Morning breaks through the window, my eyes start to open, feeling refreshed by the sleep but annoyed by the immensely large amounts of wax covering them. I hear that sound again.
“Wakey, wakey, BREAKFAST TIME.”
It’s another nurse walking through, who takes pleasure in waking us up. I know she is not there to be annoying but I feel hospital patients don’t need to wake up at 6:30am. She settles after a while, leaving to annoy another room, and so do I. I don’t need breakfast today and I fall back into deep sleep.
When I wake again life is more peaceful. I place my shoes on and get ready to conquer the day. I make my way to Occupational Therapy class across the hall and everyone is happy. I like happy people.
We do our work and I stare into the distance a little when I get bored. I don’t even know what I’m thinking about I just venture off for a moment in my own brain. I am always brought back by somebody’s random sounds, these are things I find interesting and the need to pay attention without failure are rare.
I leave the room after an hour and I have great pleasure in doing so. Those classes are massively boring and I just don’t get why we do it. I look around the Brain Rehabilitation Ward and see a multitude of varied people. We are not the same and we have had different accidents, different ages and different ways to cope.
I look over at one girl lying in a bed in the corridor. She does not talk, she grunts. I cannot ask her how the day is or what she is thinking. Communication with her is near impossible. I am very lucky to walk and talk. They said I would be in a wheelchair for some time, possibly forever. I think this is a much better scenario.
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I decide to leave the ward as I’m bored. I go out on the hospital grounds and walk in circles around the park. This exercise allows me to feel almost free, I like feeling normal and free.
I come back to the ward and it’s lunchtime. We sit in our seats and stare at the new individual across from us. Sometimes it is someone I’ve met previously, but our days are filled with physio, occupational health and speech therapy. Our days lack the true spices of real life but that doesn’t stop me from walking on my journey there.
I think to myself. I may have suffered from a Brian Injury, I’m not truly certain of it all, but lucky I’m alive. So many don’t have that pleasure. I eat away mmmmmm cake. I guess I’m just that old saying, lucky to be alive…
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Paul had more than the challenge to overcome his terrible accident, he also had to deal with another difficult struggle: Gaining weight during his recovery and the challenges associated with it.
Read more on how he got back on track from his weight gain.
Paul McMahon is an up and coming author as a result of an accident where he fell 3.5 floors to concrete. He survived but had a Brain Injury for a short period and a host of other physical injuries. He has a Facebook page that you can follow if you like the story or like his travel blog. The message is that you should always be proud to be alive, so many do not have that privilege. The worst accident in the world can still direct you into bliss and prosperity.
