The Goog Nooz Is...

The 10 Things I Hated About Being At Netcare Olivedale 1. Loss of control of my schedule. I'm not a planner, but I'm a controller and not being in charge of exactly what time I'm seeing a person sends me into a spiral. Doctors don't make appointments at the hospital. They come as they come. 2. Multiple people having access to my body, all at once. I have lived with just my son for 12 years. We don't touch people. We just exist. Being pricked, probed, pushed, turned, stretched... touched, was unnerving and invasive. 3. Having to be a brat about getting a window-side bed, because my anxiety and claustrophobia are a reality. Plus, I can't sleep with closed windows. 4. The lower standard of custard from 2021/21. This was a travesty. That is the last thing you eat every night. It tasted like heartbreak and looked motherless. Depressing. Netcare needs to hold EMPACT to a higher standard. There's a lot of wastage with inedible vegetables. In a country like ours, t...

1. Seven days! Seven days in a high-care unit and the voices have started to get louder and more brazen.  "You're dying faster " "You left your son alone at home. Irresponsible mother!" "What did you think was gonna happen?" "You work too hard for your abilities!"  There's a distilled water bottle bubbling soothingly above my head. This keeps the oxygen supply from drying up my nose. It's sounding less like a pond and more like a damning cauldron.  2.   The initial pneumonia infection that brought me here has since been zapped by various antibiotics. What remains are the effects. Lungs are balloons, but that doesn't mean they ought to stay inflated. But not mine, nah ah. Mine got carried away and now their inflated all the way up, making it hard to bring in some new air to, you know, continue breathing.  3. A scan, an x-ray, antidepressants and a cocktail of life-keeper pills later, we see the way.  I need to stay indoors.  Indoo...

1. At irregular intervals, in away from home either on a work trip or in a place of health care. My heart and lungs gave up on me in 2021, but I wasn't ready to go, so that contract was extended.  I have a trusty younger brother who I call for crises before anyone else. Whenever in at the back of an ambulance, he's the first to get a call. It usually goes like this: "Bro.?" "Gugz?" "I'm in an ambulance."  "Okay. I'll go over and look after the boy, doggo and place."  "Thanks, bro. And no, mom doesn't know yet. Let me settle into the hospital first before stressing her."  In hindsight, receiving a call from me must be triggering at this point. But my brother wouldn't have it any other way. He's the youngest, but our only brother.  °°° 2.  This time around, there was a pothole on the road. My brother's lifestyle has changed and it would be unfair of me to expect him to make these sacrifices.  He was not im...