ali "Abby, Elsie and Jess call me Mumma Sue. I'm over 45, I've had eating problems both restrictive and binge purge most of my life. And I'm hoping to get better for good this time." Ali smiled back at her. To her Sue looked a normal size. The lady sat next to Sue started to speak.
"Hello I'm Helen and I'm 32. I've had Bulima for a year or so. Since giving birth to my little bundle of joy Louis. I'm a nurse by profession but realised I needed to get help before I could continue to help others."
There was Rachel who was 35 and had anorexia. Emma who was 20 and Meena who was 19. The room had white walls with wellbeing posters on them such as the 'food pyramid' and quotes. There were some drawings too. "I'm Abby, I've just turned 13 so am the baby of the group, I've been here for almost 4 months. I was diagnosed with anorexia last February. That's all really." Ali felt a bit sad listening to Abby, despite being 13 she still looked tiny like a junior school child. She had pale skin blue eyes but black hair. Like Snow White.  Another girl spoke up she seemed a normal weight to Ali "I'm Jessica I'm 17. It's nice to meet you but this is my last week here. I'll be back at college soon. I had restrictive anorexia but I'm so much better now, I'm weight restored." She smiled warmly at Ali.
"I'm Elizabeth but everyone calls me Elsie, as you know" Elsie smiled at Ali. "I'm 15 I was diagnosed with anorexia a few months ago but had been struggling for a while. I've been here for about a month." Everyone looked at Ali for her to introduce herself. "I'm Natalia people call me Ali" she whispered "I'm Polish, but have lived in England for a while." She looked down and stayed silent.
"Ali, are you able to tell us about you're eating problems?" Claire the clinician asked.
"I have anorexia" she answered not looking up. The clinician knew better than to push the subject. "Thank you Ali. I'm sure you'll get used to us all soon. So today while you were in your meeting with Ben we were all weighed. It's private and we don't mention numbers but we talk about it. Everyone's name is in this bag, except yours, for the first few days we'll let you get used to everything" Claire plunged her hand into the bag and pulled out a name. "Elsie?"
"My weights stayed pretty much the same, but I definitely had a struggle this weekend. It was Rose's birthday, she turned 8." Elsie turned to face Ali "Rose is my youngest sister, I also have Megsie who's 13 and my big sister Florrie, short for Florence, who's 18 and in her first term at uni in Nottingham." Elsie giggled "people in this group know more about each other's family than their Grandma's." She continued talking about her weekend. "Because it's Rose's birthday we did whatever she wanted, pancakes for breakfast. I managed one, they were quite big, we then went ice skating, I had sport permission, mum spoke to Ben, Claire and Rhuma," she turned back to Ali "We're not allowed to do sports without permission. And Rhuma is another clinician. Anyway. I had so much fun and Megs was saying how nice it was to see me smiling again. I could see mum was watching me and smiling too.  I wasn't pretending I really was happy. We went to Pizza Hut for lunch. I knew it would be a big challenge and I was so anxious. It was loud and full. We got salad bowls as a starter I didn't get much but struggled. Our Pizzas came and I couldn't cope, I excused myself to go to the toilet. Megsie came after me and I got quite upset. We chatted for a few minutes about my fears and stuff. We got some funny looks from other people, me crying and my little sister comforting me. Mum came after a few minutes  and said she knew it was hard but we should come back and let Rose enjoy her day and she didn't mind just for one day what I ate because it was Rose's day. We went to the shopping mall in the afternoon Rose wanted to go to build-a-bear. We had dinner at home which was fine. Sunday was normal. All 3 meals and snacks. Just went to church, normal stuff. I'm a bit annoyed that I struggled so much at Pizza Hut but am thankful that I have such a supportive family. Megs especially." She finished with a smile.
Everyone else had similar stories. After everyone had finished there was 30 minutes before lunch so Ali, Elsie and Abby went into another room to do some schoolwork. "We kind of overshare, you'll get used to it. 2 weeks ago we had a period party because Meena got her period back! Party popper and hats and all. In free time of course, although" Elsie rolled her eyes. "I never lost mine, more's the pity."
"Really?" Ali asked they kept asking me about my period in hospital.
"Yeah it's unusual but not unheard of apparently. I have such bad periods." They chatted a little more about life and schoolwork. Then Claire popped her head in "hope you're working hard girls, lunchtime!"