Room 8

Not too bad i thought as i was wheeled in on a stretcher and then transferred to my bed, one i would become too well acquainted with over the coming weeks...

There was a small colour tv on a wall bracket in the top left of the room, a small toilet/bathroom in the back right of the room, a couch on the right of the room, under the window, an aircon above the couch, and a small chest of drawers next to the bed, which was against the left hand wall.

A telephone was mounted on the wall above and behind me. I was given the internal number for help, 231, and told to call it if i needed any help at all.

Being in a cast and under strict instructions from the doctor to stay in bed, i wouldnt be using the toilet, couldnt reach the on/off switch for the aircon, which either blew freezing cold, or not at all, in which case the room was hot in a matter of half an hour.

"Oh well", i thought, "i have the nurses to help me if i need anything."

Turns out the tv remote was a universal one and no-one knew how to sync it with the tv.

When one of my mates came to visit me, i asked him to search on the internet on his phone for the syncing procedure of the remote. He gave me the instructions, but they didnt work. I suspected a faulty remote.
I asked numerous times about a replacement remote, and was repeatedly told that they would fix the problem for me, but never did.

After a while they were not as punctual on the service side of things either. Sometimes it was a 2h wait before a nurse would answer my call of some toilet aid. I was beginning to see where the ambulance drivers got it from!

Every day i would be woken up at 6.30am for one of the nurses to give me a bath in bed, and change the sheets.
Breakfast would arrive around 8am, and was normally just 4 slices of french loaf, lightly toasted, a piece of cheese, and a cup of warm milk.

One of the janitors would come in at some point in the morning and mop the floors.

Lunch started off being a decent amount of food, usually some meat, some bread, and a bowl of soup. It arrived around 12.30.

Supper was at 4pm, and also started off as a decent amount of food.
I say decent as in decent for what you expect to find in a hospital, but certainly a lot less than i was used to eating in a normal day.

For now, i was happy as anyone could be, looking at a years worth of recovery. Certainly happy to be alive though.