Hospital ward CF stories

[SapphosRock]

Can anyone beat mine?

I was admitted to hospital today and so far the neighbour in the bed next to me has:

⁃	Stolen my pillow
⁃	Stolen my fan 
⁃	Moved her curtain around MY cupboard and put all her stuff on it - I now have nowhere to put anything 
⁃	Plugged her phone into my plug socket 
⁃	Had about 5 noisy visitors all of whom brought some kind of smelly takeaway
⁃	Had a nap. Snored her head off 
⁃	Complained loudly about everything and everyone on the ward disturbing her - all the other ladies are quiet as mice 

A lovely nurse is going to try and move me!

I know Owlette! I’m a nurse to boot, so I was mortified.
Important he stays hydrated...

Lady in the bed opposite tole me she’d come back to the U.K. (from Israel) to have treatment for cancer on the NHS. No idea how that happens, she said she was no longer a U.K. citizen.

Lady in the bed next to me told her daughter that the rest of us were ignoring her. She faked or was asleep every time we got together for a chat. She then told her that she hadn’t eaten all day despite having grazed all day on biscuits/chocolate/anything she could reach.

@bonzo77 I'm not sure, but I don't think it's ok to leave a toddler alone all day. The nurses can't give that amount of attention.

I've been lucky in my hospital stays, but our local MIU has to regularly call the police on people who bring carrier bags to the children's waiting room so they can steal the toys in bulk.

@DisgraceToTheYChromosome that's disgusting. And you've reminded me of when DS had some stuff stolen while I had taken him in wheelchair to get off the ward for 20 mins.

Other situations where I feel sorry for the other patients is when there's a confused patient in the bay with them who keeps everyone awake all night.

I visited my mum on an orthopedic ward one morning to find a window boarded up because one old lady had been so fed up with the others' nighttime craziness she'd thrown a cup through it. And can't say I blamed her, must've been a nightmare trying to get any sleep in that ward

My Dad was in hospital opposite a man who was supposedly non-verbal. My dad said that every night the man would whisper to him he was going to strangle him in his sleep. He had it all planned for a certain night.

Luckily Dad was moved to a private room on the night patient was planning to kill him.

We never did establish if the man really was threatening him or if it was the strong painkillers Dad was taking!

Thank god for Bupa though. I don’t think I could cope with this kind of nonsense if I was sick enough to requirehospjtalisation

What will you do if you're acutely ill and have to be treated in an NHS hospital? Die from consorting with the hoi polloi?

Wards only worked when there was expectation of good behaviour and violent and CFer visitors could be expelled.

Unfortunately patients and relatives being given ‘behaviour contracts’ isn’t uncommon.

I was in hospital for five days after DS was born - on a sweltering ward during one of the recent sweltering summers. The string of people in the window side beds insisted on keeping their curtains closed AT ALL TIMES meaning those of us on the other side saw next to no daylight, and more importantly got no breeze from the ward fan - DH ended up buying me my own (which someone tried to claim when I left).

Also one of the women in the permanently curtained bay walked around naked (I got an accidental eyeful through the gap in the curtains, but also got family to bring M&S food in for her - fair enough the ward food wasn't great but she then left all the rubbish for the orderlies you clean up when she left. Her bed was ten paces from a bin.

Mind you, the thing THAT REALLY pissed me off was missing the Lineker hat trick in 86. This was my first broken leg, and just before the game an RTC was brought in with pretty severe right side lacerations. So they pulled the curtain round him to stop the corridor light shining on his eyes, blocking my view of the TV. But I didn't complain because I'm not a CF.
I did get to see the Beckham penalty in 02, when I broke my other leg. 30 mgs of diamorphine, a corned beef sandwich and treacle pudding and custard made it even better.

Woman in the next bed was diabetic. Every single time they came round and asked if she wanted a cup of tea, she asked for three sugars. She was having her blood sugar monitored by finger pricks every four hours around the clock. Every time they did the finger prick she would scream at the top of her lungs for ten solid minutes, as if she was being stabbed through the chest with a butcher’s knife, wailing, praying.

Her family would sit by her bed side from 10am to 10pm. One lunch time she didn’t like the meal that had been brought (that she had chosen and ordered earlier in the day), so the family loudly demanded that something else was brought. The staff calmly explained that there were no spare meals on the ward, so the family told them the nurse should really go to Greggs and get her a cheese pasty immediately, “she’s got to eat, she’s DIABETIC!”

HCP here. Sadly none of these stories surprise me even a little bit . Absolutely common to have CF behaviour in hospitals.

Last time I was in hospital there was a lady watching her iPad loudly at 3 in the morning no one said anything to her..

(SORRY IM STUCK ON CAPS ATM)

SLAVETOLIFE-- DO YOU MEAN THESE PEOPLE JUST HAVE PAINKILLER ADDICTIONS AND COME TO THE HOSPITAL TO GET THE STRONG STUFF?

We were on the maternity ward for reduced movement not so long ago and there was a woman next to me who was on the phone talking about someone dying and getting I heritable really loud, then when the midwife came around she moaned about how long it was taking to be seen by a doctor (wasn’t in logout he the sounds of it as she wasn’t in any pain so not sure what she was in for) then she asked the midwife if she could go out for a fag (I was a smoker before I was pregnant and I rolled my eyes so hard), the midwife told her that the doctor was starting to make his way around although she couldn’t say how long he would be but if she went out for a fag and she missed him then she would have to wait longer.

She went for her fag 🙃 couldn’t believe it.

I was VERY ill recovering post op, and the lady next door had HUGE noisy family visiting including a child who kept leaning back and bouncing his body against my bed. I asked him not to very politely and explained because every time he leant back onto my bed to bounce it really hurt me, as I'd had an operation. He understood and stopped but the entire family heard then end of it and then started swearing at me and telling ME to FOff for telling off their kid! Luckily a passing nurse told them to be quiet and whipped the curtain round from my side of the bed to keep them away. Although kid then started bumping through curtain against my cabinet which was against my bed, it took all my strength to shove it away from the bed so it wouldn't bump the bed, but I kind of got the angle wrong so he fell through the curtain and bumped his head, the noise got the nurses over and the ever patient nurse suggested the visitors left which they did. I think that was the longest afternoon in hospital ever!

I fear I may be a cf.
Ds(few months old) was taken in after concerns about not gaining weight.
Dh slept on a chair.
Ds slept like a log.
Realised we hadn't bought Valentine cards so agreed to a cuddle instead. Led to dtd!!
The door did lock but felt somewhat guilt afterwards!!

Oh gosh. I could tell a few tales.

Our antenatal ward lets men stay overnight and we have huge issues with them climbing into empty ward beds and sleeping. Which isn’t so funny when an emergency admission arrives, you go to admit the woman to a bed and find a snoring man in the bed instead especially as often the men aren’t very pleased about being woken up and I have to dash about to get it clean and made up again. We also have an issue with men walking around in their pants.

A lot of our equipment gets nicked. Several times I’ve seen it poking out of patients bags so I take it back. I once found someone selling a fetal heart doppler at a car boot sale that had the name of my ward written down it in permanent marker. When I challenged the woman selling it she said I could buy it back for a fiver I said I’d just take it back or I’d report her for theft...

@Winterdaysarehere seriously? That is fucking disgusting!!

@Winterdaysarehere you have got to be joking

So thankful for private health insurance through work. Wards need phasing out

When I was on a critical care ward I ended up with an almost naked old lady trying to get into my bed. Was recounting this tale with my dh and MIL (who is currently in hosp) and reckon it will be her who is the strange old lady trying to get in someone else's bed tonight

@EnlightenedOwl you're more likely to die in a private room, and you're also more likely to die with a private healthcare provider than under the NHS.

My DP had to go in for surgery to remove an abscess on his leg, and had to stay overnight.
The bloke in the bed next to him was extremely confused and aggressive. He tried to punch the nurses and kept screaming that they were trying to kill him.
DP didn't complain to anyone because, I mean what could be done, the bloke was very old and we thought he probably had dementia but it was quite frightening to see him kicking off.

I have such a great respect for everyone who works for the NHS. It must be really difficult at times.