Quarantine chamber - Part II

Before the beginning of my sentence, the nurses spent about one hour trying to create the best circumstances in the room, so I would be able to lie down and not slip too much on the plastic that was spread over the floor to prevent contamination. I had a suprise visit from my cousin whom I hadn't seen in years, which was nice as Marc and my Mother's exit was a depressingly hasty. She later had flip-flops delivered to me so I would not slip on the plastic with the slippers provided by the hospital. Once again, me falling would be a disaster and that was to be prevented at all cost.
A bed made of matresses and 5 or six absorbing mats, and Scotch tape, came to our aid.
I was given clean towels and a pair of pyjama's which were basically no different from prison suits, the only difference being a lack of stripes and that they were light blue.
I had a room with a view of a building site. The men (none of them attractive) worked hard. There was a digging machine from the 'Lodder bv' company (lodderig meaning drowsiness in Dutch). How inspiring!
Before entering I was given a brochure with regulations stipulating things such as:
-you are not allowed to leave the room.
-you are not to have any visitors.
-you are not allowed to smoke.

Up to this stage I am fine. But listen to this:
-you are not allowed to take in anything with you, except a few permitted items.
-everything you do take in you must leave behind when you depart.
-your food is delivered through sluice gates.
-when you take your food out of the sluice, knock on the door to make sure no one is behind the door.
-men and women should urinate in a sitting position.
-one must always wipe oneself with toilet paper.
-faeces stuck to the inside of the toilet must be removed with the toilet brush.
-always flush the toilet twice.
-at night before going to sleep, flush the toilet once.
-always wash your hands.
-after showering dry the toilet seat.
-you must dry yourself in the shower.
-you must wear the provided slippers.
-if you throw up you may not clean up the vomit yourself.
-cover the vomit with an absorbing mat and leave it there throughout your stay......
.......and this list goes on and on and on. Apart from them stating the obvious the confinement of the room is intensified by imposing these suffocating restrictions. A similar list of do's and don'ts is given to the patient for the period after leaving the hospital.

Anyway,....what did I do all day? Thursday I spent the rest of the day talking on the phone with my friends. I even managed to find a way to make international phone calls, for which my phone was not suitable. (They say).
I lived from meal to meal, (not that they were of a standard to perk me up).
The second day I slept from meal to meal.

Strange thoughts went though my mind. For example, my teeth seemed to be brighter than normally. What if fire breaks out? (There was a major fire in the hospital a week earlier). Why was it that they served me Chilli sin carne?
What are the comparisons with prison (I finished the prison diaries whilst I was inside)? An old dead co-worker came to me in my dreams, quite vividly.
And when Professor Lips suddenly turned up inside my room at night with no warning, I was startled and couldn't help thinking of Stephen King's Misery. This was the classic location to be terrorized by sicko's as I had been told that my surveillance camera could only see me if I was on my bed.

The book 'The Kite Runner', which Hugo (my brother in law) had so kindly brought to me and my star spangled I pod gave me some comfort.
My stay was not as hard as I had imagined. Apart from feeling nauseous most of the time (I was told this never happened) I was physically OK.

Saturday morning, after a late breakfast, my Geiger-count was taken. I had a reading of 28,5. According to the rules I was to have a reading of 20 or lower. Seeing as Kiara was to be away for the next week they agreed to let me go. My mother picked me up and I was back home by noon.

What I had not expected, was that coming out would be harder than going in.The strange cornucopia of abundance in this World, seemed to have a paralysing effect on me.