Day three

The third day of my stay at Fiona Stanley starts off like the last two days I was there. Breakfast always starts off first at around 7:30 sharp and the catering crew never comes late, always punctual. As usual, the catering crew would always ask me for my details; name, date of birth and patient ID on my wrist band. Without these details, i would not be able to receive any of my meals and it's already hospital protocol that these questions are asked to prevent the wrong food from being given especially when the patients have allergies. After providing the patient details, my breakfast was then placed on the bed side table, i reached over the tray and lifted it to see what the menu was. To my surprise it was the same kind of menu as yesterdays breakfast but with an additional baked beans and toast. This was an upgrade but the drinks are still thickened and horrid to taste. I started with the eggs first before taking on the beans. I aded a bit of salt and pepper on the eggs as they were quite tasteless to begin with. After having aded some flavor on the eggs, I hurry up as i could to finish up my food to start the day a bit earlier than usual.

The last to be eaten on my tray was the toast. I aded a bit of jam on it for flavor before putting them in my mouth. After having eaten all the food on my tray, i grabbed the patient buzzer to call for the nurses to help me transfer myself on the toilet. I pressed the button and one of the nurses came into the room. Strangely enough, it wasn't the usual morning nurses that came into the room. It was a trainee nurse from ECU, so it was clear that she was still a greenhorn, still learning basic nursing. I don't know how she will help me transfer on the toilet but i'm willing to give her a chance. Once i got on the wheelchair, she rolled me into the bathroom and brought me close to the toilet, I then held on to the disability bars on the side of the toilet to make my transfer easier. A i shifted my bottom from the chair onto the toilet, I slipped and fell on the floor. Thankfully i landed on my posterior and not my head otherwise, the impact would be fatal. As i lay on the floor in pain from the fall, the student nurse panicked and pressed the emergency button. The entire hospital staff came rushing into the bathroom to inspect my condition. They asked me if i hurt my head to which i responded," not my head but my ass hurts" Hearing my response, they all chuckled with laughter and were relieved that it was my bottom that was the victim and not my brain. However i did tell them with sarcasm that some people do have their brains in their asses, especially the senior nurse for not supervising a novice on handling patients but it was also my fault for not telling the student nurse to pull up my pressure stockings before i transferred myself on the toilet. Thus it is therefore important that all stroke patients should be aware of either removing or pulling up their pressure stockings before moving around to prevent any slipping from happening.

The doctors and other nurses then drew their attention on the student nurse and began interogating her on how my fall took place.  I told them to go easy on her since it's only her first day of actual practical in the hospital, she was then relieved of her duties and was transferred to different ward with less difficult patients to deal with. The doctors and nurses then assisted me in getting myself back on the wheelchair. After the fall I decided to go to the bathroom a bit later in the evening when i have more free time to do whatever i want. Looking at the clock on my phone, it was already 8:45, i had to rush myself to occupational therapy and see Jescinta to do my daily exercises. I asked Ellie, the nurse to push me all the way to the OT room, she did and i arrived there only a few seconds late. I was relieved that she wasn't furious about me being a few seconds late. She then handed me a crossword puzzle to complete, the questions asked on it were pretty simple. I managed to complete it within five minutes. She then proceeded to asking me some logical questions. They were mostly logical such as safety questions on what should be done when there is a grease fire at home, what would be the appropriate thing to do to resolve the problem or how to plan a vacation. the questions are pretty straightforward and logical.

At the end of the test, Jescinta concluded that i did well on my probing and reasoning questions but when it comes to planning, i was labeled as slightly impaired as my planning sometimes weren't coherent or in line with the intended sequence of how things should be done. But this didn't prove anything as i was mostly a person who never plan anything in real life even prior to my accident. I just do things as i see fit or necessary just like the joker from the batman trilogy of Christopher Nolan. With the OT test completed, I went straight to my speech therapy appointment with my speech pathologist, Jan. I visited her inside her office, inside she was waiting for me in front of her computer and on her desk were three snacks; a sponge cake, an Oreo and some cheese crackers. I approached her and she told me that we were going to do some food test. She wanted me to eat each and every one of them to see if i was able to properly chew my food and swallow it without choking. To me this seems like a fun test since i get to eat something that's way better than your average hospital food. Without further a due, i approached the snacks and tore the packages open before gobbling them down my throat. I finished them all with lightning speed as i was hungry and had not tasted real food for a long time. By the end of the session, jan concluded that i had passed the test and i could now go back to eating normal things. She turned towards her computer and began writing down the results with an additional note sent to the hospital catering team that said," normal diet" This indicated that i was finally off the standard thickened food for stroke patients and i could immediately consume anything i want. The moment i left the speech therapy room, i headed to the hospital food court and bought myself a subway sandwich for appetizer before my main lunch back in my room. I asked one of the nurses to escort me to the food court to purchase my sandwich, they did so and i managed to buy the sandwich before my meal arrived in my room.

On my way back to the ward. I ate my sandwich as fast as i could so i could save some room for my lunch. Having tasted a subway sandwich after months of being in hospital was truly a blessing. The suffering that i have endured has made me realized the importance of gratitude for the little things in life such as good food, being able to drink water, being able to sleep in your own comfy bed and taking a shower in your own bathroom. I realized how lucky i was to have experienced all these things while i was healthy and wished i could return to that state of joy of being whole and healthy again. As i arrived in my room, my room mate Roy had already finished his lunch and had already dozed off to his nap. the nurse rolled me over to the bedside table where my lunch awaits me and i ate it silently as best i could so i wouldn't disturb roy from his midday slumber.