A "little" journey to the Hospital

As many of you know, my dad is going to the hospital five (5) times a week for hyperbaric treatment, to try to heal necrosis of the bone due to radiotherapy. He is also having nurses come to our house every day, to give him IV antibiotics through his PICC line, and change the dressing on his face.

One of my alternate personalities, we will call her Seven for now, has a lot of fear of my parents not being home. Originally as a child, my dad had to do FIFO (Fly in, Fly out) work, which meant he would leave us for an extended period of time, and then stay with us for about a week, before having to leave again. (His roster was originally eight (8) days on site, then six (6) days home with us) This gave us a lot of anxiety when we were younger. Due to early childhood trauma, we had a lot of fear and anxiety that my parents were angry with us for the trouble we caused by disclosing our trauma to them. I want to clarify that my parents did not cause this trauma, and they were nothing but supportive in helping us through such a terrifying time, but our abusers had conditioned us to believe that our parents would be angry, and potentially even hate us for what had happened. My dad leaving for work caused Seven an immeasurable amount of fear, as he was our biggest protector and he was leaving us all alone, at least thats how she saw it. It also created a lot of sadness, as Seven believed that dad was leaving because he was angry with her and didn't want to be near her. Since discovering Seven, she has progressed so much in her healing journey and we couldn't be prouder of her. Her ability to communicate with me, as well as with mum and dad is so much better than it was. This allowed her to communicate that she didn't understand why dad was leaving again. She had grown to understand that dad normally left for work before we woke up in the morning, but would be home by dinner time. As mum is our main carer, Seven has come to understand that mum is normally close by, and if she has left us alone unattended, its normally just for a few minutes to pick up my youngest brother from school. Most of the time if mum isn't here, one of my brothers is normally home, even if theyre in their room at the time. Mum goes with dad to the hospital every day, as after hypoerbaric, dad normally looks very green and doesn't feel well for a short while. Mum goes with him just in case one day he doesn't feel well enough to drive home. Seven was confused, which also caused a lot of distress. Not only were random people coming into the house every single day, to poke a prod my dad, but mum and dad were both leaving us for hours on end. Seven understood that dad was going to the hospital, much like how he went to work every day, but she didn't understand why mum was going too, because mum never went to work with dad. She also didn't understand what the hospital was actually doing to my dad. We have a fear of hospitals. We are terrified that we are going to be locked up in a psych ward, where we will be shut down and zombified. We know that not all psych wards are like this, but it is a great fear of ours. We have been to hospital to deal with self harm wounds before, as well as for seizures, and the hospital stuff have never been very accepting or understanding of our D.I.D diagnosis. It is not something they are taught, and while many of the nurses can be gentle and reassuring, we have experienced a few who come across as judgemental and quite scary, especially for the child alters who are very sensitive to other peoples expressions. Our system, along with Seven, her friend who we will call Four, and mum and dad decided that we should go to the hospital with our parents, so that Seven can see exactly what is happening to dad. My mum spoke with the lovely receptionist at the hyperbaric treatment facility, who Four has decided to nickname Minnie Mouse, as she was wearing a polka dotted shirt, who was very accomidating to our needs and more than happy for us to come for a visit to see whats going on with dad. The day started with Four getting us ready for the day. Four is non-verbal, as she can not articulate her words properly, much like a small toddler. A lot of her sentences are lots of bits of pieces of words put together and they don't always work but she has gotten much better, and my family has gotten better at decoding her words. Four decided that she wanted to wear her Care-Bear skirt that she had been dying to wear for weeks, as well as a shirt that we had made for her that says "Free Hugs. just Kidding, Don't touch me." We made this shirt for her as she also can not be touched, as skin to skin contact causes her physical pain. She also wore bright yellow leggings. She wanted to wear our bright rainbow teddy bear slippers, but mum said that she might trip over in these, and the floor might be wet and we didn't want them getting dirty. I took this photo once I came back later in the day and saw the outfit that had been picked.

Four's outfit pick for the day. A pale yellow carebear skirt, bright yellow leggings, a white custom tshirt. Four wanted to try to wear her rainbow tutu underneath the bear skirt, but mum put a stop to that one....this time.

The nurses arrived shortly after, and made an interesting discovery when changing the dressing on my dads face. We originally believed it to be a staple from one of the surgeries my dad had as a child.

A vascular clip that had been forced out of my dads face by the infection.

There was another one underneath the skin on his face, but the at home nurses wanted to hospital to have a look at it as she didn't have what would have been necessary to remove it. Our next drive was to the hospital, so after dropping off my brother at school, we went to the hospital. We showed my system the hospital which was very open and brightly coloured, which was very different than the usual Emergency Room walls we were used to seeing. Mum wanted to show us her daily routine, but our first step was taking dad down to the hyperbaric treatment room. We went down the elevator and were greeted by Four's new friend Minnie Mouse, who was very welcoming to her. Dad showed her his locker where he puts all his things, and Four was responsible for looking after dads little blue water bottle while he went into the bathroom and got changed. Dad came back out and got to show Four his fancy outfit that he gets to wear in the hyperbaric chamber. It is worth noting here that Four and seven are very close. Four was fronting, but Seven was watching everything that Four was seeing. Seven is very shy and isn't very confident about fronting in new places, so Four was fronting, and is all too happy to sus out everything. We had another lovely nurse come in, who gave Four lots of compliments on her outfit, and her hair, which made Four very happy. A doctor came and we told her about the incident with the staple in dads face, and she took him off to a room to remove the other one. Four was all too happy to receive a small speciment jar with dads clip inside of it, which she proceeded to shake as it made a funny sound. Dad also told her not to shake it as it made his head rattle, so whenever she shook the jar, he would shake his head, and this made Four laugh hysterically. Once dad had been lead off to hyperbaric, Fours friend Minnie Mouse said that we could come back later and see him in the chamber. Now it was mums turn to show us her daily routine. It started by going to the newsagency inside the hospital. Mum would go there everyday to get a free newspaper. Did she do this to read the newspaper? Hell nah! She did this to take the newspaper home and use it for inside our rat cages, to give them paper to shred and make nests out of. For those that don't know, my mum runs a rat rescue and has for fifteen (15) years now. The newsagency was also where mum would buy a few pairs of adorable socks. Four got to pick out the socks we bought that day and decided on the following. A fluffy Sully pair from Monsters Inc

A purple fluffy Daisy Duck A Pink fluffy Daisy Duck A cinnamoroll

A My Melody

A Pooh and Piglet

From the newsagency, they decided to go to the Aroma cafe where my mum always gets a cappuccino and normally something to eat. Four really wanted a bacon and egg burrito, which they didn't have, but mum showed her a BBQ Bacon and egg burger that Four devoured it was so good. Four also got a small hot (warm) chocolate, which the barrista made nice and warm for someone so young which we very much appreciated. While waiting for our food, Four got even more compliments about her Care Bear backpack, and a dinosaur keychain she has atached which she was all too happy about. Mum then took us to find a table close by to where she normally sits, where Four devoured her food, and her hot chocolate and then decided to do a colouring in for her new friend in the hyperbaric treatment centre. Once it was time to visit dad, Four stepped back and let Seven to the front, where mum and Seven were escorted to behind the reception, where there would go and see dad in the chamber. Dad couldn't hear us, but they were able to explain to Seven what the chamber did, and that dad was not in pain. He was just chilling in a large tank, watching a movie and drinking his water. Afterwards, mum and Seven went back into the waiting room where Seven was able to solve six metallic magic puzzles which had mum shocked and Seven was very happy to show what she could do, even though she had never seen these puzzles before. We all agree that this was a great thing for Seven to see all the things that happen, and we all greatly appreciate the hyperbaric team for how kind they were. Everyone in the hospital deserves our thanks, from the people working at the newsagency, to the cafe, to the nurses and doctors we saw throughout the day. You made hospitals a little less scary which is a great thing for us. Thank you. Seven and Four had a fantastic day and we are all so proud of them both. If you are going to comment, please keep your comments kind. Any comments that we deem as rude, harmful or detrimental will be deleted. I see you. I Hear You. I Love You.