Waiting patiently

She felt her right leg slip. It slid and next thing she new she was on the floor legs split wide open and a shooting pain in her back. In seconds she couldnt balance herself on her back and she knew something terrible had happened.

Hospital, emergency, ambulance… that was swirling in her mind while she shrieked for her husbands help.

It’s been a month and apart from all that is with hospitals, medicines, doctors and getting better, the most important change has been the waiting.

Aslways being and impatient and independent person, the fractures have played with her mind the most. She now is waited hands and foot but then she is always waiting too!

If she needs to use the washroom, she has to wait till someone helps her with the lumbar belt, then the walker just near enough to hold and help herself up and then wait for the wheelchair and wait for the slow journey to the washroom.

Always being someone who wanted everything her way, just the way she liked it, now it was always about how someone else will do it for her. This was the toughest.

In the hospital, she was on flat rest which meant that she was wearing diapers for the first week of her injury. No trips to the washroom either.

The day begin with waiting for the general duty staff to help her with her toothbrush, her gargling water and a hand towel.

Then it was waiting for the morning tea. Once it was delivered, family had to serve it to her once it was room temperature since she was drinking from a straw. Again waiting for it to be served to her.

Then it was waiting for someone at multiple times in the day to wipe her and change her diaper. Waiting till the staff was free from a previous patient to help clean her. Waiting for them to change her and fumble with her clothes just enough for her to be ‘wearing’ them.

then it was waiting for lunch or dinner because that too had to be fed. There is no way being fed is enjoyable for an adult. Having to wait for each morsel to be fed at someone esle’s pace. Now these things are very detailed and very minor for those who are living a normal life. But, for someone who is totally dependent, it is all about waiting and all about someone elses’ time and effeciency. Clearly not the way she had preferred it!

Once she was home, she was praying for a quick recovery but the waiting story continued. Frustrated but can’t do anything to change the situation, she was forced to wait till she could help herself.

It’s been a month and still the waiting continues. For another person, this would not be a big deal. But, for her, it was. It was probably the most irritating adjustment she had to make for this situation. The waiting.