One thing about staying overnight at a hospital is that it is extremely hard to get good quality sleep. You are in pain and feel discomfort; yes, the drugs help but you are not in a comfortable bed. As days go by, you lose track of time and your biological clock goes nuts. If you by chance fall asleep for more than four hours, then you get woken up as the nurses need to take your vitals or give you more treatment. Therefore, it is completely natural to be sleep deprived and in a grumpy mood since you can’t really escape to go home or get some privacy. I say this while being extremely grateful for the nurses and doctors that constantly woke me up, but it is just so you can get a little glimpse of what that is like. When people find out I was in the hospital for 20 days, it doesn’t seem like a long time, especially considering the severity of my injuries, but for me it felt like forever.

As with any new routine, the first days were the worst. Well, not really the very first ones since I have no recollection due to the induced coma, but the ones right after waking up were brutal. I woke up where no one wants to wake up, at the TICU (Trauma Intensive Care Unit). All you have for yourself is a state of the art hospital bed, a curtain, and a nurse assigned to you 24/7; no doors, no toilet, no privacy. Patients at the TICU are in critical condition and need to be under constant supervision and treated by an interdisciplinary team of experts. Comfort and privacy are understandably not a priority. After a week at the TICU, I then got “upgraded” to the burn unit where I had my own room with my own toilet. The video below conveys the emotions of the day I got moved.

What my friends consider one of my funniest anecdotes from my hospital days was the toilet situation. Since both my arms were wrapped up in casts, I couldn’t really clean myself after the toilet. A nurse would be called in to finish the job for me, which wasn’t funny for me or for them. The funny part is once they finished wiping me, they would let me know I was ready to go. But for me it was a trust issue, because how could I be sure I was 100% clean??? It’s not like they automatically showed me the toilet paper after the last swipe. I had to ask them to show me to make sure. One time, a nurse came in and wiped me once and informed me I was ready to go. I was like “WHAT? Are you kidding me? Everybody knows its at least three wipes to be sure!!” Moral of the story? Never break both arms, at least not at the same time.

I was very lucky to have people by my side since the first day. I rarely woke up without somebody there to wish me good morning and rarely fell asleep without somebody by my side (many times it happened mid-conversation since I was drugged, and sleep deprived). This is a big thank you to them, they know who they are. I would like to promote and encourage hospital visits as other patients by my side were not as lucky. If you have a friend or someone you know at some level at the hospital and specially in a dire condition, don’t even think about it and go visit them. In those situations, even a quick visit elevates the patient’s spirits and all those visits added up can make all the difference, and the brownies are welcomed!

This post is dedicated to the 120+ amazing souls that came to the hospital. Special shout out to Elizabeth, Andy, Christopher and my parents who came EVERY SINGLE DAY to the hospital, I can’t thank them enough.