Life Behind (Hospital) Bars

I’m not talking about jails or correctional facilities or anything of that kind. I’m talking about hospital stays that to me seemed similar to a jail sentence or life behind bars. One that involves having to care for sick kids, actually more like having to care for two sick infants at any one time at the hospital. With constant crying, whining, coughing, purging and vomiting from two infants coupled with endless nurse visits, nebulizer treatments and medication time, make your life a living hell. You have to rush through your showers and meals when both babies are sleeping, but they never sleep for long at the hospital. And when they don’t sleep, you definitely can’t sleep too.

One thing about these hospital stays is that your mood tends to change for the worse just after one night. Take Supermama for instance. Normally if i’m going out or if i have to go somewhere, she would say “Drive safely Sayang”. But at the hospital whenever I had to go out to run some errands, the last words i heard before i closed the room door was more or less “You’d better be back here as soon as you can in 20 minutes!” and she meant every word she said.

Life in the hospital was also not easy. The room was cramped particularly when all five of us were in it. Sometimes you have to make do with whatever space you have left. Even the twins noticed this and tried to adapt to it. When Raisa was being fussy and wanted most of the cot bed to herself, Raina did not complain. She adapted to it and made use of the space left to her. Just look at the pic below.

But there were also moments of peace. These moments are like diamonds, very much sought after but very seldom you can afford them. When both Raina and Raisa were sleeping, Supermama and me danced our dance of joy albeit quietly because that means we can have our meals, take showers and do some reading. But like all good things, they are always short-lived. You can’t even get through page one of the newspaper before the nurse would come in with the big noisy nebulizer machine and ruined everything.

The best moments were of course when the sick ones you were looking after, got healthier and started to be themselves again. It made the week of hell appeared like a forgotten past and you cant wait for tomorrow to come. Moments like these made your days cooped up in the hospital seemed worthwhile.