Sectioned in Hospital - Day 1 & 2

Written by Fox.

DAY 1 - 8th August

Keri was sectioned after being assessed at home at 2am Wednesday morning. By the time it was 3am they'd already got her to the hospital using their escorted transport crap. Bearing in mind these doctors and social worker arrived at 1.30am, Keri was in her pyjamas. She wasn't even given the chance to get dressed. She had time to grab her iPod and cigarettes but that was it as the transport team were in a hurry to go.

On arrival, she was shown where her room was and then paced round and round the garden for a couple of hours as she was so agitated. A doctor saw her at about 5.30am, by which point she was still pacing round the garden. As Keri had already had all her night time medication, the doctor decided to give her some Lorazepam on the condition that Keri go to her room and try to sleep. Keri agreed and managed to get a couple of hours sleep before pacing around the garden again at 7.30am.

Most of the day involved her pacing around the garden constantly. She found it depressing that the nurses there treated her like an old friend (she was admitted in Nov - Dec 2012 and Jan - March 2013, both were voluntary). In some ways though she also felt comforted to know there were staff there that knew her and knew how to handle her. In addition to her usual meds she was also given some more Lorazepam later in the day while a doctor did all her obs which showed how anxious she was (pulse, blood pressure, ECG, temperature, resps etc). She was told that she was going to see the psychiatrist that morning as he is now the one who is responsible for discharging her. She never got to see him. 

Keri was getting more and more stressed out because she felt the insect scratching inside her brain again and needed to get it out. She started scratching at the skin on her wrist to make herself feel better. The problem is, she has long fingernails and it caused quite a bit of damage. What I found ridiculous is that a nurse (let's call her Cat) came into her room and saw what she was doing. At first she asked Keri to stop but Keri was feeling compelled to carry on which meant Cat had to hold both her wrists to stop her doing it. In the end, she let go and Keri started scratching again, by this point she was drawing blood.

Do you know what Cat did? She got up from beside Keri and said, "Right, I'm going to leave you to it for now as I'm not sitting here watching you do that." She actually walked out the room and let Keri carry on doing it! I found this outrageous! Cat later came back to check on Keri and brought with her Keri's 2nd dose of medication, more Diazepam. It was the midday dose but Cat decided to give it to her early. After this she was taken to the clinic room and Cat bandaged up Keri's wrist to see if it would stop her scratching at it. It worked. Her compulsion to keep digging her nails deeper and deeper calmed down and she continued with pacing round and round the garden.

Her foster mum visited early afternoon so she could finally get changed out of her pyjamas! Keri didn't think she was going to turn up. There are a lot of doubts in her mind at the moment as she still can't see the logic of her being sectioned in the first place. Even so, she told her foster mum that she didn't hate them (too strong a word) but she did slightly dislike them for wanting Keri to have a mental health act assessment. So she had clothes and toiletries! And cigarettes most importantly! She was really pleased to be able to sit down with her foster mum and chat on the garden. It was one of those moments where there was some comfort and things didn't go wrong again until afterwards, cabin fever I think!

 

The next time something went wrong was when she started hallucinating. Before being admitted she kept saying there were people outside the house. It was real to her but of course no one else could see them. She saw them outside her bedroom window in the hospital, banging at the glass and shouting at her. She ended up hiding on top of her wardrobe to stay safe. The staff were concerned and four of them came into her room when they found her on top of the wardrobe. By this point Keri had broken down into tears and was very upset. She still didn't understand why she was admitted and was desperate to be discharged. She was also crying over the fact her foster carers were going to be on holiday so she wouldn't have anywhere to go if she was discharged anyway. The staff sat with her for a while after some persuasion getting her down from the wardrobe.

Her day got even worse when Sally started trying to concoct escape plans. Luckily she didn't go through with them. Not yet anyway. She was given the same cocktail of medication and slept a bit better after working up a sleep debt. Even so she struggled to stay asleep for long. I've no idea how she is so wide awake with all the medication she's taking!

That night she slept a little better as they gave her extra Lorazepam again along with her Diazepam, Quetiapine, Mirtazapine and Zopiclone; even though she was up and dressed by about 4am!

DAY 2 - 9th August

Wow. Four visitors in one day! Keri's exhausted! First her foster mum visited with everything that wasn't the essentials, including what I asked for which was the iPad and Internet so I could update you guys! I don't want to abandon the page with so many supporters! She kindly bought Keri's laptop, a couple of things to put on her wall and, of course, her foster mum's special teddy. Keri was thrilled with this as it is basically her foster mum's way of saying "Keri, we're here for you no matter where you are and you've always got a home to come back to". Lovely isn't it? :) Unfortunately her plugs got taken away to be tested so the iPad is low on battery and so is her iPod! She's not happy! The nurses said it'll be done within 24 hours, way too long. 

The outreach worker from the fostering agency also visited about an hour or two after Keri's foster mum left, bringing Keri a strawberry milkshake from McDonald's! The best in the world according to Keri and her foster dad! She stayed for a couple of hours before disappearing off and promising to visit next week as Keri's foster parents are going on holiday to Turkey on Tuesday! 

Then, much to Keri's surprise when she heard the news from her foster mum that afternoon, her respite carers were coming to visit. These were the couple that Keri really bonded with and she was their first ever foster child. That's if you can call her a child as really she's a foster adult! But they also came bearing gifts for Keri; diet coke, sweets requested by Clarissa (my twin sister), iced coffee and for some reason a potted plant! Keri can hardly keep a goldfish alive let alone a plant. I reckon it'll be dead in a week! Because they knew Keri's foster parents were going on holiday they promised to come and visit during the week. The gratitude Keri felt about this was beyond words. She really likes those carers and is glad their relationship hasn't disappeared even at the point she's been sectioned.

She's just taken her final dose of medication and is still revved up but will hopefully calm down when they kick in. For the first time today, even though she's still psychotic, I heard her laugh several times. It was like music to my ears and it even made me feel happy to know there's so many people around her the love her, care for her and support her even in the dark times.

She was also given a leaflet today explaining her rights about being detained, about the fact she has to comply with any treatment and the expiry date of her section (unless of course the psychiatrist decides to put her on a section 3). Ridiculous as this should have been done on admission! She was told today that she wouldn't be seeing the psychiatrist in charge of her care until Tuesday as that's the day of her ward round. Bit crappy considering she came in early Wednesday morning! When she was voluntary she was seen the same day or the day after, no matter what day her ward round, yet because she's sectioned it seems to me that people think "Well, she can't legally leave for 28 days so we don't have to rush anything". So annoying! And it also got Keri quite down. She's feeling quite depressed now and very agitated, I want to see her smile tonight, even if it's only a small one!

So that's the first 2 days. The only dissociation that's been happening is me popping out secretly in Keri's bedroom! Although Keri has written on her whiteboard the three alters who are most likely to come out during her stay (me, Clarissa and Sally) and written some of our personality traits and also the signs to look out for to recognise us individually. Some of the nurses, especially Keri's favourite nurse (let's call her Lissy), are quite clued up when it comes to Keri dissociating and have met Sally and Clarissa quite openly, and also they've met me as I'm the one who normally attends any of her formal meetings.

Wow, a longer post than I'd hoped! But I hope you guys found it helpful. Let me know if I'm being too long-winded about the ins and outs of everything. Sometimes they'll be short posts, other times longer, depending on what's happened. There's a lot of complications when you combine D.I.D with psychosis!

Love to you guys!

Fox.