Written by Fox.
DAY 6 - 13th August
Tuesday is Keri's ward round. She's been waiting for an opportunity to speak with the overseeing psychiatrist since the day she got here. Finally, this afternoon she saw him. She wasn't even in there five minutes and I mean that quite literally. This is the conversation that happened, word for word. Just for those that don't know, Dr. W has a big projector on his wall linked to the computer so he can pop up any page and it projects on the wall.
- cue Keri enters room
Dr. W: "Hi again, Keri. I see you've dyed your hair since I last saw you when you were admitted."
Keri: "Yeah."
Dr. W (to the nurse at the computer): "Can you bring up Keri's notes please?"
Dr. W: "Is there any questions you want to ask, Keri?"
Keri: "When can I leave?"
Dr. W: "Well, you can leave whenever you want. You're voluntary aren't you?"
Keri: "No."
Dr. W: "Oh, have you ever been sectioned before? When was the last time?"
Keri: "A few years ago."
Dr. W (to the nurse at the computer): "Can you bring up Keri's section history please?"
Dr. W: "Well, I think it was agreed last time that hospital isn't the best place for you so I will have to try and speak to your care co-ordinator. Are you willing to stay as an informal patient?"
Keri: "No."
Dr. W: "Okay, then this will have to be carefully planned. Thanks for coming, Keri. I'm on holiday next week so there'll be a different psychiatrist seeing you."
Keri: "Okay, bye."
- cue Keri leaves room.
Not once did he ask about her symptoms and not once did he ask how she was feeling. Keri had promised her foster mum that she'd be honest about her symptoms with the psychiatrist. How is she supposed to be honest about them when the questions aren't even asked? Keri isn't going to openly bring up the topic herself! So that was an absolutely pointless waste of time.
As soon as that ward round finished Keri had another crying episode and ended up sitting in the garden with a nurse (let's call him Vex). Vex kept trying to argue with Keri's delusions and hallucinations which has made her even more distrusting of the staff. Keri told Vex that she didn't belong in the hospital as she isn't ill like everyone else appears to be. That was when Vex decided to turn around and say she was suffering with paranoid psychosis and lacks insight into reality. That's not the way to tell a delusional person something like that! She's now gone into complete suspicious mode. Vex told her to try writing down her feelings so a couple of hours later she ended up handing in a page of doodles about what she was seeing and how she wanted to get the insect out and such. Whether anyone is going to speak to her about this or not I do not know.
The only thing that helped Keri today was her visitors; her Personal Advisor (PA) from social services and her old respite carers, T&D. All of them managed to get a smile out of her. T&D even managed several laughs! For a moment she forgot about her paranoid psychosis and actually laughed. Now she's back to sitting in her room wondering who she can even trust at the moment. Her section still hasn't been lifted and all she wants to do is climb over the fence (which she tried to do the other day). The problem is Sally would love to do this too and has about 8 times the strength Keri has which means she'd climb that fence like a cat. The down side to Keri being so skinny is she's about the only patient on the ward that can actually fit their fingers through the gaps in the wired fence to grip enough to climb it!
Phew. I feel a little better now I've ranted all that out. Thanks blogger! And thanks to all the wonderful messages we've been getting through the DID page. The support has been amazing and it's very appreciated. :)
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