Poor friend stuck in hospital - ideas please!

[TurtleyAwesome]

My dear friend has to stay in hospital for three months. She’s not close enough to visit (5 hour drive, I might be able to go once) so I’m trying to think of things to send her to keep her spirits up and help her combat boredom. Any suggestions?

Agree with the adult colouring books. I have a broken knee and am laid up 8 weeks so far with no weight bearing and it's a welcome distraction from the pain without needing much concentration

Ps you are a gorgeous friend

How about something like Minecraft? You can play together and building/exploring is very soothing (to me, at least). She's just need a reasonable tablet and WiFi.

Subscription boxes are nice and there are so many you can find something affordable that ties in with her hobbies.

Nice lotions/scented things. Especially if she's on a restricted diet, having something nice to smell will probably really perk her up.

If she's mobile, maybe cozy socks/slippers? The floors are always freezing!

You sound like a lovely friend :)

When I was stuck in hospital for a similar amount of time my iPad was a lifesaver - could you give her some iTunes vouchers so she can buy some box sets?

The letter idea made me cry, I would have absolutely loved that :)

Other things I would have loved - a really good moisturiser, mouthwash, face wipes / baby wipes and that amazing no water deodorant foam that you usually use at festivals. Oh and an eye mask - when you desperately need a nap and the lights on the ceiling are brighter than the actual sun!

Dependent on why she is there, make sure anything you send is going to be easy for her to open. I had some lovely bits brought in by gorgeous kind friends but they'd leave and because of my injuries I'd realise I couldn't open them!

Oh and hospital food where I was was awful (though I'm so grateful for the NHS I always feel terrible moaning about anything!) so having things like cereal bars was really nice too. Bottles of water too.

Hope she has an ok stay - she's lucky to have lovely friends, it makes such a difference knowing people are rooting for you.

The readily app could be good, all the magazines on one app. Regular emails and texts with all the news and gossip.

There are lots of great ideas here, but do check how good her wifi speed/signal strength is before going for games/netflix etc.. When I was in hospital (admittedly 6 years ago), the wifi was very slow and weak, and I could barely get any phone reception. Phone reception at my local hospital has improved enormously (at least for the network I use), not sure about wifi though.

Oh just thought of something else, a long charging cable for her phone/tablet. My phone one is about six inches long and I've replaced it with a 2m one from Amazon which means I can use it more comfortably in bed.

A big plastic cup with a lid and straw. I was only in for a week but the little plastic cups they give you are so tiny and they were squishy plastic so easy to spill. It also meant I drank plenty too.

I second a subscription to something, magazine, hobby box, audible?

I quite enjoy hidden object games. Just have to keep scanning the picture to find all the objects. Can pick up and put down as needed.

Nice smellies, new knickers and nighties and a lovely large fleece blanket. A card every week. Not sure about a plant due to infection control but a 'plastic' plant looks lovely. Some nice cards or writing paper with stamps? Posh squash, mints, biscuits. A nice wash bag.

Have a look at the website "notanotherbunchofflowers".
Lots of ideas.

Oh and her own mug for tea round! Maybe some decent tea bags or coffee?

Omg the long charger suggestion is genius - I would have sold my earthly belongings for one as it was my only link with the outside world and loved ones.

Unless they've been through the same it's impossible for people to understand how utterly isolating it is in hospital.

Oh also, my friend bought me some strappy tops and she stayed all day until we figured out a way to get them on and then showed my one nice nurse how to do it too. It made such a difference being in clean clothes.

And total vanity one because personal thing I like to do, we have no boundaries so she shaved my armpits and bought nice tampons (she even had to help me change them!) because in my hospital all they would give me was GIANT sanitary towels that I couldn't even close my legs around let alone go to the loo once I could move again. Now THAT is a good friend!

Subscription to Kindle unlimited?

Or a music streaming service?

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These water bottles are fantastic, don't leak and stay hot/cold for ages. The big sizes are quite massive though (the biggest size holds just under 1L.)

How about suggesting to her that you've been dying for an excuse to get into X TV show and see if she has an interest (eg, Emmerdale, Doctors etc) and perhaps you can buddy up and gossip about the episode. Doctors would be good because it's on daily and mind numbingly dull but brilliant.