Last weekend my dad organised a scooter ride to Hunstanton (aka Run to the Hun): a great weekend with great weather.
Whilst there, I came across a leaflet which is given to patients when they step down from intensive care, and when they finally go home. It outlined PTSD, but also went into detail about why this can occur. Perhaps the most helpful part was it didn't once mention the phrase "at least you made it out of here", or anything similar.
It explained that your mind makes links with things when you're ill, which you're often too ill to be aware of. It used the example of feeling unwell, in pain and frightened whilst being in hospital, and then associating these feelings with the beeping sound of machinery surrounding you. This is something so simple which I hadn't considered before. Understanding this made me realise why - in December, January and February - I was terrified by most aspects of daily life. I'd associated bleeping with pain, despair and fear and these emotions were re-triggered every time I heard a beep - from a phone, a doorbell, a microwave, an oven, or even an e-mail. It explained why I found it impossible to sleep in a normal bed without some fairly hefty sedation, because I was used to being semi-recumbent on a hospital air mattress with opiates being pumped directly into a central vein. It also described how the relative silence of 'home' becomes an unfamiliar, and therefore unsettling, sound.
Who knew one shift could achieve so much?
Love Emily x
Now academic work is a thing of the past I've been filling my spare time with HCA shifts. I recently worked on an intensive care unit and was amazed at the closure this brought. I booked the shift because I thought it'd be an interesting place to work, and it didn't occur to me that it would affect me on a personal level.
Whilst there, I came across a leaflet which is given to patients when they step down from intensive care, and when they finally go home. It outlined PTSD, but also went into detail about why this can occur. Perhaps the most helpful part was it didn't once mention the phrase "at least you made it out of here", or anything similar.
It explained that your mind makes links with things when you're ill, which you're often too ill to be aware of. It used the example of feeling unwell, in pain and frightened whilst being in hospital, and then associating these feelings with the beeping sound of machinery surrounding you. This is something so simple which I hadn't considered before. Understanding this made me realise why - in December, January and February - I was terrified by most aspects of daily life. I'd associated bleeping with pain, despair and fear and these emotions were re-triggered every time I heard a beep - from a phone, a doorbell, a microwave, an oven, or even an e-mail. It explained why I found it impossible to sleep in a normal bed without some fairly hefty sedation, because I was used to being semi-recumbent on a hospital air mattress with opiates being pumped directly into a central vein. It also described how the relative silence of 'home' becomes an unfamiliar, and therefore unsettling, sound.
Who knew one shift could achieve so much?
Love Emily x
