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Somehow, when two adults with no allergies came together to produce two children, we hit the universal lottery and received two kids with food allergies.While in daycare, Cassidy had a series of strange vomitings. We’d observed them, too. We couldn’t put a trigger to what was causing them until daycare served her a tortilla with some peanut butter spread on it. She broke out in hives and threw up. Our daughter now had to worry about peanut butter—which seemed to be in great abundance in daycare centers. Fortunately, the kids were still eating in high-chairs and it was fairly easy for the staff to keep any peanut butter off of her tray. She didn’t seem to have any problems with the smell. She had to ingest the food to have a reaction.Parents don’t think about kids having allergies and we were no different. Our girl was four and our son was still in a high chair. It was a beautiful Monday morning of a three-day Memorial Day weekend. We’d decided to make South Beach Pancakes for breakfast. Mostly, they contain instant oats and Egg-Beaters egg whites. I mixed them up and we decided to eat on our back patio. There were no peanuts in our breakfast, of course as we’d already modified our eating to keep it away from Cassidy.My wife and I were just about done eating. My wife asked if I thought our son might want to try a pancake. He was beginning to gum solid food, so I said sure. Let’s tear one up for him. Our daughter had eaten most of hers when her head lolled to one side and she pointed toward the glass-top table. She said, “Thaddy, dares an anth on the thableth.”What the hell?My wife and I assessed her. She was clearly altered. She couldn’t speak clearly and she was lethargic. We made the decision. We had to call 911. We live 3 blocks from the fire station. We heard the sirens immediately and they arrived within minutes. They put our daughter on a stretcher and started taking her vitals. They put her on oxygen and she started to perk up a bit.My wife was holding our son. “Clint. There’s something wrong with Ryan.”I looked at him. He was gasping for air in sharp wheezing barks. Clearly, he couldn’t breathe. I called to the fire captain and pointed to my son. Within moments, our daughter was off the stretcher and my son was on it and we were off to the hospital.My readers know that I have two great kids, so of course, they were okay after our trip to the local Emergency Room.What we didn’t know before that morning that we soon learned was that our daughter was allergic to ants. The ant she had seen had bitten her and she was reacting to the toxin. Fortunately, it was short-lived and wore off rather quickly. She was already recovering when the paramedics arrived. We learned that my son is allergic to eggs. Thus began our lives as parents of allergic children. South Beach Pancakes will forever be known in our home as, “Dad’s Killer Pancakes” as we could have lost both of our kids on one happy Monday morning.We had both kids allergy tested. Cassidy was allergic to anything with the word “nut” in it. Peanuts, tree nuts, etc. Ryan was allergic to eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish. He’d never consumed a nut in his life, but he was allergic to all of them.For their entire tenure in public schools, they had to sit at the allergy table with other kids with known food allergies. Both have to eat their toxin to have a reaction. Smelling peanut butter doesn’t trigger them. In that, we are lucky. Others are not. If our kids consume a trigger, they get hives and then throw up and it usually ends. Not a pleasant experience, but it seems self-limiting and correcting. Once they toss their cookies, the incident is mostly finished. They get really tired after, but they sleep it off and wake up feeling better. Both have to carry Epi-Pens everywhere they/we go.We read the ingredients of EVERYTHING.This is the part that you don’t get. When I say, “you” I mean the folks who don’t deal with allergic kids. Some products have the common allergens listed below the ingredients, making it easy to sort out eggs or nuts from thiamin and niacin and riboflavin and red dye number 6. Others don’t and we have to dig through all of the chemicals to sort out the trigger words that mean we can’t buy that product.You are used to buying hotdog buns when you want to eat hot dogs. You don’t have to ask the clerk at the Circle K if he can find the bag the buns came in so you can know if your kid can have a hotdog with a bun, or not. They still charge you for the bun, even if your kid can’t eat it. You aren’t used to asking to talk to the cooks when the wait staff can’t answer questions about allergens in the food. You aren’t used to having the allergy talk with any parent interested in asking your kid over for a sleepover and then teaching them how to use an Epi-Pen. When my son prepares to go to Boy Scout Camp, the leaders always ask if any kids besides Ryan have food allergies. They are all well-acquainted with his and they have a copy of the allergy form that already has his needs listed in the template.We are totally immersed in food allergy concerns. You are not. So, when I encounter those of you who insist that your kid isn’t going to adapt to help protect my child…that’s fine. You get added to the list of people who will not be hosting my kid at your birthday parties or sleepovers.Our kids play soccer. When they were on younger teams, somebody was always designated “snack parent” to reward the tikes with a snack after the game. Each week, we’d contact the snack parent and politely ask if they could bring a snack that was safe for our kid. “Oh, sure. No problem!” Then they’d show up with packets of peanut butter crackers or nutty buddy bars.“What? You were serious about that?”I always wanted to bring their kid a bag of crushed glass for a snack.Instead of sharing my broken beer bottles, we just started bringing “disappointment snacks” as a backup. The kids never got to eat the fun stuff their friends were eating, but here are two Oreos for you. Sorry, your friends' parents can’t read or don’t care.It is really hard navigating our world without feeding our allergic kids something dangerous. And, as more and more kids are diagnosed with food allergies, the food industry hasn’t been very helpful. Some, are good. Others have looked at the legal landscape and have chosen to put a blanket, cover your ass disclaimer language on their packaging:“This product may contain or is made in a facility that uses, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, milk, flashlight batteries, car horns, broken glass, and cat dander.”Here, I’m going to name names. Sara Lee. One of the biggest producers of bakery goods has been a company we could buy from. Until recently when they added the cover your ass language to products we’d been safely eating for years. I contacted the company and called them on it. They gave me a number I can call from the store to give them the lot number of the loaf of bread and they can tell me whether it is safe or not. They’d rather staff a phone bank than print actual ingredients on actual bags. Well here’s a new one for you, NOBODY IN THIS FAMILY LIKES SARA LEE.By adding a few words to a package, they took away the English muffins that were a staple of my son’s breakfasts for years. They don’t care.Now, to answer your question, I’m going to say what needs to be said:This ain’t about you. It’s about the safety of allergic children, mine included. Your kid doesn’t care about his peanut butter sandwich. You do. This is your issue. How do I know? My kid sits at the allergy table and YOUR kid asked to be given a different sandwich so he could eat with MY kid. Kids want to sit with their friends. Kids have been our strongest allies.When our grade school first created the allergy table, it was a round table that sat 6–8 kids. It grew to be an entire two-sided cafeteria table that seats 24. Why? Friends wanted to sit together and they didn’t want a peanut butter sandwich to come between them.This is about you.And you just don’t get how difficult this is.I love my kids. I assume you love yours. Imagine me sending a baggy of broken glass to snack time. Would you be concerned? Would you politely ask me to bring a kid-safe snack?My bet is you would. The difference is, I’d understand because I have two allergic kids.Edit: 6/4/19Thanks for all of the comments!For accurate info regarding allergies and life with allergies, look up: Food Allergy Research & Education® (FARE) They are the leading source for allergy info in the United States.A new movement affiliated with their site is the Snack Safely organization: SnackSafely.com - News and resources to help your family cope with food allergy They are working with manufacturers to properly label their food in a consistent and easy to read format to aid families in making good food decisions.We all want to see our kids grow to be thriving adults. The more we all know about this life-threatening condition, the more likely we are to help them get there.Because the first step toward acceptance and tolerance is understanding, and because some comments appear to be digging into the “you aren’t going to make me stop feeding my kid…” I copied this from the FARE site in hopes that you can begin to understand how pervasive and life-threatening this can be:What Is a Food Allergy?A food allergy is a medical condition in which exposure to a food triggers a harmful immune response. The immune response, called an allergic reaction, occurs because the immune system attacks proteins in the food that are normally harmless. The proteins that trigger the reaction are called allergens.The symptoms of an allergic reaction to food can range from mild (itchy mouth, a few hives) to severe (throat tightening, difficulty breathing).Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that is sudden in onset and can cause death.To Which Foods Are People Allergic?More than 170 foods have been reported to cause allergic reactions.Eight major food allergens – milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and crustacean shellfish – are responsible for most of the serious food allergy reactions in the United States.Allergy to sesame is an emerging concern.How Many People Have Food Allergies?Researchers estimate that 32 million Americans have food allergies, including 5.6 million children under age 18. That’s one in 13 children, or roughly two in every classroom.About 40 percent of children with food allergies are allergic to more than one food.Food Allergies Are on the RiseThe Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reports that the prevalence of food allergy in children increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011.Between 1997 and 2008, the prevalence of peanut or tree nut allergy appears to have more than tripled in U.S. children.Food Allergy Reactions Are Serious and Can Be Life-Threatening.Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room.Each year in the U.S., 200,000 people require emergency medical care for allergic reactions to food.Childhood hospitalizations for food allergy tripled between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s.More than 40 percent of children with food allergies have experienced a severe allergic reaction such as anaphylaxis.Medical procedures to treat anaphylaxis resulting from food allergy increased by 380 percent between 2007 and 2016.Serious Allergic Reactions Require Immediate TreatmentOnce a serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) starts, the drug epinephrine is the only effective treatment.Epinephrine (also called adrenaline) should be injected within minutes of the onset of symptoms. More than one dose may be needed.Easy-to-use, spring-loaded syringes of epinephrine, called epinephrine auto-injectors, are available by prescription.Not treating anaphylaxis promptly with epinephrine increases the risk of a fatal reaction.Food Allergy Impacts Quality of LifeFood allergy limits a major life activity and may qualify an individual for protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.Caring for children with food allergies costs U.S. families nearly $25 billion annually.About one in three children with food allergy reports being bullied as a result.Compared to children who do not have a medical condition, children with food allergy are twice as likely to be bullied.Who Is at Greatest Risk?Compared to children who don’t have food allergy, children with food allergy are two to four times as likely to have other allergic conditions, such as asthma or eczema.Compared to non-Hispanic white children, African American children are at significantly greater risk of developing food allergy.Delaying introduction of allergenic foods does not provide protection against food allergy. In fact, feeding peanut foods early and often to babies with egg allergy or eczema dramatically reduces their risk of developing peanut allergy.While most food allergies arise in childhood, at least 15 percent of patients with food allergies are first diagnosed in adulthood. More than one in four adults with food allergies report that all of their food allergies developed during adulthood, and nearly half of adults with food allergy report having developed at least one food allergy during adulthood.Approximately 20-25 percent of epinephrine administrations in schools involve individuals whose allergy was unknown at the time of the reaction.Severe or fatal reactions can happen at any age, but teenagers and young adults with food allergies are at the highest risk of fatal food-induced anaphylaxis.Individuals with food allergies who also have asthma may be at increased risk for severe or fatal food allergy reactions.Most fatal food allergy reactions are triggered by food consumed outside the home.More than 15 percent of school-aged children with food allergies have had a reaction in school.Can Food Allergies Be Outgrown?Although allergies to milk, egg, wheat and soy often resolve in childhood, children appear to be outgrowing some of these allergies more slowly than in previous decades, with many children still allergic beyond age 5.Allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish are generally lifelong.Is There a Cure?There is no cure for food allergy. Food allergies are managed by avoiding the problem food(s) and learning to recognize and treat reactions symptoms.Food allergy therapies are under study in clinical trials, but none has been approved yet for general use.Downloadable PDF of Facts and Statistics with References

I should probably write this while it is all still fresh in my mind from my stay in the hospital. This will be long but detailed.Okay, lets open up and do this while I have the nerve to do it....Recently I went on hiatus for a little over a week. What I did not say is that I spent that time in the hospital. I will explain in detail the entire process from before to leaving as best I can. The links in this answer refer to other answers of mine that provide some details on certain personal topics I will leave out here because this is a long answer already.Firstly I have openly communicated about my depression, PTSD and past suicidal attempts before on Quora. I did this so that I can educate people and provide support to others that might be trying to deal with these issues themselves alone. You are not alone this is all far more common than most people believe. The experience of being hospitalized both this time and in the past was really not that scary nor incredibly unpleasant but it does take a toll. Hopefully I can clear up some misconceptions and give you an insight into what happens. This answer is about a short term crisis facility. In this context short term is under 30 days. A longer stay facility will have more activities and more programs with greater variety, I would hope. I have never been to a long term facility so I don't know for sure.Before HospitalizationI have struggled with these issues all of my life from age 6 onwards and recently things got much worse. I am receiving the bulk of my care from the state of Arizona and Medicare as I am disabled. Recent budget cuts and the states decision to cut services means the quality of care I have been getting has not been adequate to keep me healthy. Adding to that I developed a sensitivity to the medication I had been taking for years that was so bad that I would throw up an hour after taking it every single time I tried. I went off my antidepressants and as could be expected my mood crashed hard. This combined with stress at home and other factors to lead me into a depressive spiral.My biggest problems are clinical depression ruminating on things I do not have the power to fix such as my other physical health issues that I can't get treatment for and hypervigilance. When I am in a really bad place this leads to a spiral where I continually begin to cycle ways to kill myself over and over in my mind and yet am too afraid to actually do them. I can't stop the thoughts and I can't stop the crippling fear. It results in me becoming totally non functional.I have been through it before and knew what was going on so I asked my roommate to drive me to the ER that evening after telling people on Quora I would be gone for a while so they didn't worry.Emergency RoomChecking in at the ER for suicidal ideation and intent (the official terms) is the same as going for any other reason except you generally get better service. I am not kidding. You walk up to the desk and they ask why you are there and you fill out a little card that explains your name address and information. They will then ask why you are there even if you put "suicidal" on the card and like I did you say "I am suicidal... I don't feel safe, I am afraid I will kill myself if I don't get help."Assuming they don't have any pressing emergencies they will take you back to triage just like any other ER patient. They will check your temp, pulse, heart rate and blood pressure in a minute or two and weigh you. You then sit down and explain exactly why you are there and more information on what led to this. They might collect insurance info too at this time or later. Often this will happen while they take your vitals (BP, pulse, etc).If they agree that you are in bad shape and a threat to yourself they will have you sit or lay somewhere in easy view until they can find a place to put you. Many hospitals have separate beds just for behavioral health, some don't. Once they even had me put on a stretcher in the hall in clear view of the nurse's station. One way or the other they will see to you immediately. The reason being is once you are triaged and found to be potentially suicidal they are now responsible for your life if you kill yourself. In this case there were open beds in the hospitals behavioral health ER.It was a separate room adjacent to and inside of but separate from the ER. In this room was 6 beds with a wall between each bed and an open curtained front just like most other ER beds. There was also a single room that had a door and a larger more comfortable bed.First they have you take off all clothing and jewelry and strip down to your underwear in the bathroom. You do this yourself with no one watching and are given one of those hospital gowns to wear. They will ask you to give a urine sample and take you to a bed where you will get your blood drawn. You then sit in the bed and wait for the staff psychologist / psychiatrist to come and evaluate you. After the evaluation if they think you need to be hospitalized they will make the arrangements for you. They may even ask if you prefer a certain hospital. Then you wait. Depending on how full the behavioral health hospitals are you may wait a long time. I have waited up to 18 hours for a bed to open up before. This time it was more like 16. The wait can be a pretty agonizing wait but often you have a TV of your own if the hospital is good.Why go to an ER rather than Directly? Because the behavioral health hospitals are often so full it can take 4-24 hours for them to have an open bed. If you're in bad shape that may be too long. At the hospital you will get medication if needed and have nurses there to help. In this case one nurse and one med tech for up to 6 people. There were only 2 patients in there when I came in.Behavioral Health HospitalIf you are going from the ER to another hospital they will most likely take you by ambulance or some other vehicle prearranged for this purpose. You will be wheeled directly into the hospital and might sign some things in the ambulance and again have your vitals taken. Everything else is prearranged.After they wheel you in you go into the behavioral health unit. There will often be several doors and you will be comfortably sitting on a stretcher upright. They wheel you all the way in past several sets of doors most with electronic locks. This is the only really scary part in my opinion but it takes less than a minute. They walk fast in hospitals.You will be asked to climb down and go to an examination room. You will be introduced to one or more of the nurses and med techs and everything that happens next will be clearly explained before they do anything. Again you have your vitals checked and are weighed and might again need to give blood or urine. They may do some type of full body search but in my experience it is just drop your gown and turn around once. While this is happening you will be asked to explain everything all over again from the beginning and asked to sign paperwork. The paperwork explains your rights as a patient and the hospital policies and procedures as well as giving consent to be treated voluntarily. If you do not agree to go voluntarily they can petition you to stay for evaluation if they think it is warranted. I went voluntarily.They will normally not give back your clothes yet and will give you hospital scrubs to wear instead. Loose fitting pants and shirt with elastic bands, three sizes fit all. You will be given back any clothing that is relatively safe like a shirt, jacket or pants as long as they don't have cords or large metal parts. A Med Tech will show you around and show you to your room.I did the above image from memory. It might not be perfect and the top and bottom halls were a little longer but it is still pretty accurate.Not pictured here is the cafeteria and various activity rooms outside the wing. At my hospital they had a greenhouse, piano, library (tiny) and ping-pong table as well as various big conference rooms for activities such as art. You might get to visit each activity room for an hour or two on a specific day of the week.You will have a room that you will share with one other person. The rooms are big and the beds are spaced farther apart than pictured. My image is not to scale but most things in my picture are proportional to each other. Mostly it gives you an idea of the layout of one hospital. They are ALL different. The room was prolly 20'x30'. Or so it seemed, I didn't measure. You will have your own dresser / nightstand and sometimes the beds have drawers under them too. They give you a comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, earplugs and towels. These are yours and yours alone. The furniture is solid and generally too heavy to move or pickup. My bathroom was tiny. I mean really, really tiny. Different hospitals will have different layouts but most give you one roommate.Your entire day is structured. They have a schedule of things that happen at certain times and they expect and encourage you to follow the schedule but almost NOTHING is forced. Most people spend the first day or two in their room just laying down or sleeping that is what I did too. Often you would see a new person brought in but not see them again for a day or two outside of their room. They expect this and will not hassle you much at all in the beginning. The only mandatory things are seeing your doctor, your therapist / social worker and them taking vitals. This will happen even if they have to come to you but don't expect them to be happy about it. They will encourage you to at least leave the room for the doctor and therapist and almost all people do. You can even refuse your medications.The Typical Schedule6-6:30am Day Room Opens, TV, Newspaper and Coffee are available in the Day Room6-8am Vitals, Bloodwork, wake up.8am Breakfast You go to the cafeteria for this normally but your first day you might eat in the day room. Everyone else eats in the cafeteria so it is quiet in the Day Room and good for new people to adjust.8:30-9:30am Medication / Hygiene / Free time. People with morning meds get them now after the meal. They encourage everyone to shower and you can watch TV, read etc.9:30am Morning Group also called Goals Group. They encourage everyone to go but it is not mandatory and people can and will come and go. A Med Tech / Therapist asks each person how they are doing and what their goals are for the day. These groups can be very short or very long. Sometimes very deep or personal discussions go on in what is really a very informal group. You will be asked to rate your depression and anxiety on a scale of 1 to 10 and asked if you are hearing or seeing things. They ask everyone the same questions and some people are seeing things and hearing things everyone else isn't and sometimes they talk about it.9:30-11am Free time. The techs will try to do things to entertain everyone and keep people from getting bored. This could be as simple as sitting in the day room with people and chatting or putting on a movie. Some techs rent movies with their own money for the patients to watch. We watched Wall-E, Mask of Zorro and Oz the Great and Powerful while I was there maybe others I didn't see while I was reading. During this time people will be called to the med window, nurses station, and offices to see their therapist or case worker and occasionally for things like insurance. These kinds of meetings can happen at any time of the day but most happen in the hours just before or just after lunch.11:30am Lunch time. Lunch is in a cafeteria outside the wing. You stand in line and walk through a cafeteria line. There is usually different choices to eat and always a vegetarian option and/or salad.For example one day they had turkey and gravy, beef stroganoff over noodles, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, corn, clam chowder and mixed vegetables. There were also chef salads with ham cheese eggs etc., Jello, Boston cream pie, German chocolate cake, and chocolate cream pie, bowls of pears and peaches and fresh cut melon. Dinner rolls were always available. These were all options available in just one lunch.You can generally get any or all of the options that you can stomach. They may ration it because it has to feed other wings and patients though.12pm Medications if you have a mid day medication.12:30pm Group therapy. This usually changes depending on the day. One day it could be art therapy the next it could be the greenhouse or even pet therapy. Other types of group therapy are just covering specific topics, these include; addiction, grief, medication education with the pharmacist or other topics. If you stay longer than a week you might see the same group happen on the same day. Friday may always be art and Sunday may always be pet therapy. They will work some kind of therapy even into art such as painting what is going on in your head on an actual life sized Styrofoam head.1:30pm Discharge planning / free time again. If you are going home they will be walking you through that at this time. I will address this specifically later.2:30pm and/or 3:30pm another group therapy. Again with one of the subjects above. Usually one of the therapies each day is more fancy and the other is just sitting in a circle and talking.4:30pm Dinner. Similar choices to lunch but not the same thing that was offered for lunch unless they had a lot and it is being offered in addition to other choices as a third entree. It seems too soon for dinner and IMHO it is but they are going by medical mumbo jumbo that says you sleep better when you are not still digesting a big meal. Also if you have labs or bloodwork in the morning they don't want that too close to bedtime.5-6:30pm Free time / medications if you have an after dinner medication.6-7pm Visitation time. You meet with your visitors in the cafeteria along with everyone else and their visitors. This expands to 2 hours on weekends normally.6:30pm Snack time. They have both healthy and unhealthy snacks and usually a few choices. Fresh fruit is always available, other choices include sandwiches, crackers, gelatin, pudding, string cheese, tiny salads, sliced peaches, carrots and celery, pretzels, chips, popcorn etc.7:30pm or 8pm Wrap-up group. They go one by one and ask if you met your goal today (it was a test!) and how your day went. If you did they congratulate you if not they ask how they can help you to meet that goal better and / or why it failed. You are also asked general questions about the day. Again they ask about depression level and anxiety as well as voices and hallucinations. The techs take notes on your responses and these are used to gauge how successful todays treatment has been.8:30pm-9:15pm medications if you have a before bed medication or sleep aid.9pm Movie or TV time11pm Everyone is ushered out of the Day Rooms and they are locked. You can go where you want but you can't stay here. The lights are turned down and they don't allow any talking above a whisper. You don't have to go to bed but it gets pretty boring in your room or sitting in the hall and all the comfy chairs are in the Day Room.Wash-Rinse-Repeat New day, same as the last. Different activities for groups each day but same schedule at the same times.I might be off on the times. I didn't write the schedule down so this is going off memory after having the same schedule for a week so it should be pretty accurate. I can't say every hospital is like this but the three I have been to in the last 7 years were like this almost exactly. Each was run by a different company but in the same city and state. If you are staying at some fancy place it is prolly MUCH different but for the multitudes of people both moderately well off and not this is what you get. This is what your insurance will pay for.Free time and BoredomAdd it up and you still got a lot of free time to yourself. You also can use the phones at any time 9am to 9pm. You just walk up and dial as you wish. No one monitors it nor cares who you call. You can even make long distance calls but the staff have to put in a code on the phone first. Usually they limit the number of long distance calls but it is not a hard and fast rule. Where I was it was 3 long distance calls per shift. Which is 6-9 per day.There is always the TV during free time and usually there is more than one TV so people with different tastes can be accommodated in the different day rooms. The staff will also put in a movie during free time or find other things to keep people active like going outside in the field or some kind of game / discussion. You can read or socialize with the other patients and there's board games, cards, dice, chess, coloring pages and pencils, markers and crayons.It still gets really, unbelievably boring. I can only guess it is on purpose so we are forced to interact with each other and socialize which often leads to talking out your issues with the other patients. Sometimes they can be better therapy than the staff. Other patients might have more experience dealing with depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, addiction or whatever brought you here than you do.Everything is monitored and everything is optional.Quietly and unbeknownst to many patients the staff is always watching you. Okay maybe that seems obvious but most don't realize how far that goes. They don't do this secretly or by cameras (though there are cameras in the halls) but by just walking around and listening and watching. They have clipboards on them all the time.Every 15 mins 24 hours a day EVERY patient is accounted for and they mark down what the patient is doing. This is done in teams with one Med Tech taking half and the other taking the other if they see crossover not on their list they mark that too. The little sheet (I sneaked looks cause as everyone knows I am curious like that) has the list of all patients and a series of checkmark boxes.They will put a check for.... Socializing, sitting, standing, lying down, sleeping, reading /activity like coloring, TV, crying/upset, phone, happy, etc. If you are standing and socializing happily while playing a game they will mark those four boxes.If you are not in a common area like the halls or day room they will walk to your room and peek in. If you fully shut the door they will knock. If the door is open or partly open that is invitation to look in. This also happens all night long. If you leave your door open it happens pretty quietly but if you prefer your door shut you might want to do like I did. I put a towel on the floor stopping the door from closing all the way but still mostly closed. This way it doesn't make noise when they push the door open to look in and then let it close again. Having the door closed also makes things quieter. Even at night there is always some noise. Med techs talking or a patient coughing or etc. The halls act like echo chambers at night and the slightest sound gets magnified. At least they give you good sleep meds so you can still sleep and ear plugs in case your roommate snores.Interesting Facts You Learn.Addiction is rampant in these hospitals. This comes from two sources firstly the same place you go for being suicidal is the same exact place you go for drug rehab. The second cause is patients with psychiatric issues trying to self medicate their problems away with alcohol or hard drugs. I would say in my UNscientific first hand experience that it ranges from 70% to 90% have some kind of addiction that is negatively affecting their life and family.Patients come from all walks of life. At one table you might have a heavily tattooed gay gangbanger, a Meth addict, an accountant, a construction worker, an unemployed kid 19 years old and living with their parents, a moderately wealthy banker, and a homeless man. They all have stuff in common and you might find people make friends at the hospital with people they would normally never associate with. The banker might have moved from a cocaine addiction to a meth addiction and be on the verge of loosing everything and confiding in the gangbanger or the homeless man. People just seem to gel together and find others that can identify with their issues and it can seem paradoxical and yet amazing. We really are all more the same than different.People really do sit around and color. You see it in movies and TV but it is real. Thankfully the staff pick out stuff from online that is not so childish and takes more skill than a 6 year old to color but there are also pictures of Micky Mouse too. I don't know why but there is something very therapeutic about coloring. Maybe it is that it takes us back to our childhood and happy memories or maybe that rythmic back and forth as you fill in the shapes is relaxing. Whatever it is, I did a lot of it and enjoyed it. Someone was always coloring at any given moment and sometimes 3 or 4 would be coloring together sharing a pile of pencils and crayons while talking.There are two or more different wards depending on the severity. People that are very unstable or unresponsive to treatment go to a separate ward. The largest group is the people that can generally maintain but are going through stuff that is somewhat equally as tough. You generally won't be in with people that are significantly crazier than you are. The woman that hears voices might also be a very good paralegal when she has the right medications and be a good person to talk to when you're upset. She knows she hears voices and knows they aren't real but can't stop hearing them. She might not be much different than someone who is always wearing headphones is. A little spaced and looking not fully observant but she won't fly into a rage randomly either.The system is overburdened, under funded and lacks sufficient quality control. Some hospitals are great others not so much. You get to see your doctor every day and your therapist or case worker every day but they are clearly overworked and don't have time to listen to even most of your problems. They have a routine and follow much of their job by rote. They may select different medications and dosages based on each patient's needs and history but mostly they just want to find the right MEDs to stop the immediate crisis and get you out of the hospital. There are lots of people there that care and try to help but they are caring workers on an assembly line and your brain is on the conveyor belt.Insurance determines the treatment more than doctors in many cases. If your insurance doesn't cover that one drug that might help you then you don't get it. If your health plan only covers 10 days you better have a credit card handy the moment you go to day 11. Insurance companies have standards and practices set up under payment schedules and the hospital works around those.It is reminiscent of an adult High School. You have class, you have lunch and you have recess. The teachers are always watching and can be very helpful and caring or scolding depending on the situation. Students can be cliquish or not and are generally bored out of their minds. (Literally) The big difference is it is 24 hours a day 7 days a week high school. It isn't fun but it is not hell either. I would say unpleasant but necessary.They treat you like an adult but expect you to act like one too. Nuff said there.You can do laundry and the guys can shave (while being closely watched). They have a washer and dryer and you do your own laundry. You have to ask them to unlock the door to it though.You can have personal items as long as they are safe. Glasses, maybe a watch (not always), books and toiletries. They have the final say what stays or goes. Things you can't have are locked up.DischargeYou and your doctor have seen an obvious improvement and it is decided that it is time to go home (or your insurance ran out). The hospitals won't push anyone out that is truly in need but they might try to transfer them to a state funded hospital beyond the time allotted or a long term facility if they only handle short term hospitalization. The beginning of your schedule goes like above.You meet with your doctor for the last time and they go over your medications and prescriptions you will need to go home as well as any recommendations or suggestions the doctor might have and many words of encouragement. You will meet with your therapist/caseworker several times on discharge day. They will make sure you have a therapist/psychiatrist appointment lined up before you leave and a home to go to if at all possible. They might have been working on these things in the day or two before you go as well before you even knew you were leaving. If you already had a doctor they will have set up an appointment for you if not you now have a doctor if you want one. They will bring you your stuff and let you go over it all to make sure it is all there.So now I am home with new meds and old problems but my mood is about 300% better than it was. Many on Quora may not have realized but my mood has been slowly slipping for months. I am good at hiding it. I am beginning to feel almost normal again and have plans and appointments setup with my doctors now that I am home to prevent this from happening again anytime soon. I still have other physical medical issues that go unresolved with no means to pay for them to be corrected and still have my depression and PTSD but everything is almost manageable again. I do not regret going to the hospital at all even though it wasn't fun. My roommate says I am like a whole new person compared to when I went in so I must be feeling even better than I realize.Huggles!

(Apologies for such a long answer, I’d be obliged if you read till the end. I have tried to make it as short as possible.)I rose from death thrice and was still lucky enough to get what I wanted to achieve in my life at the same time!!Okay, quite dramatic I guess, but let me take you through my journey.Brief history - I’ve always wanted to become a doctor, and I was supposed to be appearing for medical entrance exam in the month of May. Everything was going very well, and I was able to complete my course by the end of January. Three months still left for NEET, I had ample of time for revision. I had still not missed a single test and was constantly within 1100 AIR in all the tests. Things were going pretty good.Fast Forward to 15th April 2019 :I suddenly started to have petechiae on my limbs and neck, in which I would bleed spontaneously even with gentle pressure to an area on the skin. I guess here’s when having both parents as doctors creates undue tension and stress. The first and foremost diagnosis by my parents was that I was maybe suffering from Vasculitis. I was pretty scared, but once finding out that the treatment was pretty straightforward, I didn’t worry too much. But the spots continued to grow, even to the extent that squeezing my skin between my fingers would lead to free flow of blood. My studies had already taken a standstill by now, and more than that, due to lack of revision, things had started slipping out of my mind.The medications having no effect, I was taken for a skin biopsy. My father works in SGPGI Lucknow, so I could get it easily done there. For those of you who have ever had a biopsy, or even watched one happening, you would know it is one of the most painful procedures. I guess after a trauma and a delivery room, you’d hear the most excruciating cries from a biopsy room. As expected, it hurt a lot, especially after the effect of the local anaesthetic had worn off. Much to my plight, it pained so much that I wasn’t even able to lift a book or even turn page, forget practicing with a pen and paper.Things had planned to go totally against me. The biopsy report came back absolutely negative, but to our surprise, the spots had now become less frequent, so in the end it was believed that the medicines were finally working. My studies had already gone down the toilet.The dreaded night of 3rd May, 2019 :3 AM in the darkest of the night : I woke up from my sleep and found myself shivering even when the room temperature had been around 32 degrees. The thermometer read ‘103.4 F’. My exam was 48 hours away. I woke up my parents. They thought the fever was due to exam stress and anxiety. I too believed the same and tried going back to sleep. Two hours later, I was still awake and was feeling even worse. Took my temperature again. The fever had risen to 104.4 F by now.Seeing such high a temperature, my parents had started to worry. Even after repeated doses of paracetamol and other antipyretics, my fever didn’t go down even a bit. By the afternoon, it was decided that I should be put on a drip and given paracetamol intravenously in combination with several other antibiotics.4th May 2019 : It had been almost 24 hours and my fever had not gone down even for an hour. I was completely exhausted, and it was apparent by now that I’ll never be able to appear for NEET the next day. IV meds continued through the day, and even after trying my level best I wasn’t able to sleep that night.5th May 2019 : Fever still at 104 F, I don’t know what struck me or gave me strength that I decided to sit for the exam even with an IV and a bottle attached to my arm. My parents were just not ready to let me go. After an hour of constant crying and cursing on my side, my parents succumbed and let me go, with the assurance from my side that they would be waiting outside and I will contact them if I felt dizzy or unwell.On my way to the centre, the sun was at its peak, and in the scorching heat I felt extremely unwell and dizzy, to the point I thought I’ll fall dead even before reaching the centre. I had still an IV running, with the bottle in my father’s hand. At a place where there’s an inspection stricter that an airport, it was obvious that the security personnel wouldn’t just let me go with all the stuff I had brought along with me. I waited till the the last drop of the IV had coursed its journey from the bottle into my arm. I still had to carry my meds and water into the class, even though instructions were clearly against it. After much persuasion, with sharp five minutes left to Two o’ Clock, I was allowed to go in with a handkerchief and my medicines, the water was to be provided by the school authorities.One final shot before I went for my examI did whatever I could have done under the effect of 3 grams of paracetamol and a handful of other tranquilizers, and I was constantly cursing God and my luck. The paper was quite easy, but instead of giving me hope, I felt that everyone would score extremely well and I would definitely be way out of the race when the results would come. I wrongly filled many bubbles, left many super simple questions, messed up other ones and just waited for the exam to be over. All the stress, heat, fever and pain had drained me completely, and on my way out of the building I fell unconscious. I was rushed to ICU-Critical Care Medicine, SGPGI Lucknow. I was lucky enough that my father was a professor there, else the chance of getting an empty bed was second to none. Not to exaggerate, but the chance of coming out of an ICU-CCM is one in twenty, and even then, it would be too considerate an estimate.I don’t know what my parents went through in those 4 days during which I lay unconscious on an ICU bed, I could only imagine them cursing themselves, praying to God to save their son and asking for forgiveness even for the mistakes they couldn’t have committed in their dreams.9th May 2019 : I slowly came back to my senses, only to find myself surrounded by IV pumps, ventilator, infusers and several machines whose names I can’t even recall now with several leads glued to my chest. The first thing I saw was my mother sobbing at one corner of the room, and even before I could utter a complete word, she came and held my hand only to burst into complete tears. As I learnt through the course of the day, I had went into hyperthermia and my enzyme machinery had started to shut off, leading to a dozen of complications including electrolyte imbalance, acidosis, anaemia, seizures and loss of some reflexes. I had dodged death once already by now.Opening eyes in a new environmentI was surrounded by a dozen of IV pumps, ventilator, infusers and several machines whose names I can’t even recall now.My fever had not gone down even by then, even after being kept in a cold blanket for three days at a stretch. I was being given even stronger drugs to bring my fever down with a combination of drugs for malaria, dengue, cold, etc. The freezing blanket was replaced with sponges with ice cold water, which later led to bilateral lung consolidation, which basically meant that water had started accumulating in my lungs due to constant cold and supinate position.An endless array of tests were conducted on me ranging from CBC to gene profiling to repeated bacterial cultures, most of which came back absolutely clean. My platelets counts had fallen below 80k, my haemoglobin had gone down from 15.4 to 6.1, but these two things had no relation to my illness, atleast that was that was apparent at that moment.Being admitted into CCM comes with another set of challenges. Most of the patients around you are terminally ill, and often have dreaded bacterial, viral and fungal infections that have an almost 100% fatality rate. Once into CCM, I was being pumped full of high grades antibiotics and antifungals like meropenem and amphotericin (each dose costing around 18k).A ray of hope appeared as my fever began responding to the medicines finally, even if it went down for an hour although after a full gram of paracetamol. The result was that my liver took a toll and my S-ALT/AST were already 50 times the normal levels. Keeping in mind that the liver heals remarkably well, my parents thought I’ll be out of the ICU in a couple of days.16th May 2019 : Severe lung collapse, severe hypotension, electrolyte imbalance, severe hypoxia, dizziness culminating into seizures. Followed by atrial fibrillation, I was shocked thrice before I came back to life for the second time. Immediately afterwards I was put on a ventilator (NIV – Non- Invasive Ventilation). I had already two venflons on either of my hands, and even those were falling inadequate to transfuse all the medications into me. I was still under NIV when a need for a Central Line was put up.Venflons vs Central LineI was consistently going in and out of consciousness. I couldn’t eat or drink water or go to the bathroom. I had to be given water by squeezing a sponge in my mouth. I never felt so pathetic in my life. Thanks to the profuse sweating and almost zero food intake for over a week, I had lost a lot of fluids and blood proteins (albumin) which maintain the normal BP. My BP had gone down to 60/88, and was no longer high enough to be measured by NIBP (non-invasive BP - cuff measurement). Then came another extremely painful procedure in which I was put on an arterial line to monitor my BP directly through the radial artery.Still having not found the focus of infection, I was put through another very painful procedure of bone marrow biopsy. I won’t feel ashamed to admit that I cried at the top of my voice through the entire procedure.Drugs kept getting added and slowly spilled over to two pages. Every thirty minutes, I was being transfused some or the other medicine, ranging from NORAD to Human Albumin to a dozen of antibiotics and antifungals.Sure enough, even the biopsy report came back negative. This has been probably the lowest point in my life till now. I was so distraught, depressed and fragile that I was more than happy to accept death than going through all this for even one other day. I cried the entire night. Had I been able to move my hands or lift myself up, I would have disconnected the ventilators and all the machines at that very moment.The doctor under whom I was being treated also happened to be my father’s best friend from his college times. In the beginning he often said to me that all this was due to stress but in the course of the treatment, I saw fear and hesitation in his eyes. Once when I was conscious, I heard him telling my father that how hard it is for him to treat me as he had seen me like his own son and he just risk taking drastic steps. He placed his hand on my head and said(I still remember those words clearly), “Jis bhi bhagwan ko maante ho, bass uska naam le lo.” (Take the name of whichever God you believe in.) At this point, I felt it is over for me.The following evening, a blood test and an echo confirmed I was going into acute multi organ failure involving the heart, lungs, bone marrow, liver and kidneys. I had an enlarged spleen, enlarged right atrium, missed beats and loss of awareness about my situation and surroundings.The news of me being extremely (read terminally) ill had spread like fire across the entire hospital, and even to my coaching. Almost everyone in the hospital started visiting me, talking to me as if I wouldn’t be able to see the next morning. Due to the lung collapse, I had almost lost my voice. I felt like shouting but just couldn’t.I hit rock bottom, when the Director of the Institute, Dr. Rakesh Kapoor (who is also the HOD of Urology, in which my father is a Professor) came to visit me. I had known him since I was a child, and to see him pity my condition was beyond what I could handle. Only tears rolled from my eyes. Also, he came to visit me every day, gave his precious time to me till I was out of Critical Care.I was being looked after a team of doctors from every field, cardiology, immunology, nephrology, oncology, endocrine, neurology, haematology, urology, you just name the field and the doctor was present, yet no one could discern what I had. Amidst a sea of suggestions was to shift me to AIIMS, Delhi. I was already being treated under doctors who had studied from AIIMS, and was at a place with facilities as good as AIIMS-D, risking a journey through no man’s land was unimaginable and unreasonable.From nurses to CCM doctors, I was termed as the all-rounder-patient, the mystery disease boy. The place had started to feel like home, and I’d spend my day chatting the sisters and doctors up !Since I had signs of vasculitis, the popular belief was that I was suffering from some autoimmune disorder (maybe even sarcoidosis). The normal course of action would have been steroids, but because of the unusual presentation of the disease, it would have certainly lead to a point of no return.It was finally decided that I would be given IVIG for 7 days to basically shut my entire immune system down so atleast the fever would go down.Day 2 of IVIG Therapy (21/05) : Since my CT and MRI had already come clean, the doctors devised a clever plan to find the focus of the infection. PET-CT is one such procedure in which you are injected with a radioactive glucose substitute (FDG) and then you’re put through a special CT scanner. This test is usually used to diagnose and locate cancers because cancer cells are very active metabolically hence the corresponding areas light up on the screen. It was found that one of my cervical lymph node had increased in size. The need for biopsy was felt again but due to the location of the node (right over carotid), it was not possible. (Thank God). I was put through a slightly less painful procedure of FNAC (Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology).Day 7 : The IVIG had slowly started to show it’s effect and my fever came well down to 100F, but the temperature still was far from normal.30th May 2019 : In the evening I developed a sharp pain in my head and all of a sudden things started to look blurry. An emergency consult was called, which revealed that I had developed Uveitis, which would have led to blindness if not treated immediately.The only treatment was with steroids, which was the only one thing I was being kept far far away from since the start. Nevertheless, I was started on 300 mg hydrocortisone to be continued with 60 mg prednisolone with the known danger that this would backfire rather quickly and quite lethally. By luck, or otherwise, I didn’t develop any further complications, and even my fever went away completely.3rd June 2019: I was brought home to be put in isolation. Sadly, the same night my BP plummeted again, and back was I into the CCM one again.5th June,2019: I was still admitted when the NEET 2019 result came. I was not expecting them to be even good, I had not for once checked with the answer key and I didn’t even know what I’d done in the exam anyways. Around 7 PM, I received a call from my brother that I had scored 623 and secured an All India Rank of 3614. After days of despair, hopelessness, darkness, pain, misery, and discomfort, this was the first ray of sunshine to fall on me. At least now I knew I would be able to pursue my dream.I was kept there for a another week on NORAD and Albumin before I was discharged finally on 7th June 2019.Me walking after over 30 days of lying in the bed, (Clicked by my father, for him these were my new-old baby steps ! ) I had lost so much strength that I was even unable to stand straight for even 20 seconds. I even had trouble balancing myself for the first few days.The journey from there on hasn’t been easy either, but now I feel strong, confident and happy than ever before. I’m still on a high dose of steroids and I’m still facing a lot of consequences that come with it (hypertension, breathlessness, decreased immunity, hot flashes, etc.)After several low points including two drop years, I’m in my dream college, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow.WHAT I LEARNT :Probably the best message I’d like to give is that God Helps Those who Help Themselves. Had I lost hope of getting better, had I lost courage and strength to give the exam, or had I been satisfied with my destiny, I would have never been able to realize my dream. You should be determined enough that even mishaps should not throw you off the track, you should be confident enough that even stress should not be able to able to belittle your efforts.We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet. This experience has made me confident and fearless about life. Now when an endeavour seems too daunting and stressful, I retrospect could it be worse? Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.I still remain undiagnosed, and a legend tells me let the unknown be unknown. I live in SGPGI Campus itself, and I meet all the doctors who had treated me all the time. A concrete diagnosis hasn’t been formed yet, and to them I still remain the miracle child !