Emile

After a two-week period of long hours and intermittent sleep at work, I went to rent a car. Unfortunately, while driving back to work, I fell asleep at the wheel and the car drifted off the road, hitting a tree.

My next conscious moment, three months later, was waking up in Fiona Stanley Hospital when I texted my mother, telling her, “I am not sure how I got here or why I am here, but just so you know I am in Fiona Stanley Hospital.” Trust me, she was very aware of my current location and situation.

Rehabilitation began with sessions of speech therapy, occupational therapy, exercise and rehabilitation, neurology and a dietitian. I had to make sure I arrived at the correct time and place for each.

This continued for three months, and improvements were made in each session, even in the ones I thought were not needed. Throughout this process I slowly became more aware of Emile my everyday surroundings, including saying hello to people I knew I had met before which I had previously forgotten I had met. Or remembering hygiene tasks which needed to be completed on a daily basis, such as having a shower and brushing my teeth –things I had forgotten. Even with a setback here and there, I kept improving slowly and then the exciting part of the hospital journey, beginning to talk of return to home.

Once at home my rehabilitation continued. An occupational therapist met me at home to make sure I was safe crossing the road, could remember a list of grocery items to purchase, could communicate and correctly follow procedures when purchasing items without assistance and remember where home was relative to the shops. Once I got the all clear from home rehabilitation and then outpatient occupational therapy, I was given an amber light to attempt to return to work and determine whether I was in a suitable condition to be given the green light. Luckily my family had friends who owned a small sailing vessel which they had planned to sail up to Shark Bay and I was able to join them. They then provided feedback to my neurologist on how I went in a work environment. I was given the green light to return to work after that and am currently work on a large vessel in a sole position maintaining its appearance and managing two small vessels which are also onboard.