20211027 : Expectations & timeline
When I moved from the ICU to the HDU ward, everyone who visited me used to tell me the same thing - some variation of "everything will become ok, it'll just take some time". I had pretty much taken it for granted that everything will become ok and I will walk out of the hospital. The one and only thing eating me up was "how long?". No matter what, nobody would say that to me and I had no way to ask... I still assumed something in "months" scale. The first time I heard anything about a timeline was after I had come back home and one of my speech therapist saying that it would take another 6-8 months to remove the trachiostomy tube (it was not said to me - I just happened to overhear it). I was heartbroken. This was already 6 months after the stroke. It was unthinkable to be like that for another 6 months. Turns out - she was being very optimistic with her prediction. It was 21 months before it came off. After I have extensively consulted with Dr. Googl