September 2016-March 2017
I arrived at the NRH at the end of September 2016, and I was admitted to Gabriel’s Ward on the third floor. I never expected to be a patient there for this long 🙄, another 5-6 months🤦🏻♀️-seems to be my personal time limit, my standard for every new admission place 😂. My 4th hospital overall, second in Ireland. I’m glad to say this was my last hospital stay 🙌🤗.
I remember arriving there from Beaumont hospital. My dad was with me for the transfer part, but then had to leave for work. My mum was in work too. I was left in a corner, 7 more beds around me 👀, feeling so lonely and helpless 🥺. A nurse came to ask me some questions, to fill out some paperwork. At the end she asked if I needed anything, so I asked for my coconut water, she put it in front of me on a table. I felt so lost, I couldn’t lean forward to grab it, never mind opening it with one functional arm… did they not know that about me? I wondered 😩🤔… or was that their method of trying to make improvements in your motor skills? I’ll never know.
I decided that I would only make a single post about the NRH, because it’s not a pleasant memory. Not like any place I’ve been admitted to over the past year was a nice memory anyway. But this time was especially tough and emotional, because I was at home in Poland before, where my dad was my career, so a huge change. Also right after the admission, Mr P was leaving for a peacekeeping mission. It was another chapter of my journey to recovery, and a new place 🙄 again! So being a patient in NRH hit me hard 👊.
Being completely honest I hated the place 🤷🏻♀️! I don’t really have anything good to say about it, except some of the nice people I met there (both patients and staff). I enjoyed the quizzes once a week, organised by volunteers. I would never miss those 🤓. The ladies that did breathing Physiotherapy with me were lovely and positive too! Also that December I could finally spend Christmas at home 🏡👨👩👧🎄. My parents were able to take me home over the Christmas break, and since then I was going home every Saturday morning for a weekend. It was hard on Monday mornings, because I hated going back, but I tried not to show it 😔. Monday was a day of doctor’s rounds, which I thought were useless, because they always brought down my mood, but after that one awful family meeting I refused to participate. I thought there was no point, you either get used to negative situations and/or people or you remove yourself from them. I chose to remove myself and chose positivity to help me maintain a better attitude and mindset, and to improve my physical health 💪🧘🏻♀️ #mentalhealth
Typical day at NRH
Bright lights 💡 would wake you up between 7-8am, no matter if your timetable said you had a first session at 12am or even 4pm 🙄. Day and night staff would switch shifts in the early morning, so they would shout, and turn on the lights waking everyone up, so forget about sleeping in. No privacy, just a huge room with multiple patients in it. That was the routine. Every patient would have a weekly timetable with assigned session slots. Usually 3 a day, raging from Psychology, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy (OT), Speech & Language Therapy (SLT), and Aquatic therapy (if you were lucky enough to get a slot🤦🏻♀️🙄)- in 5 months I had maybe three or four…
As I mentioned before Physiotherapy was a joke for so called “rehabilitation hospital”, number 1 place in Ireland, where you’re on a waiting list for nearly a year. Maybe 3 hours a week, only Monday to Friday, forget about getting to use the lokomat! Overall I couldn’t bare the negativity of the place! I informed them about my huge goals, and I‘ll never forget the looks I was getting. I mentioned that horrible meeting I had with the team and my family… discussing how my future will look, that I’ll never sit or walk, because “a rugby player can only improve to a certain point!” 🙄🤦🏻♀️-their words, not mine! I’m not saying give false hope, but you definitely don’t have the right to take it away! That’s all that patients are/might be holding onto 🍀… There was only one positive, open minded doctor, she was from Seychelles 🇸🇨. Before I was leaving, she came to say goodbye, saying that she knows I’ll achieve great things, and that she can’t wait to see me on tv one day. Thank you for the lovely words, and believing in me 🙏🌻. I won’t ever forget that! 😊🦋
🦋 Never deprive someone of hope, it might be all they have…🦋
Concluding, a huge thank you to some lovely staff, and also thank you to all the negative people I had to face. You made me a stronger person, your negativity never stopped me from moving forward nor losing hope! 💪👣💁🏻♀️🦋
🦋 Master the Art of ignoring negativity. It will make your path to success a lot easier. 🦋
🦋 Donations 🦋
I’m fundraising for lokomat therapy, which I’m now doing 3 times per week 💪👣. Thank you all in advance for supporting me and my creative work! 💕 Klaudia🤗🦋
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Klaudia’s journey to recovery from Locked-in syndrome (LIS) 