Vegetable On the Loose

People asked what happened and where you have been. Well, I've been at home and home doesn't keep medical records. As for what happened...the closest is this comedy movie clip:



I wasn't a prisoner. The hospital couldn't keep me. As soon as I could, I went out and came back. The very first time I did this I wasn't even completely weaned from the ventilator yet. My sister was having a birthday party at a kid's restaurant and I could piggy-back in and have cakes for my children. I had missed one's birthday and the other had one coming up.

I was on the ventilator at night while I slept. I could get out of the hospital for the day. This was already the second hospital and it had been 9 months.

As I got better, I went out more often. The hospital I was at during my final outing was moving everyone in the unit I was in to other living arrangements as it was closing. I didn't want to move to a nursing home. This was the fourth hospital. (There had been two nursing homes, also.)

A sister signed as a caregiver. I don't think I was ever discharged. Care was only transferred. The arrangement lasted a few weeks and I should have returned to the hospital. This was an area of specialty for me, though. I used to do coordination of services for persons requiring medical care, but remaining at home. I could do this as long as I remained conscious. I wouldn't have to return to the hospital if I could set up community care.

I remained living in my own home, but used community resources. You need to know which ones and if your community has them in order for you to do something like this.

This is what I have been doing the last few years. I have a local specialist amazed at my ability to get special medical equipment delivered directly to me. I just know my community resources really well.

As you can see, I wasn't on a field trip. I was on an outing, though. While out, the economy crashed and that particular hospital unit I had been at closed. I had no where to return. I've done fine and don't want to go to a hospital now. (Besides...it's a lot cheaper.) I'm still "semi-vegetative". Change that term. Don't send me back because of it.

Updated 1/25/2015