Unfiltered Story #330765

I won’t go into too much detail, but the last few days I had been in the hospital just sleeping and throwing up, and sleeping and throwing up. It was hell. At one point, I became completely delirious.
When I am a little more coherent, I start asking for a shower. I feel really gross. The nurses tell me that if I can sit up for a few minutes, I can take a shower in a shower chair. I’m ecstatic. Showering has become the most important thing in the world at that moment. So, I start sitting. It’s hard and dizzy-making at first, but I work until I get it.
It’s time for my shower! Two nurses come in and I stand so we can walk to the shower. Then one of the nurses says “Wait, we have to cover your IV.”
They make me stand still as they fetch the wrapping, fuss with it for a minute, and finally get it around my arm. This has made me really dizzy, but I’ve just been delirious and not making the best judgment calls, so I don’t tell them. I really want that shower.
I wobble out into the hallway, and ask them “which way?” They start guiding me down the hall.
Here’s the part where my dizziness has almost completely overwhelmed me. I *think* that I managed to say “I don’t think I can do this,” but the next thing I remember is a loud CRACK! and waking up back in bed. Unshowered.
A really nice nurse who wasn’t assigned to me is talking with a doctor. She’s saying things like, “I heard her head bang on the floor twice” and “thank you for coming; no one else was responding to pages” and “I don’t know why they made her walk.”
From this, I surmise that I must have fainted. I say something to her and the doctor, which makes the nurse practically jump for joy. She says to the doctor, “She’s finally responding! She wouldn’t do that before.”
We have a conversation about my medical status, and I learn that I will not be getting my shower. I am really disappointed. They promise that my assigned nurse will give me a sponge bath, and they leave.
I never got that bath, and I am not allowed to use the toilet alone after that. Even though the things that caused the issues completely pass and I demonstrate this by standing and walking for a period without wobbling. It isn’t until my platonic life partner comes to collect me that I am finally allowed to do things on my own.