Check out chapter 3 right here!
Once we arrived at the behavioral health hospital, Roy reluctantly sat down in a waiting chair as a lady in khakis and a white shirt with a teal scarf led me to the assessment room. Apparently they had to do an assessment before I could be admitted. They asked me all sorts of questions varying from, "What brings you here?" to "What do you do in your spare time?" All of my answers were simple two or three word sentences. I was just in such a shock. I did not want to be here. I just wanted to go home. I am not crazy.
By the end of the assessment, the lady with the teal scarf informed me that she wanted me to stay at the hospital for a while and if I would not come willingly they would put a twenty-four-hour hold on me, forcing me to stay there. Trust me, I did not want to be there, but it looked like I would have to stay either way.
Once I released back into the waiting room, Roy jumped up out of his chair and immediately asked me what happened. What does he care though? He hardly knows me. Oh well, I mean, it cannot get any worse than having to stay here so there is no harm in telling him, so I told him. I told him that they were going to keep me here for an indefinite amount of time. In the middle of telling him this I starting to feel my eyes overflow with tears. I did not want to stay here. I just want to go home and forget that any of this ever happened. Why can't things just go back to normal? Roy pulled me in close to him. I could smell cheap cologne on him, but for some reason it still smelled good on him. He held me close to him and told me that it was all going to be alright. I doubted that, but I was too busy crying to voice my opinion.
As I was wiping my tears and snot on Roy's shirt, the lady with the teal scarf, whose name I soon found out was Stephanie, entered the waiting room and told me that it was time. I didn't want to go all alone, so I asked her if Roy could come with and she said he could, but he would have to leave eventually.
It seemed like we had to go through a ton of security to get up to the unit. There was a spot to swipe your badge at the door to get to the elevators, to run the elevators, and to get into the unit. It made me feel like I was in a prison. They didn't want anybody getting out. It seriously scared me.
When we got up to the unit, the nurse had me sit in a chair. She read off a bunch of privacy regulations and rules, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was still in shock. Then she asked if she could have my phone.
I was like, "hell no," but she insisted, saying it was the only way to assure that privacy regulations weren't broken. She then asked for my shoes, saying I couldn't have them because they had laces and those could be used to choke myself. Reluctantly I gave up my shoes and then asked to follow the nurse into a room. There she had me strip off all of my clothes and put on a hospital gown. She then checked my clothes and ran a wand all around my body. I was then informed that they would have to cut the string out of my shorts, for the same reason I couldn't have shoe laces. After all of this was done, I got my clothes back and walked out of the room, back onto the unit, back into prison.
