Christmas in hospital

After 10 month in hospital, Beth found the festive season challenging and wanted to come home.

Mum guilt is real 😞🥹

She ended up in seclusion for 3 weeks due to ligaturing often. She was allowed visits so I went with her gifts and took her a Christmas breakfast. She had to change from 'strongs' (anti ligature clothing) into clothes to walk through the ward as a decency and dignity measure. Her Nana and I went up after lunch and took her a Christmas dinner. Again she had to change into clothes.

This was distressing her as she wanted to wear her Christmas clothes but only could whilst out of seclusion. She was going back to seclusion and restrained and stripped to put strongs back on.

She ended up ligaturing and been unsafe because of transitioning from being able to have clothes, then not. Because she refused to wear strongs, and was restrained and stripped of her clothes, she sat in seclusion with nothing covering her except a blanket 🥲

I was told that visits had to happen with her wearing clothes out of dignity, although I had visited her in other hospitals wearing strongs.

After a debated meeting with the ward manager, and myself saying that it is less dignified to be stripped off to put her strongs back on to go back to seclusion, it was decided that visits could happen with her in strongs 🤦‍♀️

It’s not quite the Christmas I envisioned being in hospital and in seclusion but I’m making it the best that it can be, and I’ve got my lovely family around me who’ve went the extra mile to ensure I have a tolerable Christmas. And with that being said, I wish all my friends in hospital the merriest of Christmas. It’s a tough time of year but remember you’re tougher💕