Do you dream of being hospitalised?

[Rocknrollstar]

I just read some research that said many women dream of being hospitalised with something relatively minor just for a few days. They see it as a way of being able to stay in bed and be looked after instead of running round after everyone else. And I thought it was only me! (Please bear in mind that not everyone can arrange a couple of days away).

I used to when I was about 10 because I had my tonsils out and I spent 4 days in hospital and got lots of attention and presents and there were loads of toys/craft stuff in the playroom. I used to watch children's ward and children's hospital on the tv.

But now, absolutely not. Hardly any sleep which was like torture and they send you home much more quickly these days so you only do the extremely ill and painful bit in hospital. I used to get more looking after by the nurses when my baby was the patient in hospital on the children's ward than when i was a patient on the maternity ward. Even recently when I stayed with my 12 year old the nurses were so kind and brought me toast in the morning. On the maternity ward I had to make my own toast and sterilise the bottles as soon as my catheter was out. It was so painful to stand, i remember not waiting for the bottles to cool down before taking them out of the steriliser because I just wanted to get back to bed as quickly as possible.

I'm sorry, that's awful.

To be fair, the fantasy is NOT to have something serious, but something minor, not too painful or permanent, that keeps you in hospital for a few days.

In my baby's newborn days, I used to wonder how hard to crash the car to get injured just enough.......And yeah, NHS wards are shit, but being woken up every 30 minutes by a reflux baby actually made me hallucinate.

The fantasy doesn’t even work in the lovely private room with en-suite. I had two surgeries in a private hospital ( back when I had generous company provided insurance) Lovely menu - which I was unable to eat and was feeling post general anaesthetic bleugh. I had a cannula in and could only rest in one position so sleep was at best sporadic.

So much better than my more recent post surgery experience in an NHS 6 bed bay, with noise and lights and vanishing nursing staff but you still yearn for home.

What the dream really is about is a kind of convalescent home of the type that doesn’t exist any more - you need building up, you would be ordered to stay in your (nice) nightwear and rest with some light magazines , spend some time tucked up in a chair on a balcony overlooking the sea, have simple and delicious food brought to you and no one is allowed to disturb you on doctor’s orders.

For me it was just about escaping the relentless daily responsibilities of baby + work + breastfeeding + bills + doing everything, without guilt. It was less about the comfort of the hospital or being taken careof, more just a guilt free escape at a time when my life was unbearable and I was crushing under the responsibilities of everything.

As another poster said ... I could do with collapsing due to exhaustion/burnout... then everyone around me would understand how much I do/ have responsibility for/am relied upon. I'll take a weeks strict bed rest on Dr's orders while being hooked up with tubes, machines etc to make it look a lot worse than it actually is.

Ironically, as I type this from my bed my DC is shouting for me from downstairs for help. What time does the hospital open?! 😜

Those luxury convalescent homes do indeed exist; I know a very well off lady who went to one after a recent operation, but they are unavailable to people of ordinary means sadly.

My grandma went to a nursing home for a while after a broken hip and a traumatic time being neglected in her failing local hospital.
It was run by an Asian family and she had such a lovely time there being properly looked after and treated as a human being that she revised her lifelong racism 😬
It wasn’t fancy and afaik it was publicly funded - she wasn’t rich. This was about 25 years ago.