I'd give an arm and a leg

[Last Sunday, A friend asked me to drive down to Brisbane some 350 km away so he could visit a patient in a hospital ward. Four hours later, We got there -- a geriatrics and rehabilitation unit (GARU) ward, which also houses brain injuries rehabilitation unit (BIRU). I spent three hours in the ward observing care routines and in-patients of various conditions. I had visited palliative wards in other hospitals before. I tried to differentiate the wards by functions but came to note that 'palliation' is about easing pains but 'rehabilitation' is about recovering lost abilities. I later learned that both types of wards do not attract top doctors, top nurses or funding. The units are seen as 'death traps' -- the last choice.

This shook me up inside. Awoke me. I thought about it a great deal in the following days. I wrote the poem below from what I saw on that Sunday. It tells a story of a patient recovering from a massive stroke.

Please see also A Terminal Wish https://www.gotoknow.org/posts/560074.]


A saying as common as rhymes.
We hear it so often, repeated over times.
One would 'give an arm and a leg' for a precious thing;
To have and to hold a true asset -- fit for a king.

When I was young, a lonely orphan, no one to hug.
Gone was my mother, so swiftly like someone just pulled the plug.
I wished and wished, 'cross my heart and hope to die'...
I'd give an arm and a leg to have mother's kisses when I cry.

I grew up, independent a man, so proud.
I worked hard and long to make a living what honesty allowed.
I watched my incomes, I weighed my expenditures
I kept a monkey on my back; each day I danced with overtures
I'd love more time to work, more challenges befitting this a bloke!
For years, I went on unrelenting. Then I had a stroke!

Here I lie in bed half naked, pressing a button, please come I beg.
My left side is paralyzed. I cannot feel or move my left arm or leg.
I cannot hold on, my bladder is about to burst, release.
I cannot get up. I cannot walk. Please come now. No time to tease.
Nurse! I am not kidding. I only call when I am in pain.
I'd 'give an arm and a leg' to go to the toilet by myself again.


[Yes, have a chuckle but remember it could have been about me or you.]

[Notes on idioms or slang phrases:
- rhyme (also 'rime'): correspondent/similar sounds eg can & man
- to give an arm and a leg: to pay a lot
- fit for a king: very extra-ordinary
- pull the plug: a slang phrase; to terminate swiftly
- cross my heart and hope to die: to assert truthfully
- a monkey on one's back: a driving force or reason to do something ]