Thursday, June 24, 2010

"The Badger Goes Mental" or "There Will Be Jello" Day 1 in Hospital


Hello everyone, some of you already know that last night I checked myself into hospital for depression associated with my Bipolar Disorder. The choice to seek help when sick is never an easy or flipant one. it comes with a bucketful of fear, shame, anixty and my hatred of Jello or any Jello based food stuffs.

  I am a very self aware person in regards to my illness and I knew it was the right time to seek some help. I am also blessed to have friends who support me and care for me without judgement and that too makes this much easier to deal with. I really need to thank Airdrie and Derek for all their support and to Airdrie for driving me to hospital and tonight for bringing me bacon cheeseburger therapy. Good friends are to be cherished and they are greatly appreciated.

 I will try and blog every day from here in Holiday Inn for Nuts in order to share and shine light on what a mental health hospital stay is like. So here we go with day one's breakdown;

  I spent the night on a stretcher in the Emerg because there was no room in the Inn for the loopy badger, and was blessed with robes of blue cotton assless gowns and socks with rubber nubs on them. I also recived my hospital jewelery two lovely bracelets. I told my story to no less than 6 different people so much so that I was beginning to feel like "RainMan". The gave me some nice sedatives as I have not been sleeping much of late and I passed out to a family argument over laxatives in Italian.

 This morning I was moved to the IPU ( Inpatient Psych Unit) and settled in my little bed with it's delightful plastic piss proof pillow, eat your hearts out Four Seasons. The food is a kind of gruel so far and no salt or pepper |I may need to sneak in some hot sauce. I had my first visit with my Dr. who ladies and some men would find quiet attractive and went over out plans for my stay at "Spa Du Kookoo".

 Burnaby General in my opinion has the best Mental Health Care around they make you part of the conversation about your care which is so very important and here is a brief breakdown;

  • Meds will not change, but I will be taking sedatives to help me sleep and deal with anxiety.
  • I will be getting some maintenance ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy) you can read about my previous ECT experience here
  • I am currently commited but still am allowed to leave the ward to wander, smoke and blog
  • My roommates mum looks like a meth head Cher.
  • It seems there was a douchebag special on beds as we have alot of young douchey ed hardy types.
  • One spot smells like pee and it is near the food, ewww
  • I will probably be here for 3 weeks or so but will get to stay at home some nights
 I am hoping to blog everyday and hope it to be insightful, funny and honest. Thank you everyone for all your suppport it makes this experience so much easier to handle. You can also visit me if you like I am at Burnaby General Hospital in the booby hatchery.


9 comments:

  1. am really sorry to hear things went south so quickly. im sure we'll be out to see you soon badger buddy.

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  2. lol I love your writing :) Hope you get well soon my friend, I admire your bravery & honesty in dealing with your illness. Take care of yourself xx

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  3. Sorry to hear you had to go for help but (somewhat selfishly?) glad you're going to try to document the experience ... I know it will help both yourself and others who might be reading but have never been through it themselves (and might have considered making that call themselves ... myself included). Hang in there.

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  4. @annielori -- otherwise known as "Shan Mom"June 24, 2010 at 8:51 PM

    I am looking forward to reading your blogs Badger. My sister and mother are both bipolar... sister diagnosed and on drug therapy... mom recently admitting to it and blaming herself for giving it to my sister. Does it work that way? So far, so good, with me... I just admit to the obvious bitchiness that springs up with being menopausal. I am very afraid to see my sister as both biopolar AND menopausal. I remember how my mom was... it was a bad-ass, scary time for many years. Thank god I was already married and moved away to Calgary... far, far, away from the manic mom.

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  5. Thanks for sharing the story. I went to Facebook looking specifically for news of you! Lots of love and good wishes and anti-jello spells!

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  6. You have discovered the source of Ed Hardy douchebaggery: mental illness requiring commitment! Maybe all the douchebags need is proper treatment.

    We can hope.

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  7. Hey Bud, It's good you saw what you did and checked in before you didn't have a choice. We're pulling for you over at Casa Browne. Let us know if you need anything. We're in Burnaby and it's a quick jaunt over from here.

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  8. I hope it's restorative for you. I remember the grounds being fairly peaceful.

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  9. Steven, I wish you well in this journey. I'm sorry you're here, but I'm sure you'll pull through just fine. No judgment here - I know how difficult these things can be.

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