Rehabilitation Centre-GCR Repty 🏥

December 2015

The whole time I was a patient of the Neurology ward I kept thinking about getting transferred to the rehabilitation centre. It took much longer than expected, but finally on the 7th of December 2015 I was being transferred. The only bad news was that they wouldn’t accept me without trachea 🙄🤷🏻‍♀️, so my plans about getting it removed before leaving for rehab were shattered. I thought it’s okay, I’ll get it done there…well that’s what I thought😩 turned out to be a fight that I’ve never expected 👊 you’ll hear all about it…

The day has come and I was being transferred in a laying down position in an ambulance 🚑. The rehabilitation centre was about an hour and a half drive from my hometown in Poland. Upon my arrival I was placed in their only private side room. It was small, but at least I had the privacy 🤗🙌. There was a bed, table, chair, small wardrobe and a TV. What’s really shocking is that there was a little box hanging on the wall, where you had to put in money to get the television working 📺. That’s right, you had to pay in order to watch it 🙄 and it was very expensive😠! But I was lucky enough to meet someone who sorted this problem right out for me (a carer). It’s a very funny story, but I’ll tell you all about it in my later posts… all I’m going to say now is FREE TV hours 😜🤭🤫🙌…

When I settled in, I met all the nurses, carers, my main doctor and my physiotherapist (Jacek). The nurse in charge brought us this wheelchair, that some rich, German patient donated to the centre on his departure. Quickly my dad and Mr P came up with an idea to take me for a spin in it. I wasn’t very enthusiastic, as you can see yourself 👇

They transferred me using a full body hoist (that’s how I was being transferred at the time 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️). It was the first time I was sitting in a wheelchair, in fact the very first time I was in a sitting position and out of bed in nearly 2,5 months👀. I’ll never forget the older women staring 👀 as they wheeled me through the corridors. When we came back to the room, the nurse in charge ran after us in a panic, saying we’re not allowed to do anything like that, making any decisions of our own without doctors permission 👩‍⚕️ . Here we go, I thought 🤦🏻‍♀️ prison…

At least I was already here, starting rehabilitation. I had my dad and Mr P with me every day ☺️ from early morning, until falling asleep. The centre had apartments for family members upstairs, so I had them both there and felt safe☺️😇. The first night before falling asleep I was thinking about having physiotherapy the next day. I was very concerned, because I was told I would be put on a tilt table, to get my body used to being in a vertical position and getting the blood to flow. I was also very nervous about calling for help😰. Still I couldn’t press a call bell, so I was just using that special sound I mentioned before in my post titled “HELP”…😟🤷🏻‍♀️ it sounded something like this 👇👀 I tried my best to recreate it 🙉🙈😂👇

🦋 BE STRONG, because things will get better. It may be stormy now, but it never rains forever…🦋