Dislike the mattress! It's the soft soft kind again. Sianz, standard across all hospitals? This time it's a problem because there's no aircon, so it could get pretty hot. Kind of regretted transferring :(
Oral Hygiene
Again, no teeth-brushing or even mouth rinsing at night. Just mouth-rinsing in the morning starting at 7am. Maybe this was the bare minimum expected of patients. But since patients are here with the aim of reintegrating into society, shouldn't the nurses encourage patients to brush their teeth?
Bathing
Since I had begun bathing back at Way Point Hospital, I continued doing so here. From my bed, I was transferred to the commode chair made of hard plastic. Resting on hard surfaces doesn't hurt my back so much anymore; All my nerves much have been killed.
Patient bathing started after they have rinsed their mouths. Those from the centre of the room got to go first and my row was the last. I whiled my time playing Angry Birds. By the time it got to me, I would have been done with my breakfast already. The timing was perfect. I could poop in the toilet first before bathing. Bye to the bedpan once daily!
They have a shower commode chair that was more comfortable than the regular one.
Some of the nurses were willing to remove their gloves to wash my hair, phew. Soap was Johnson's Head to Toe Baby Wash.
Yup, head to toe with it.
But I insisted on using my own shampoo and facewash :P
Drying my thighs was understandably hard for the nurses as I couldn't stand like the others and couldn't quite weight-shift yet. Happy that they tried their best most of the time. Sometimes I wasn't quite dry yet, but just close one eye lah. Should be fine if it didn't happen too frequently.
If today's sheets-changing day for my row, now's the time.
After I got back into bed, I got the nurse to bring me my beauty set - mirror (yeah I kept a mirror...), aloe vera gel and pouch from No Use Hospital containing my tools for maintenance - comb, nail cutter and cotton buds. O I tried asking, but this place doesn't have cotton buds. Hospital without cotton buds. Unbelievable. Once, the over-friendly lady who came to "welcome" me on my first day, asked if I have any cotton buds and I gave her some. How did she think of asking me? Was I seen using them? After this incident, I confirmed her to be a visitor, hah!
During my first few days, the patient 2 beds from my left needed to be bathed using the trolley. Thought it was cool for this place to be equipped and the staff bothering to do this daily.
Doctor's Review
The doctor's review was no longer daily. After bathing time, a nurse would place each patient's file on the patient's table, but the doctor might give the patient a miss. Then the files would be put away. I didn't have anything to say to the doctor anyway.
One morning, I finally decided to steal a peek at my file. What did the doctors write, but never showed the patients? Were patients actually allowed to look anyway? It's mine, right?
Better play safe. While nobody was around, I quickly snapped pictures of my file for digestion at my own pace later.
Hmm, so I was told whatever was written on paper, sans the tech speak and details (not that I could remember anyway). The stated discharge plan confirmed my suspicion - TCU Dr L 4/52. That I would get my follow-up appointment only upon discharge! No discharge, no follow-up! So... good choice to leave No Use Hospital?
Waiting Time
As what the lady who orientated me advised, nurses indeed were unable to respond to calls promptly. The ability to predict my needs 30min in advance came in handy.
Free-time
Classified as the time when nobody was doing anything with me. Most of the patients just spent it in bed, staring at the ceiling or sleeping.
The tablet made the days so much more bearable.
Some were put in the chairs with a table along the corridor as a form of therapy. I didn't know the criteria for getting that treatment, but I was secretly wishing that I wouldn't get it. Very sian to stare at the corridor, you know. And table height was bad for using the tablet. It's like, tummy height. Not to forget having to wear the TLSO.
They did bring a table next to my bed and make me sit out a few times and I tried my best to sit for the longest I could each time. Still not getting used to it. I could never get used to peering down for long periods.
Blogging
I started blogging about what happened for the whole of 2011. Never wrote anything since my last trip! Seriously, nothing much happened. Just work. Didn't go out much too. Too busy.
This was when I discovered that the tablet keyboard has "pages". Numberpad, arrow keys, Home, End, symbols, all those stuff I have grown so dependent on.
Blogger is very user-unfriendly on the tablet. You cannot imagine how difficult it is to do something as simple as positioning the cursor; the cursor insisted on appearing in a random spot or selecting the words/paragraphs. I swear there is nothing wrong with my tapping ability. And there wasn't a mobile version. Unbelievable!
I solved the issue by typing on a plain text editor instead and pasting into Blogger to backup my work. (Learning to appreciate a plain text editor was one of the most useful skills I learned from university.) I used the stock text editor (Polaris I think) and put up with it (slow, crashed frequently) until I hit a character limit. That's so WTF. What era is this already? I wasn't even writing a novel. Forced to find an alternative, I came across a gem - the Jota Text Editor. Fast, higher character limit (never hit it), supports Chinese. Awesome!
G once asked if I was going to blog about my stay, to which I said this was not something I would want to be remembered. She said that it was a pity; my experience could be used as a reference.
I gave it a thought. She's right. And so here I am, documenting a part of my life that most people would like to forget.
Diapers-Changing Time
After dinner was a round of diaper-changing. That was coincidentally my dinner time... LOL.
Charging Time
Patients sleep. From 9pm onwards again. I have never lived with my gramps, so I don't understand.
My electronics drank juice. Great time to do something more power intensive, like watching movies.
The original tablet charger wasn't durable; its head broke off soon. It's just 2 months old?? Lousy!
Privacy
Or the lack of.
Not every nurse was diligent enough to draw the curtains behind my bed. When the slacker was reminded, she did it with a faint hint of displeasure, or a half-hearted attempt to draw them properly. Obviously they knew that was SOP. It was indeed not easy to do it properly lah, coz it was quite a stretch, but too bad for them lor. Got to open again after I was done somemore. Actually I didn't mind if they left it drawn forever. Later, I got sian of reminding them already.
That's not all. During shower time, the patients were dressed outside the shower cubicles due to space constraints. So you get to see lots of saggy breasts, but that's fine, since we were all female. It's not fine when the nurse left the toilet door wide open sometimes, or didn't ensure nobody was exposed before opening the door and leaving it open for longer than a person would take to slip in. The gents was further down the corridor, meaning the male patients and nurses could pass by the toilet anytime. The elderly patients must be too stoned to protest. Luckily I never kena, else I confirm complain.
Initially, I put my pants on when I got back to bed. Sometimes, the nurse looked like she was going to transfer me before drawing the curtains. Hello!! Have some regard for privacy please! The window is 5m away, FYI!
Extra Tests
For the elderly, of course. It seemed standard that new elderly patients must undergo that same test consisting of really difficult questions. I still couldn't remember the 3 random items!
There was a time in the gym when a therapist was testing a patient's senses for hot and cold. She filled one test tube with warm water and another test tube with cold water. Then she asked the patient to touch the test tubes and tell her which one was hot and which one was cold. Not an accurate test, I say! Even if the patient couldn't feel, he could still tell from the position of the condensation...
Activities
One day, a group activity, Bingo, was about to be held. The staff were going around inviting patients to join in.
Bingo??? No thanks haha. Invite declined. Don't know how to play. And I don't know how to mingle with old folks. Besides, my best friend is here and I must entertain it. *sayangs tablet*
Young people are the most picky and troublesome!
The staff asked me to coax my Cantonese-speaking neighbor to join in when I'm not joining in. Not very convincing lor! They should have mahjong instead. Confirm all fight to join in.
A very thoughtful service - monthly haircut. I agreed to go since I didn't know when I could go for a proper haircut again, but ended up I was at PT during that time. Sianz. Or I might chicken out at the last minute, for what I know.
Next up, Christmas party. Hope I wouldn't be around by then.
Visitors
W, E, and J came to accompany me weekly. Because my neighbors zzz so early (again), we went out of the ward. They dapaoed dinner since there wasn't any nice food nearby - of course there was the hot sandwiches vending machine, if you would consider it. The times were always almost perfect, just marred by having to wear the TLSO and that it was quite warm.
My JC class visited one weekend. A bit unexpected ley. There was even a rare guest K! Confirmed and exchanged gossips, what we were up to. But it was kind of weird when they were all standing around me like a bunch of IA students. Should have gone outside... maybe not, it's hot :P
Z dropped by on another occasion, but unfortunately I was at the gym, so we missed each other. Damn! Out of so many hours in the working day, why did I have to be having PT at that time? :\ He left me some snacks, 1 box of black love letters (although it was on the banned list) and an orange color pillow-shaped keropok that I normally don't eat. Thanks!
Z dropped by again another day and this time, he came to the gym when he couldn't find me in my bed. And my PT happily left us alone for a few minutes -_-
Colleagues didn't come although the place was geographically near. Sometimes, it's so near, yet so far. The same way that I feel about travelling to my workplace. Lunchtime is too short too, understandably.
M didn't visit, but he sent some kimchi air-flown from Korea to my house, which arrived in my lunch. Thanks!
Who's Da Boss?
When the doctors only come once a week and therapists are the one you see everyday, I would expect doctors to be the clueless one. I overheard a therapist complaining to another about a doctor insisting on his own views regarding a patient and refusing to trust the therapists' judgement.
Not long before, I also overheard a patient's family listening to the therapist and replying, "I will ask the doctor." for everything.
And so, I told the doctor first about my decision to discharge. Seems like the right start for information to filter down.
Money
Now I know why No Use Hospital couldn't answer me regarding the estimated cost of the stay here - because nobody knows! Means testing was conducted only upon admission and still you won't get to know your daily rate until you get discharged and wait for the bill to come in your mail.
How can patients make informed choices then? Don't give the lame excuse that all patients receive the same care in all public hospitals - that's as true as the claim that all schools in Singapore provide the same quality of education.
What to do? Suck thumb lor.
Random Musings
2 weeks after we discovered the green corner, we visited it again. They have cleaned the water! Gave it an overhaul, in fact. Guppies in place of gold fish. Wonder if the gold fish all died or were discarded...
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Cost-cutting! A nurse went around turning off the lights during the day because it was "bright enough". Sure, it was bright enough for sleeping and stoning, the most common activity. However, I don't think that was conducive towards recovery. A person who has almost or already given up, wouldn't feel encouraged to do anything when the environment is not as bright as it could be!
I was fine with it. I have my private light source.
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One night, a nurse went around putting a bag of diapers in every cupboard, mine included. Eh I don't need ley... But I just let it be because I didn't feel like talking to that nurse who obviously had problem with English. Or perhaps it was SOP. I will just watch out to make sure no nurse used that bag for another patient and that I wouldn't get charged for it at the end of my stay.
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One afternoon, there was suddenly a commotion from the men's ward behind me. Turned out that a patient who normally refused therapy, decided to get out of bed on his own out of the blue and fell. Now, a patient falling was no small matter. The patient's well-being aside, the staff in charge was going to have to write a report. I feel sorry for the staff already.
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As mentioned, there was no hand sanitizer at every bed. We found out where they kept it - at the front of every ward. And it's done for. Father used it to clean my TLSO and my table daily. It's gonna be depleting at an unprecedented rate. Hope wouldn't tio complain lol!
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Every 2 Saturdays, patients were weighed. Since many patients had poor mobility, they have a sitting weighing scale.
Never knew it exists! Seemed quite accurate too.
Think I ballooned by 4kg? I was weighed twice during my stay and the second measurement was greater than the first :X
So I guess I'm prone to overeating when I can't see the complete meal and being fed. Lying down in bed soon after dinner didn't help.
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Tried to replace my earplugs, but they don't provide earplugs here!! And somehow couldn't find them anywhere outside too. Weird!
Contemplating buying a box online...
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Thought about stuff. Like getting a maid. But I ended up surfing maid horror stories LOL!
Getting a (cheap) car. Same old crap about requiring me to be the driver. No concession for family members. Ended up surfing sgcarmart. Fail again, revisit a few years later.
Portable parking stickers. Just for a couple of pre-registered cars. Quite useless then.
Come to think of it, does "old folks' home" for people who are not old exist? Seemed like it doesn't. No wonder desperate people prefer hospitals and prison.
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