SPOILER ALERT: This next post is all about the second half of my Throwback Thursday experience. If you have yet to read #ThrowbackThursday1 I would highly suggest you do so before diving into this one!

When the Grand Cayman government ambulance had finished backing up into the Health City ER port the hospital’s group of staff, that had been waiting for me for God only knows how long, immediately popped open the rear ambulance doors and began to get me off of the van. Next, they transferred me from the ambulance bed to an ER bed of their own and began running my vitals and getting my information in order to get me checked-in. While I was laying there I remember my aunt getting introduced to a patient liaison, as well as a partial owner, while my mom was busy getting introduced to the burden of totting all of the luggage out of the ambulance. Not to mention that her and the EMS crew had to deal with the complexity of reassembling my chair which was rather complex, seeing as we hadn’t been doing that since I had acquired new, more cumbersome, disassembly parts. After about 10-15 minutes of unpacking from the ambulance, checking-in and getting my vitals the Neuro Surgeon came to check out the situation.

He was a mighty humble Indian man who introduced himself as Dr. Komal Prasad. After all of our introductions were done he did a MUCH MORE thorough physical eval  than Royal Caribbean’s onboard doctor and nurses that included my heart rate, pupil tracking and sensitivity tests. Being able to hear and see his intellect on the neuro scheme of things was a massive relief after feeling extremely weary of the ship’s medical staff’s take on such a thing. Once the physical portion of my eval was done he then called down to the Radiology department to assure that they had a CT scanner ready to be used to assure there were no signs of internal bleeding, much like my first brain injury, a subdural hematoma. Thankfully, the Radiology department was ready to see me, so we headed that way.

The two male nurses that helped me upon our arrival were now helping to push my ER bed and Dr. Prasad, as well as the patient liaison and owner, were close behind giving my mom and aunt a rundown on what the Radiology department would be running their test for. Upon entering the Radiology department only the nurses, doctor and I were allowed into that particular ward due to X-ray beams, so my family members were asked to wait outside. After seeing both the exterior AND the interior of the CT scanner in person for the first time since California two months post initial accident was the first sign I had of my heart dropping. Then, after my scans were completed I was lifted from the scanner and back to the hospital bed. I was then rolled out in the department’s private hallway and left there alone while the nurses went back in the Radiology reading room. While laying there alone I could only slightly hear the conversation Dr. Prasad was having with the others, but my subconscious felt as if it was hearing much more.

While I wish I could say I was hearing good things, it was in fact my subconscious interpreting quite the opposite. I could vaguely hear Dr. Prasad explaining the scans to the other medical staff saying things like, “That’s evidence of the past injury, dried blood…” Then of course, I couldn’t hear his statement and filled the gap with horrifying news like, “…and that splotch you see there is fresh blood and what we’re about to perform neuro surgery on.” After that subconscious interpretation of the results my heart dropped in full and I was terrified for my future.

After almost throwing up upon deciphering their conversation the medical professionals walked back into the hallway after about 5 minutes, which felt more like 30 minutes to me. I was incredibly curious as to what the results actually were, but I was feeling WAY too intimidated to hear such a thing. Upon reentering my ER room and getting my bed back in place the doctor started going over the CT scan’s results with both my mom and aunt in the hallway outside the room’s door. I felt a little rude but obligated to call them into the room and include me in the bad OR good result briefing.

The first thing the doctor stated was that the CT scan did not reveal anything we should worry about in terms of a new brain injury. That primary detail really helped settle my incredibly nervous rumbling stomach! As he continued to elaborate on what the CT scan revealed I was a little surprised because my negative state of mind while laying in the vacant hallway had actually heard part of the radiology overview conversation correctly. He had explained to both the medical staff and us that there was and still is evidence as to where blood had dried from my first accident. He then continued to recommend that I stay the night there just incase something out of the ordinary revealed itself. We all agreed that that would be a good idea and Health City was nice enough to find an available hotel room for my mom and aunt to stay in that night.

When they left, I had the biggest throwback Thursday feeling overcome me when being rolled into a general patient room with a nurse-call remote and TV in front of my bed. They didn’t have a large patient population at the time, so I thankfully had the room all to myself, kinda as if I were at Shepherd Center. While finally letting my nerves calm down I got to meet Health City’s lead Physical Therapist upon her doing a few basic evals to once again assure that I was fully there cognitively. After that I got a hospital dinner menu where I read the word “shrimp” and I thought, “Shrimp is generally always appetizing. I really just hope hospital shrimp don’t ruin that for me!” Upon receiving my plate and as the generic hospital plate cover was removed I saw a beautiful and delicious looking plate of five MASSIVE shrimp, long sliced carrots, cucumbers and edamame type pees. The only thing that seemed to have been missing was that there was no cocktail sauce. That was only a problem until taking my first bite of these big boy shrimps. They were not only oversized shrimp, but they were seasoned to perfection and became the first ones that I felt no need for said cocktail sauce. All-in-all that Health City HOSPITAL dinner ended up being the BEST meal I had over the whole vacation, cruise ship and all, believe it or not.

When waking up that next morning (10/16/15) I was very happy to have woken up at all and to have known that the worry of another TBI could be lain to rest! After celebrating such good news with myself I had then heard the my mom and aunt were due back at anytime, which got me a little excited because we had the remainder of the day to explore Grand Cayman!