April – How did you deal with the transition from hospital to home?

At first those last few days at the hospital I’m like “yes, I can’t wait to go home, it’s time.” But when I got home, I kind of felt like the discharge process left me—it’s like they say, “okay, great, you guys got it, see you later, bye, take care.” And we were like, “okay, yeah you got to train them, but our house isn’t the hospital, it’s not modified for a wheelchair user.” That was a hard part. I felt isolated at that point because I’m not back in “the community” so to speak, not around other wheelies, not in a comfort zone. The visits that you normally get in the hospital, everyone is coming to see you, they slow down when you get home, so you start to feel like “has everyone forgotten me?” you know. And I got very depressed when I got home, not for lack of people trying to help me, but I just got depressed. And I felt like I was just out there by myself and I started wishing I didn’t survive, you know? It just got tough.