5 - The story continues

The Critical Care department, for me, was quite a blur. My lasting memories, as I came around from the induced coma I had been placed in for a month and a half, are semi lucid fantasyscapes that, although I know are based in reality, feel as real to me as a dream does upon waking from a long nights sleep and going through the hazy recall process.

"..I came to visual terms with my physical predicament."

Overall, as I was being transported from the Critical Care area to the High Dependancy Unit, I came to visual terms with my physical predicament. For my right leg; it was in a full leg backslab cast. My left had a an exterior fixator that held my leg in position due to my smashed knee condition, the securing pins drilled into my bones breaching the surface of my skin in a very alien way. The large fixator on my left arm, too, was bulky and set to a right angle to ensure a lack of movement to limit any further damage until further surgery could correct it.

Right leg metal work

Right ankle metal work

Left knee exterior fixator x-ray

Left elbow exterior fixator x-ray

The external doors were opened and the outside light stung my eyes while I was taken by the porters to the ambulance. Critical Care is generally kept at ambient light levels constantly, although there were periods when the room light levels were reduced to keep a nominal body clock system working. Squinting against the light, I was transfered to the HDU.

"I was beginning to realise the severity of my situation"

Now that my conciousness was fully returned, I was beginning to realise the severity of my situation. Many a long evening in that bustling ward, watching the nurses buzz about the room past the end of my bed that had become my immediate world, I held personal counsel, retreating to my thoughts to try and organise my erratic feelings and somehow try to stem the spread of impending anxiety and depression that was threatening to dominate my every waking attention. Sleep for me was somewhat capricious, snatching moments here and there when the tiredness took its hold. 

However, time spent in this ward was shortlived as I was moved, after a week, to the Liver unit and it was here that I first met the team of Physiotherapists.