17/02/2026
Today I was on the other side of a sensory meltdown, and what an eye opener that was.
I’d slept badly due to pain, and every time I nodded off another person would prod me. Nurses tiptoeing in on creaky shoes to check on me, blood tests, half a dozen doctors all needing me to reiterate my story, blood pressure, temperature, pain team. Nobody actually asking how I felt, just how my surgical site felt. I told six doctors about a bruise that suddenly came up yesterday, 3 days post surgically. Nobody listening. Only interested in anaesthetic taps in my tummy. Staples. Pain meds. Have you pooped yet.
Today after an equally frustrated nurse told the seventh doctor of the day that she was worried about a swollen, hot and red canula site, yet another doctor came in.
I hear you have a sore leg……
Forearm ugh.
Oh that makes more sense, let’s get a scan.
Two hours later the radiologist asks me which wrist she is scanning.
Fore. Arm. Ugh.
Another 30 minute wait to be pushed back in my chair to the ward, wrangling 2 IV poles. Exhausted. In pain. Feeling like nobody was listening.
The person in the bed opposite me had her phone ring loudly for several minutes before taking a very loud speakerphone call as I was settling into bed.
Another new doctor review and then the person opposite started playing VERY loud music, so loud even my industrial ear plugs couldn’t drown it out.
I burst into tears and asked to be discharged.
I was mortified. But I couldn’t stop, and that made me feel ashamed.
The logical part of my brain was aware it was a culmination of several days of sensory and emotional overload. The emotional part of my brain didn’t care. The nurse and doctor just looked confused.
Now imagine your child in a meltdown and start back tracking their day/days. But for them they can’t tell you why. It’s. Just. Too. Much.
We all experience it. We just usually have the skills to take ourselves away, and that option was removed for me in here. I was powerless.
I don’t have a funny anecdote to add, but felt it was worth sharing to help anybody else understand why their child’s meltdown came from “nowhere”.
That my Ted Talk for the day.
