Dairy Chapter 7

At Ivanhoe they left us wads of papers to sign- mainly since I was to give consent. They also left us with a few days of menus to complete. Because Sandy couldn’t think clearly or see properly I filled in his menus. They were daft, full of typos, repetitions and formatting errors.

We put our teensy bit of luggage away.

Afterwards I began to complain to Sandy about everything and he to me to snap out of it, which was kinda useful.

We asked the Chief of Nurses when we could get out, but of course, she could not answer because apparently our Adelaide assessments meant nothing and we hadn’t been assessed by their therapists yet.

We felt like we less than adults and trapped. To make matters worse, no-one had sorted out our meal order so we were served whatever was available that night- soggy sandwiches.

All around us there were people making noises. The refrain consisted of “Nurse, Nurse, Nurse...” repetitively in a dull monotone; folk songs sung in Italian from sun up to after midnight, people who screamed in fear when the sun came up or lights were turned on to other people who screamed when the sun went down or the lights went off. It was non stop- all the time. This was enhanced by people who crept around your room while you slept and another woman who crept in while we apparently slept and then spat in our bin before leaving.

We alternatively complained and cheered each other up. When Mum and Dad and Nina came we unburdened ourselves to them. But although loud and dilapidated, what else could we expect? I suppose we had to be assessed somehow. And unlike Adelaide, medical staff only worked on a Monday and Thursday. After abandoning ourselves to our family we felt strong enough to cope.

Some staff were caring, while others said we only noticed stuff cos we were cognisant. Does that mean that if you aren’t mentally aware it’s Ok to use dirty bathroom and be surrounded by tobacco smoke and noise?

The only decent thing was daily physiotherapy; otherwise, for 10 days they fed me and ignored me. Even when they released me, they told me nothing about what I should do or when, who to see etc. I knew nothing about where to go from this point.

By the weekend we decided we just had to endure it. The main pain was our shared bathroom with the occupants next door. Rivers of urine ran along the floor all the time and we soon got used to using the main public toilets instead of ours. At night I used to get the nurses to clean the room first since I spent most nights awake while Sandy slept. I was always awake and so were our vocal colleagues. Ear plugs, TV and Panadeine took care of the worst of them.

Slowly Sandy was getting better. We didn't know it yet, but I certainly was not and Ivanhoe helped not a bit.

I was released on 23 January 2005 and Sandy was released on the 28 January 2005.