#when i spent easter break at a friend's house they told me the menu for the weekend ahead of time and asked what would be a good backup and

[wilhelmina-murray-harker]

tbh i dont think theres much i could appreciate more than people being cool with my adventures with food and being accommodating and respectful about it

[stuntchica]

i just keep getting so angry about hospital so im going to try and write down everything bad i can remember them doing to try and get it all out

when they first came to my house dr d completely waved off what i said abt not remembering childhood & being disturbed by that. he asked me to name a childhood toy & after i could he said ‘see, you can remember’ even though id literally seen that toy that morning & was remembering from,, you know,, my whole life not just my childhood

despite the fact that i was not a danger to myself or anyone else, dr d decided after seeing me for 20 minutes that i had to go into hospital. he said i could either come informally myself or he would have me sectioned

i was not told how long i would be there for. we were told to bring an overnight bag so i expected it to just be overnight. when i got there i was told that i’d be there for at least 2 weeks

when they first gave me the menu to order off i wasnt told that there was a Rule that i had to finish everything so i ordered the thing i thought id like the most even tho i knew there was stuff i wouldnt like with it

when the food arrived (pizza, peas & chips) i ate everything except the cheese on the pizza bc it was cheddar & thats a Bad Food(tm) & i was really proud of myself bc it was more than i’d had in one sitting for weeks. the exact words the nurse with me said were ‘this counts as a failure’

when the snack time came around no one told me the full list of options (weeks later i found out that chocolate was available) so i picked a yogurt. after opening it i realised it had bits in it but i was too scared to ask for a different one bc i didnt like any of the other flavours. i ate as much as i could but i rlly couldnt stand the bits. the nurse with me told me it was another failure but another nurse in the room, thankfully, replaced her & understood what had happened

i dont remember what happened on the rest of the first day bc my abandonment fear kicked in and i got really panicked when my parents had to leave

i dont remember the rest in chronological order, but lets see

the room i was put into had a leaky toilet. it would leak all night long and due to how the bathroom was the leak echoed. it sounded like a waterfall. every time they came to fix it it would break again later that day. my shower was also broken and wouldnt turn on

i had to have a blood test on a friday but they didnt send the bloods off straight away so i had to have another one the next monday. keep in mind that i have an intense fear of needles

dr d compared me going on the internet to drug addicts waiting in line for heroine, even after i explained that it was the only way i had to avoid isolating myself & tried to explain what i actually do there

i couldnt eat a meal and was told ‘if you dont start eating we’ll have to make you’ despite the fact that i was eating when i could & if i couldnt finish a meal i was eating chocolate that was in my room. also despite the fact i was an informal patient so that was literally not possible

dr d spent hours trying to convince & guilt me into agreeing to take medication, despite the fact that was the one thing i’d always said no to (fun fact! i literally cant swallow medication. no one took me seriously when i said that either). eventually tho the psychologist spoke to him abt it & he stopped

the first 2 weeks i was there i saw no therapists. at all. because it was the easter holidays and they were away. there was nothing to do all day except watch tv, colour, & play cards. despite the fact that we were all so bored we were not taken out of the hospital or allowed access to our phones

in fact, for the entire 2 months i was there i was only taken out by staff twice. both those times happened in the same day. and were to the same place. a costa that was in the main hospital. does it even count as going out if youre just taken to a different part of the same building?

i had to stay there for 2 months while actively suicidal patients were allowed to leave before their 2 week assessments were over

even my camhs psychologist admitted that she didnt expect them to keep me for more than 2 weeks

the hospital psychologist admitted that she had no idea why dr d was insisting i stay for so long

i was told i was going to be put on a meal plan. i told them that would make me lose weight bc it would further limit how much i could eat. they didnt listen to me and blamed me when i did, in fact, lose weight

for the first month i was there no one did anything about my weight. i had to keep telling them that was my main problem and i needed help with it. after their ‘help’ hindered more than anything i regretted bringing it up

one night we found a piece of paper saying ‘i have a knife and im going to use it to self harm or kill someone’. when we all got, understandably, scared the nurses patronised us and got annoyed with us

a nurse yelled at my friend for ‘not being polite’

my friend managed to run away from the hospital twice. there were warning signs that the rest of the patients picked up on. she nearly killed herself both times

my friend found a razorblade on a seat. she was so shocked to see it there she said out loud ‘there’s a razorblade’. she said later that she regretted alerting everyone to it bc the nurses obviously took it away. we still dont know how it got there

one girl brought in a pair of scissors. no one had thought to check her bag. luckily she didnt intend to use them for anything other than arts & crafts (& cutting her hair, which is how i found out about the scissors & told her to hand them in. yeah, they didnt even notice she had scissors until i pointed them out)

one girl stole a syringe from the medical room and used it to take the supplement out of her nose tube. they didnt notice for weeks.

one week i gained some of weight. when i was happy dr d said ‘thats not really enough to be happy about’. the next week a lost less weight than i had gained. he spent half an hour telling me about how much of a failure i was

dr d tried very hard to have me diagnosed with atypical anorexia despite me consistently saying ‘i want to gain weight because i know im unhealthily underweight’ and the fact that the reason i was admitted to camhs was bc i went to the doctor for help to gain weight

my parents came to collect me to go out every day at 1:30pm. one day by 3:30pm they still werent there. i was scared something had happened because i had no phone to text them using. eventually i was told that the staff had called them to tell them not to come, and no one had told me. i had a panic attack because theyd gone behind my back and this meant i wouldnt be able to text my fp all day. the next day when i saw dr d he said ‘youre nearly 18 isnt it a bit childish to get upset over not seeing your parents for just one day?’

an ot that i saw said that i ‘put on an american accent and smiled when it was pointed out’. what really happened was she asked if i had an american accent and i smiled out of awkwardness and said ‘i speak to american people so maybe i picked it up??’ bc i didnt want her to feel awkward. if she had asked me i would have told her that i wasnt trying to put on any kind of accent

we were allowed to watch the babadook and mama but the second we suggested a film about psychosis we were told no

me and my friend got yelled at for what was on tv once

they called the police on patients, multiple times, when it was clear that no one would have reacted violently if they’d just done their jobs right

my friend cried because she knew after she left hospital she would have a criminal record. she had punched a nurse by accident while having a panic attack

i was told i could go home & was being discharged. i emptied out my room and spent a great 2 weeks at home. then we were called and i was told i had to go back for a night

dr d always had an idea in his head of what was wrong with me, and if i said anything that went against it he’d tell me that i was either lying or in denial

dr d told me off for not looking at him and said it wasnt polite

dr d told me off for crying

dr d told me off for not feeling safe with my eyes closed

dr d told another patient that she was probably not autistic bc she understood what ‘pull your socks up’ meant

despite me saying that i wanted to be assessed for asd nothing happened. they told me that they would consider me to be ‘informally autistic’ but that meant literally nothing

nurses thought that they could get me to eat by sitting next to me and guilting me

very few nurses noticed that i ate chocolate after meals because i was aware of the fact that i wasnt eating much & i wanted to change that

i had to eat chocolate after meals bc no one listened to me when i explained my food issues and that was the only way to make sure i was eating

there was what was basically a riot. i wasnt there when it happened but its easy to see how people got that upset and angry

the day after the riot everyone was punished, even those of us who hadnt even been at the hospital

my friend was shut in the ‘rumpus room’ (padded room). its illegal to do that

it took a month before someone told me i was allowed to discharge myself

i spent two months in a psychiatric hospital. it was never explained why i was there in a way i could understand. dr d literally said ‘my colleagues ask why you’re still here’ yet he didn’t discharge me. if i hadn’t turned 18 im sure i would still be there. i wasnt diagnosed with anything. it made my mental health worse

this isnt even everything because my memory of then is very patchy

[plogan721]

Story Time or Storyteller: Your worst vacation

Illustration photo by P. Lynne Designs.  (c) 2017

Hello and welcome to Storytime. In this segment, to be determined when is the next time this will appear and depending on the response I get, I want to talk about my worst vacation.

Actually, it was not all bad, there were some pretty good and funny moments (read to the end), but the beginning and the end were bad.

I want to take you back to 2004, April, and my trip to Disney with my family.  I mentioned in the last post that at that time, I was a Disney Vacation Club member.  This was, and still is Disney’s way of owning a timeshare, based on in the point system.  I had gotten my first 150 points, and 2002’s points (150), and 2003’s (150) points as a way to say thank you for becoming a member.  For a family of 5 (me, my parents, my sister (age 15 at the time), and my nephew (age 8 at the time)), that was a very generous vacation week.  I had set the vacation for Easter week, which for Columbus, Ohio, USA Public Schools, this was the time when the children (and some college students) took a spring break (I still like the European system of vacation and hope one day we would adopt that system). The dates were for April 9-14, 2004.

After I book the stay at Disney’s Boardwalk Villas, I got dizzy one day after choir rehearsal, and I scheduled a doctor’s appointment.  My doctor sent me straight to the hospital, and I found out I had high blood pressure.  Not good for me, and I wondered if I had to cancel this vacation.  They put me on some medication, and it is under control today.  On with the trip.

They scheduled a follow-up for April 8, one day before the trip, which I was not happy about, but, OK.  That was not the only thing that was about to happen.

I was at my home, packing for our trip, and my sister called me.  She wanted me to pick her up from the church that was around the corner from my parents.  I refused, telling her that she can walk herself home.  My mother was packing, my nephew was playing with some friends, and dad was at work.  I also told her that I needed to get some sleep for my appointment the next day, so she got mad at me and hung up.

She got home, got into an argument with mom about staying out late, and stormed into her room.   She lit a candle for a minute.  Apparently, it was longer than a minute because she fell asleep and had knocked the candle, which was still burning.  She smelt the comforter burning and ran out the room to get something to put the fire out.  That woke up mom and my nephew, who tried to open the door to the room, but the door was stuck.  The alarm sounded, and the people from the alarm place called to see if everything was alright.  This company does a double calling.  They also called my aunt who lived on the next street over, and he called my dad to come home from work. 

In the meantime, no one called me.  I was still up, trying to pack some of the clothes I had washed for the trip. I was told later that had they called my house, I would have panicked, which I would have.  Thank God no one was hurt.

The next day, as I prepared to go to the doctor’s appointment, something told me that something was wrong, but I did not know what.  So, I got dressed, got in the car and started driving towards my parent’s house, which was on the way to my doctor’s appointment.  As I drove down the street, I noticed something strange about the house, but I could not put my finger on it.  I was pretty early for the appointment, so, I decided to stop in to see if everything was alright.

As I got closer, I noticed a big black hole where the windows of my sister and nephew’s rooms used to be, and on the side of the house on the right side was a burnt mattress.  I sped around the corner on in the driveway, got out, and ran to the front door.  There were people taking clothes out the front door and dad talking to an insurance person.  I went to the kitchen and asked mom what happened and she told me.  I am trying to make sense of everything and mom told me not to worry about it and go to my appointment. 

I got a clean bill of health to go on the trip and stopped by the house after the appointment.  Me and my parents were talking, and I had to address the elephant in the room, “were we still going on this trip?”  It would be a waste if we did not. 

So, that night, I packed my luggage in my car, locked up my house, and headed towards my parent’s house.  The plan was to pack up my car, stay the night at a hotel, which was the plan before the fire, then the next day, we drove down to the airport, parked my car, and got on the plane to go towards Disney World.

Getting lost and bad food…

We got off the plane and dad had rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee (do they make those anymore?).  Nice car for 5 people.  Roomy, I had the whole back seat to myself.  Score.  Now it is time for us to find Disney.  One of the things I like about Disney now is if you fly into Orlando Metropolitan airport and you are staying at a Disney Resort, they do have the magic Express Bus.  Not the case if you are flying from Rickenbacker Airport to Tampa International airport.  If that was the case, then three adults, a child, and a teen would not have been seen wondering through the streets of Tampa and Orlando, before reaching their destination.  The kids fell asleep, I fell asleep, and mom and dad were talking.  Nothing like a quick stop to Burger King to put us all in the mood of La-La Land. 

When I woke up, dad was trying to find the entrance.  There are 50 ways to get into Disney, and we had to pick the one that was the less noticeable.  Well, we turned around in a parking lot of a church and went back in the other direction.  Soon, my nephew, who was the only one that was alert asked, “are we looking for the entrance back there?”  We had passed it again, so we turned around once more, this time in a parking lot for all things Disney souvenir.

We pulled in and started looking for the resort.  At Disney, there are plenty of signs, and it took a minute, but we found it.  Since the reservations were in my name, I had to check us in.  Once in the suite of three bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and our own private viewing of the pool with a clown for a waterslide, we began to rest for a moment, then prepared for our first dinner reservation of the trip, Boma.

Boma, which is located in the Animal Kingdom, is an African Buffet Restaurant.  I liked the food, the parents and kids did not.  I am the only one who is adventurous in my family, except now I can add my nephew to the mix (at least he will eat sushi with me).  When he was 8, he only ate hamburgers and French fries (now I see where my other nephew, his brother gets it from).  When that happens, I consider that a bad meal.  I cannot enjoy a meal when your family is sitting there complaining about it.  So, for future trips, we will not be going to this place.

The Rest of the Trip…

I realized this is a long story so I will tell you later.   I thought I had a copy of the posts from my Traveling to The Mouse’s House, which was a trip report (also another form of storytelling) of this trip, but when my computer had to be decluttered by Geek Squad last October), the blog file was not part of the files restored.

A couple of things to note about this trip of mine:

The last day at Disney (we had two more days before catching the flight home, which you can read about in the last post), we went to a restaurant called Ohana, which means “family” Polynesian, and if you have watched Lilo and Stitch, it also means “everyone is family and no one gets left behind”.  I do want to warn you, if you are vegan or vegetarian, this is not the place for you, although I think they have since added those options to the menu.

Anyway, we ran late (which was no surprise when you have a stubborn teen in the mix.  Our reservations were for 7 pm, and we got there at 7:15.  So we waited.  While waiting, the child and teen got into it, and dad had to issue a “no talking zone”, and to sit away from each other.  Mom got restless and started looking at the drink menu.  (Insert comic moment- things you don’t do when bored and not a drinker): Ask about the drinks.  She wanted to know what was a Backscratcher.  We told her that it would put her under the table.  Then she asked about what was in the other drinks.  Thank God, the hostess rescued us before we got into THAT conversation, LOL.

Next dad started calling everyone “cousin”, which is the proper way to greet family.  So, we had a cousin waiter, a cousin hostess, and so on.  My family is really humorous.

The other thing was once you leave Disney, it is best to go home.  We did not leave for the flight home until Friday.  Between the Wednesday, we checked out of Boardwalk Villas to our new home, a dilapidated hotel (or should I say motel, because you enter the rooms from the outside, not a lobby), and it was "Boring City" after that.  Me and my sister did not want to go visit one of Dad’s friends with them (nephew had to go because his friend was there), and I spent most of the day trying to find a place within walking distance to file my taxes, and she was in the pool. We had Domino’s pizza, and my parents came back after that.  We sleep a couple of hours before headed towards the airport. That was Thursday.  

Friday…

We dealt with a string of plane issues.  One pilot was sick so another one had to be called in.  Then, he forgot that he was called, so we had to wait on him to arrive.  Once we got up in the air, we were 5 mins from home, and the plane turned around.  Something fell off the plane while in the air, and then we had to get a replacement, so, back to Tampa, we go.   We sat a couple more hours in the terminal, then we switched planes.   Finally, we got home for my parents to deal with a home with two burnt rooms.

So, it is finally your turn:  What was your worst vacation, and write about it?  It does not have to be as long as mine, but it sometimes it may help.

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