guess where i am…
Last Thursday, as there seemed to be a little hope of me being given a bed in Perth, I told the team at the Almonte General Hospital that I wanted to go home the following day – Friday, February 28. They agreed.
Then, about 15 minutes later two of them came back to me and said they needed a week to get all the support together for me to be safe at home. They said they would get me a referral for a day patient program in Perth, but in order to do so they needed for me to stay for another week. I agreed to stay.
Over the next three days, my heart became set on going home on Friday, March 7. Much to my astonishment, on Monday, March 3, my AGH care team announced that there was a bed for me in Perth. Now I didn’t know what to do – go to Perth? Or go home?
I was persuaded by the doctor and other members of the team that I should go to Perth and do the intense rehab, which, after some tears and anguish is what I decided to do. So I packed up my stuff and was transported to the Perth and Smith Falls District Hospital in the late afternoon of Monday, March 3. Instead of going home tomorrow, March 7, I will now be going home one week from tomorrow on March 14. That may not seem like a big change – a matter of only seven days’ difference – but after almost five weeks in hospital, I’m really missing my own space.
All of that said, the experience in Perth has been great so far. This is my team today:
I have two physiotherapy sessions and one occupational therapy session each day. I continue to improve, albeit more slowly than I would like. (No surprise there!) After I’m discharged a week from tomorrow, I hope to continue with physiotherapy and occupational therapy here once a week for a period of weeks or months until I am as close to full recovery as I can get. I still have a long way to go…
The physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions are helpful so I think I made the right decision. Today, I learned that my grip strength in both hands is at the top of the average range for women my age. (Must be all that handlebar work on the motorcycles LOL)
On the less positive side, I continue to have problems sleeping because hospital beds are so terribly uncomfortable. I have tried taking sleep medication, but it leaves me dopey in the morning and sets me back in the rehabilitation process. Of course, lack of sleep is not a good thing for healing either. But that’s the way it is. The doc here kindly agreed to order me a king-sized bed but he told me this afternoon that unfortunately it won’t be here until Saturday, the day after my discharge 😛 I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to going home and being with Kitty Cat again…
For your entertainment, I’ve included a couple of videos of some of the simple exercises I’m doing on the occupational therapy side.
© 2024 Susan Macaulay. I invite you to share my poetry and posts widely, but please do not reprint, reblog or copy and paste them in their entirety without my permission. Thank you.
