Mind of my Stroked Brain

When I had my stroke early in 2019 I was in the hospital's ICU for a little over a month. I don't remember if they gave me a bath in the ICU. It didn't matter to me anyway as I was unconscious there mostly and hallucinating all the time.  Later they shifted me to their HDU ward (high dependency unit). It was at the end of a long corridor of atleast another 20-24 wards/ rooms.  That made it miserable!  Why you say? They have very skeletal staff for the night shift (nurses, attenders, doctors, everything). It is the duty/ responsibility of the night shift staff to give a bath to the patients and handover to the day staff.  Usually 1 nurse + 1 attender (ward boy) had the responsibility of giving bath to all the patients of one side of the long corridor.  They did a quick namesake job (ಕಾಟಾಚಾರ ಕೆಲಸ). Even then, it would take 15-20 minutes per patient - disrobe, bath, enrobe, teeth cleaning, etc).  They had to finish this for all the patients before 7:30AM (whic...

Before the stroke, I have always been very prone to colds, running nose, nasal blocks, etc. Irrespective of what you would have found in my bag, you would have found a box of Kleenex wipes. If I went somewhere without my bag, you could count on finding a small packet of soft wipes in one of my pockets. There was a box on my desk, in my living room, next to my bed, etc. you get the picture. For 2 years and 8 months, I have known no cold, no running nose, no blocked nose, etc. It's like the nasal cavity, like rest of the body, has forgotten how it was for decades. Every evening, I do some breathing exercises - respirometer, blowing different whistles and blowing the candle out.  Blowing the candle is the hardest. Some valve in the upper oral cavity/ nasal cavity needs to close automatically to close the nasal cavity and direct the air through the mouth. This doesn't yet work effectively for me. So, any air I try to blow comes through the nose and the mouth/ lips just make the act...