Of course PC came back right after I deleted my account. 😒 Welcome back! Sorry I won't be around much anymore. The only reason I saw this post is because I accidentally left the site open on my laptop's browser (I usually browse/post from my phone).
I don't have any experience with prison, but I wanted to share my experience from an extended hospital stay I had last year. I imagine there may be some parallels with your experiences. I won't go into detail about what happened to put me in the hospital, except to say that it was self-inflicted. I was in the hospital for 4.5 months. My parents came out from PA at the beginning, and my estranged wife brought my son to visit a few times (it was tricky to arrange visits with him because kids technically weren't allowed on the unit).
But for the most part, most of my human interaction was with nurses and the chaplain assigned to that part of the hospital. They came to visit me almost daily for most of the duration of my stay there, and I still make a point to stop by their office and say hi whenever I'm up there for followup clinic appointments. I'll never forget what they said to me on one of my lowest days, "You didn't do this to yourself. Your mind did it to you, so cut yourself some [freaking] slack." They were a friend to me when I needed one most, and I'll always be indescribably grateful for that. I wasn't incarcerated or dying, but I was grieving badly for several weeks. They helped me see that one horrific decision doesn't need to define me or haunt me forever, a sentiment that I'm sure many of your inmates can appreciate. I didn't die that day, but I like to think that some of the worst parts of my psyche did.
-Godless
