Delirium Diary 8 – Can anyone else see the LifeBoat?

I was now in a very bright, well light room…..in a car showroom! It seemed the ICU was full and this was on overspill ward – I could see the hospital across the car park!! My bed was tucked out of the way, next to a reception desk. The office staff came in and were very chirpy,talking to me. It felt like a Sunday! I discovered that the ‘monster’ in front of me all night, that I hadn’t taken my eyes off, was in fact a sales display for an outboard engine so that relieved me! Everything was calm and I felt settled. I was then approached by a new nurse, Stacey. She was lovely and we hit it off straight away. I wanted to be like Stacey!! She was kind, understanding and caring. She said that as i’d been in bed for so long, would I like a wash and for her to wash my hair? She asked the receptionist if she could use her hair dryer and found some lovely smelling shower gel and shampoo IIwish I knew what they were!). She gave me the most amazing bed bath – she didn’t roll me around too much or put me in any pain, I was in heaven. She tilted my bed back and placed some sort of plastic tray under my head and washed my hair – it was out of this world! She blow dried it and I felt human! We had such a laugh and a giggle, things began to feel less scary. I was told that my parents had arrived, with my husband and daughter – they were dropping off my phone charger and would come back later.  All was good in the world and I felt happy! Stacey told me that I was being taken for a CT scan and it was all quite exciting! When the time came, she placed all of my equipment on my bed – I even held something!. I was pushed through underground corridors, past underwater swimming pools and an olympic training camp (!!!!) and arrived at the CT suite. I was placed in a waiting area and asked to drink a liquid. Now bearing in mind that I hadn’t drunk for 3 weeks, this was quite weird. The radiographer told me to drink as much as I could but the nurse told me that I would feel very full very quickly! I began to drink and it was like nectar!! So sweet, refreshing…….it was amazing! The staff were giggling at me because what I was drinking was actually quite unpleasant but not to me. I was the talk of the ward for quite some time afterwards, ‘the patient who loved the radioactive liquid’!!

I was returned back to the overspill intensive care ward and we were now in a water sports training facility. Another nurse kept appearing, I think she was African but she was an olympic swimmer in her spare time and offered to take me into the pool as part of my rehab which I thought was great!! It was a really fun day – lots of laughing and smiling, I didn’t have a care in the world! My family visited in pairs and I had great pleasure in telling my dad about the Plymouth LifeBoat that was moored up outside on the water! We had a great argument as I was adamant that it was there, I’d seen it with my own eyes!!!!

Photo credit: https://rnli.org/about-us/our-history/timeline/1996-the-severn-class-lifeboat

And thats’ where this scenario ends…………..How weird!!!  I now volunteer for the RNLI so perhaps that was a vision I had into the future. I don’t know if Stacey (or the african nurse) were real but I hope they were. I remember telling Stacey that when I got out of hospital I was going to retrain and become a nurse!!! She was fab.

I now know that the ‘Flashing lights monster’ was in fact equipment in the patients bay opposite me. The car showroom? Who knows, but my dad had collected a brand new van and I had been to the showroom with him before I went into hospital so perhaps thats where that came from! Having had many CT scans and swallow tests since drinking the ‘amazing liquid’, I can confirm that it was in fact – disgusting!!