Hospital Admissions and shutdowns/meltdowns

On Thursday I was in the Northern General Hospital (Sheffield) to have a stent fitted. The operation went really well but was longer than expected so I had to stay overnight. I'll ignore the usual things like having no sleep due to the noise, light and movement. I'm sure people with an ASD will be familiar with that. No, I'll get to a specific issue with the hospital which I've had many times before. The pharmacy there is a huge bottleneck. Last summer I was in there and had to wait 11 hours for a prescription. All the while taking up a bed which someone more needy could have had.

This time it was worse. I was supposed to be out first thing, however, the nurse kept saying everything was in order, we are just waiting for the pharmacy. About 5:30 in the afternoon she showed me a laptop screen which showed my prescription half done. She said it wouldn't be much longer. A few moments later I overheard two of them talking about it saying it would be mid evening before it was done. The nurse had lied to me.

That was it. I could feel this darkness starting to descend, that part where I'm suddenly unable to speak or move. It just got worse and worse. Suddenly and unexpectedly I got up, grabbed my coat, and walked out. I walked faster than I've done in years - the operation is an obvious success - and a fair distance. You aren't supposed to walk out of hospitals so they tried to call me but obviously I was incapable of answering. So, I'm home and safe, but, without important medication and no way to get it. The hospital is probably still annoyed with me. I don't care - I'm just glad to be free again and in my space.

I never know what that is though. It seems to be a mix of a shutdown and a meltdown. I can't speak or move (some say I have a tendency to rock), but when I decide to go, nothing can stop me or get in my way. When I'm like that I have absolutely no control over what is happening