Room 5

After my consciousness began coming back slowly, my doctors and nurses prepared one of the rooms in the neuro ward for my further recovery. The room that they had prepared was room 5, located directly in front of the nurse's station, should any kind of emergency happen I can just wave my hand and the nurses will see me and they will come in to assist me with anything. you could say it's a good location within the ward and I had a nice view overlooking some hills and trees. However, due to it being directly in front of the nurse's station, I couldn't have any privacy as my door was constantly open and the nurses could see what I was doing. My room was equipped with an electronic bed that can adjust its incline position and its height. Above it was an electronic crane that is used to move immobile patients to either a showering chair to shower them in the bathroom or onto a wheelchair should the patient desire a stroll around the hospital.

Both of these chairs were already provided by the hospital and they were stacked at the corner of my room. Should I need to go to the bathroom or wanting to walk around, all I have to do is just press the nurse's button and one of them will come to assist me to get into these chairs. During this time when I was transferred to room 5, I was barely conscious. You could say I was awake but not fully aware of my surroundings. Sometimes I would be able to respond to questions that my parents or nurses gave me but I would immediately forget it the next second. Other times I would completely forget the very thing that I was doing the last few seconds. You could say that my short-term amnesia was equivalent to Ten seconds Tom from the fifty-first dates movie that was played by Adam Sandler.

My parents were aware of my short-term memory problems and informed it immediately to one of the senior nurses to have a look and see whether it was anything serious that should be further examined by the neurologist. At this stage, they were worried that the deficit will continue to worsen. Then one of the neurologists came inside the room to check on me and inspect my memory problems. my parents told them what was going on and they said that it's not something to be worried at the moment as I've just gained consciousness after an induced coma. The memory problems will eventually go away as the brain is in the process of recovering.

While I was recovering, I still had a tracheostomy attached to my voice box, as this is what allowed me to breathe after I was taken off the ventilator, since I still couldn't breathe on my own. Breathing through the tracheostomy was somewhat hard and uncomfortable as the device was inserted from within my throat and the only way I could breathe or talk was to deflate the balloon inside the device which controls the flow of air within my throat that allowed me to breathe or talk. whenever I'd like to talk, they deflate the balloon halfway to let the air flow into my voicebox and I would be able to talk. sadly deflating the balloon also caused some imbalance of air pressure in my throat that gave off a duck-like sound whenever I breathe and talk at the same time, though I find this extremely funny, it was at times annoying since I couldn't make a clear sound and get my message across the room. however, I slowly got the hang of it and managed to control my breathing and was able to pronounce things clearly without making the duck noise.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before the doctors decided to remove my tracheostomy to allow myself to adapt to my environment and breathe normally on my own. It was only when this device was removed that my memory became clearer and I became fully conscious and I was fully aware of my surroundings, I realized I wasn't in my apartment room nor was I at Hyde Park where I usually hang out for a run. The moment I realized I wasn't in my room, I was bewildered and had no Idea on what was going on. My mother and the nurses were on the right side of my bed, observing me and my reaction. Then I suddenly remembered the exact moment when I had my stroke, I remembered losing sensation on my left and saw my left arm dropping to the floor as if it was made from rubber. The moment I remembered that I knew something wrong had happened to me. I asked my parents and the nurses on what happened and they told me that I had suffered a stroke from a rare type of endovascular condition and a craniotomy was performed to remove the abnormality in order to save my life.

At first, I didn't believe this as it sounds completely surreal and downright ridiculous since I was pretty much healthy and didn't follow any unhealthy lifestyle like eating junk food or over-consumption of alcohol. one of the nurses approached me and debrief me on the situation. she told me I had a hemmoraghic stroke from a rare type endovascular disorder, known as an AVM. It's not because I was unhealthy but because I was born with a ticking time-bomb in my head the very moment I was born. My mother informed me that the nurses will come in to remove the surgical staples on my head that was used to close the surgical cut that was made during the surgery. She then told me that my left side was weak, I didn't understand what she meant by this. When I tried moving my left arm, I realize that I couldn't and knew that I was paralyzed on my left. I wasn't scared or in panic when I had this realization I was crippled. The doctors were still injecting me with a small dosage of medication to keep me calm so I won't panic. A few days later, A nurse by the name of Molly came in and asked me how I was, to which I replied " could be better" and I told her that I couldn't move my left arm. she then told me about how her husband had a traumatic brain injury which gave him a paralysis like mine but he managed to regain most of his movements, through constant focus and self-will, her message was simple; if I keep on my mind focused on my arm by pushing it to move in my mind, it will eventually move and she was right, I could move it slowly day by day and my range of movement became better every day.