Today marks the 100th day that I have been in hospital. I have been in here since the 27th May 2022 and it’s now the 4th September 2022. I have been in the same single room, in the same ward for this inter time. And right now, things are beginning to harder and harder as the days continue going up.
Something my doctors, social workers, caseworkers have all been worried about is the effect this is having on my mental health and I can tell you that it is seriously starting to impact that in a bad way. My depression and anxiety is getting worse and I am starting to lose my temper at the slightest of things, this has been happening for weeks now.
For roughly 8 to 9 weeks now I could have been discharged as there is now no “medical” reason actually keeping me in hospital. Hang on, if there is no medical reason I am in hospital, why am I still here? This is actually very simple, the property I was in prior to being admitted on May 27th is no longer suitable and I cannot return there. This is because the wheelchair will not fit through the front door, nor will it get around in the bathroom. The OT department of the hospital which has to sign off on the property I am discharged too cannot allow me to return there under those conditions. So, DCJ has to find another property that suits those needs. And to date there has been 3 properties mentioned but they keep denying them at the last minute for one reason or another. So, until a suitable property is found I am stuck in this hospital room.
Everyone has been trying to get DCJ to get a move on for the last couple of months with no luck, so last week I contacted several members of our State Government, including the Minister for Health and the Minister for Communities and Justice (DCJ). I received a reply pretty quick and phone calls were made to the hospital to find out the situation and what I informed them all through email was confirmed. Now we are waiting on them contacting the Gosford Housing office dealing with my accommodation needs to find out what is going on and when a property will be available for my needs. Right now, I am costing the tax payers of NSW thousands of dollars a day taking up an acute hospital surgical room for no reason other than accommodation.
There is so much stress that I am going through in here that people really don’t understand what I am going through and even know it has been roughly 3 months since the final major surgery of the below knee amputation there is still a lot of pain involved as healing is still taking place within the stump itself, even though it is looking fantastic on the outside, inside is still healing. And I had a bit of a fluid on the bone of the stump which caused a few issues.
Anyway, that will do for today and I will post more over the coming days about what is going on with me. Later for now …
