I was meant to be discharged at the beginning of October. I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I did not want to go home because I felt very, very safe in hospital and the doctors were both superb and extremely kind. Whereas home felt unfamiliar to me, as I had been in hospital for 7 weeks.  What would it feel like to be going home? Strange and disconcerting, I reckoned.  Moreover, I was very, very weak; my hair was razed; and my head was covered with a helmet on account of the fact that I had had half of my left skull removed in the 2nd operation. The most debilitating and humiliating thing for me was that I could only speak a few words out loud on account of my aphasia.  But I put on a calm exterior to those externally (my husband included), but I was downhearted and miserable inside when I was home again.

 

But on the 2nd or 3rd day, my misery had disappeared.  My husband had organised (after much research when I was in the hospital) a very experienced speech therapist to come home to me and he had arranged a meeting with the specialised stroke rehabilitation center at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (they were very good and have the most comprehensive equipment in Singapore).  He had even organised a private physio who was a specialist in strokes and an art therapist! I could not thank him enough. It felt as if I was doing something positive.

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