So it took 35 years but in early December 2020 I had my first experience being admitted to hospital. It was eye opening to say the least and my experience highlighted for me certain things that I NEVER considered when working for the same hospital system. These are my reflections on my hospital experience.
Look after yourself, look after others and always keep Occupied
Brock
@brockcookOT
brock.cook@me.com
www.occupiedpodcast.com
Automatic Transcription
104 My Hospital Stay Reflection
00:00:01 – 00:05:02
So early december. I had my first ever stay in hospital and during that time. And since all of the follow-up excetera i have really been trying to focus on using it as a learning opportunity to see what it’s like on the other side of the health service. I would like to have a conversation today about my experience. And hopefully there’s some tidbits in there that you can learn from and reflect on your own service delivery or your own experience on the other side of the fence So here’s my reflections on my hospital. Stay get a named brock. Cook and welcome to occupied in this podcast. Where aiming to put the occupation in occupational therapy we explore the people topics theories and underpinnings the make this profession sewing credible. If you knew here you can find all that. Previous episodes and resources at occupied podcasts dot com. But for now let’s roll the episode in early october. Twenty twenty is started getting a sore throat. I had assumed that shoe to the weather becoming extremely hot and the fact that we started using air conditioning. More i was coming down with a cold. I tend to get sick very often. But when i do tends to be around those times where during my day i change from hot to call hot to cold environments sort of more regularly. That sort of shift in temperature is really often during the day. Tend to mess me up a bit. So i just assumed i was getting a cold. It started out. Felt like a bit of a nice strip thrive. That kind of thing took some throat. Lozenges etc fell my glands role a little bit swollen etc. Didn’t think too much of it. The next day that would have been like a wednesday the next day so thursday it was slightly was nothing to be concerned about. I’ve definitely had worse. Flus and sort of gradually very very slowly got worse throughout that thursday so went to bed about ten o’clock on thursday. Not not thinking anything open. I think had a throat lozenges or something just before oh into bed just to try and ease it enough that i could get to sleep. I woke up at three o’clock in the morning. Friday morning and my throat was so swollen. I could feel it impeding on my airway. I could still breathe fine. I was struggling to talk. It fell on. My tongue was swollen. And i thought this isn’t really good. This no longer feels like it might be a cold. I should probably go and get checked out now for a bit of context. I had the day before. Already made an appointment with my gp for that friday afternoon to go and get my throat checked anyway. Just in case at three in the morning it was at a stage. Where i was like. I can’t really white another just over twelve hours for my gp appointment. I’m gonna go into a med and see and get checked out. So i took myself into emergency department at the local hospital here. Which is where my story begins side. I’m rocking up. And i will preface this that i am not out to slag off any particular service any staf any department anything like that. I am simply conveying my experience with going through this system i system that have never been on this side of before of never had a hospital. Stay that our member. Apparently i had a short one went ahead. Add noise that. When i was a kid. I have no recollection of that But this is my first time that i’ve ever had access emergency services. First time i’ve ever stayed any extended time in a hospital or dealt with a lot of the professions that i dealt with during this i. I’ll preface it with that just in case it comes across because as positives and there’s definitely negatives To my experience the very first i would say probably negative was trying to actually sort of check in emergency. I rocked up the Obviously my iron ambulatory wanted myself in and trying to speak when i could. I was having some trouble breathing to a lady on the other side of a perspex screen. Who is asking me all kinds of details.
00:05:03 – 00:10:00
And i can’t speak. She’s struggling to understand me but rather than come up with some other way for me to be able to get her the information that she needed. We just continued this for a rather long on what felt like often al until she got enough details that she could actually admit me to or me on the computer. Anyway to the emergency department. I then waited at the front or in the waiting area at the front of the emergency department for not too long before nurse came out and took me and another lady who had been waiting there monitoring are how long she was there when i arrive. Says she’d been that long than me through the serve stores out into the actual emergency ward where she essentially showed us to a bed bed in an emergency. If you’re not sure is pretty much. Just a little curtained-off area. They’re very taught very small. They’re not very comfortable and it wasn’t too long. I i came pretty much all the same questions. The lady beforehand had asked me through the perspex gave her all of that information. It was stuff about what i’d been doing. You know what. I’d noticed how long the simpsons have been there all the usual questions you would think of a background as to the presenting issue. That was all fun straight. After that i had a junior doctor come and see me again all the same questions that the nurse had literally asked me probably ten minutes beforehand. This junior doctors However did a physical examination of my throat and my tongue and surrounding areas etc tribeca. What was going on which is fine. There was a slight bit a pain. She was quite gentle so it wasn’t too bad when that was sort of parking around my mouth in my my tongue etc. She had no idea what was going was a very unique presentation. I’ve found out since that even the when she went and got sort of her boss which i believe was the registrar on that shift. He came to the very similar examination. He wasn’t quite as gentle. Buddy was still. He was still really good. Those doctors in the emergency department. Wh- excellent keeping me in the loop about what they were thinking. What thou doing. What was going on. What was the next step. Excellent the emergency department at that hospital. It was as good an experience. As i could have hoped on the circumstances i guess they originally thought that it was some rare condition. Based on the fact that one side of my tongue was swollen and raised and my tongue. Wiscon- to slow ping and apparently that was some super rare condition that this Doctor had only ever seen before in his studies years ago. But that kind of made me somewhat of an anomaly for a short period. And i got more attention than i think i needed during that time. He did ask if students could come and have a look and examine because it was at the time he thought was going to be the super rare condition. Truck honey remember what. It was called some big medical name. The educator in me went. Yeah sure that’s fine mcafee lifelock. I got nowhere to be him sitting here waiting for you guys to work out what it is and how to fix it so i was more than happy for them to come and have a look. I eventually hurricane. I probably saw twenty doctors In that first couple hours Would come poss and purely ask if they could have a look do a little examination. Some of them were there for a minute I was poked and prodded more than i was expecting to. When i said that i was happy for that to happen. But in the end again the the educator in me or the want to assist in people’s landing Didn’t blink an eye when i that’s one. I got to a point where people were coming up to me and going. Oh your that such and such or you’re the person it wasn’t even my name. It was your the person with such and such condition by that stage. I was starting to think. Wow this is gonna make an interesting reflection at the end of it because that being labeled as a condition was definitely a new experience for me. It wasn’t some something that i was super pleasant or soup Comfortable with Up i never said anything at the time that we’re doing their job and again i was there for assistance. I had no idea what was going on.
00:10:00 – 00:15:00
I wouldn’t say. I was stress too worried because i like. I said i was still able to breathe. I started getting a lot of pain paint swallowing pain drinking pain anytime. I can talk anytime. I move my tongue. It would hurt so even though i could breathe. It hurt to do pretty much anything else i. I was trying to limit that which sending thirty five million doctors around to talk to me. Probably wasn’t assisting in it. I was sent for a c t where they discovered that it wasn’t actually this super a condition that they originally thought it might be all in reflection. I think they were kind of hoping that it would just to liven up their day or something. But in fact it was a massive soap starring in my saliva gland on the left hand side onto my tongue that had then become so infected and saw a swollen that it was actually pushing up on my tongue and then when it had nowhere else to go there was pushing in towards my airway side. The odd thing was often. I had that answer. I don’t think are sore now. The doctor until i got moved to award It was very it was an interestin