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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To enjoy being in hospital?

209 replies

startingtolooklikemother · 03/09/2016 20:58

I fell slipped and fell over on the worlds smallest hill on Friday and managed to dislocate my foot as well as breaking my ankle in 3 places
Thing is I'm actually enjoying being in hospital even though I thought it was going to be awful. The food isn't bad, I can't walk so someone brings me loads of cups of tea, changed my bed, plumps my pillows and generally feels sorry for me. yesterday I spent all day in bed eating Jaffa cakes watching day time to and slightly off my face on morphine
I know it's not exactly where I would choose for a mini break but compared to home life its a doddle
Of course I miss my DS and DH but god it's lovely having everyone run round after me.

OP posts:
gingerboy1912 · 04/09/2016 16:12

This is one of the reasons I love working in women's health on a gynae ward. Most ladies appreciate being looked after. We make their bed , make them hot drinks, serve them food, get magazines for them, open/shut the window, listen to their woes, introduce them to other ladies, and give them pain relief. It gives some a much needed rest and a head start on post op recovery.

I agree with the nurturing idea. A place where you can book in for a few days and be fussed over. Grin

gingerboy1912 · 04/09/2016 16:14

Can I just say 'the lady next to me was having a very smelly poo whilst I was watching homes under the hammer' is possibly my favourite MN line ever. 😂😂😂

^^ yes this Grin

StrattersHasACunningPlan · 04/09/2016 17:25

I had a 4 day stint in ICU a month ago. I'm ashamed to admit that, aside from the times when I was feeling seriously awful, it was lovely. New ward, state of the art beds, air conditioning, a 1:1 nurse, who basically sat and chatted, and watched tv with me - in between being very very ill I was fairly ok, delicate but okish - I was the only one pottering about. Big proper tv at the end of the bed, and my slightest whim catered to.

DaphneCanDoBetterThanFred · 04/09/2016 18:20

Oooooh yes Grin The last time I was in hospital was lovely. I had to go in for a surgical bartholins cyst removal. I had a thread on here about the cyst/lady bollock, actually, was great fun Smile Anyway, I got checked in, sent up to the gynae ward and it was blissful .. There were 8 beds in my room - all of them empty. The nurses apologised that I'd probably be in for a long wait as they'd have to bump me down if there were emergencies. I thought that was great, and settled into bed with a good book, read 1 page and fell asleep. Got woken up 30 minutes later to a nurse and surgical people ready to take me down to theatre, and to my shame, I did ask if there was anyone more urgent that needed doing as I was enjoying my nap. Operation was very quick and smooth, but I woke up in agony after the general anaesthetic. Nurse quickly got me some oramorph and took me back to my ward for a rest but as I was slightly off my tits on said lovely oramorph I instead kept hobbling out of my ward to the nurses station and asking them if I could help as I was at a loose end. The nurse, hopefully used to oramorph-induced idiots, kept gently guiding me back to bed, only for me to pop up minutes later to ask if I could make them all a cup of tea, after all I felt great and bouncy and lovely, and look! I can skip! No pain! She wasn't fucking wrong when she said I would feel it when the drugs wore off. Very ouch. Much pain. Blush

Hope your ankle gets better slowly op!

lastqueenofscotland · 04/09/2016 18:34

God the last time I was in hospital overnight I was the youngest person on the ward by about 50 years (no exaggeration) got no sleep as all night was old people telling nurses they'd wet the bed

Glitteryfrog · 04/09/2016 18:59

got no sleep as all night was old people telling nurses they'd wet the bed

But wouldn't press the buzzer and cause a fuss. So shout instead? Hmm Angry
Then cause a fuss because they're not stable enough to walk to the toilet (even with the nurse helping), but won't use a comode or a bed pan. This went on for about 30mins one night.

WankingMonkey · 04/09/2016 19:32

Nurse quickly got me some oramorph and took me back to my ward for a rest but as I was slightly off my tits on said lovely oramorph I instead kept hobbling out of my ward to the nurses station and asking them if I could help as I was at a loose end.

I wish oramorph had that effect on me..I have bottles and bottles of it upstairs but it barely even registers Sad. Everyone else seems to say they are out of it when they have oramorph... Considering asking doc to put a permanent IV in and just having a morphine stash instead.

Love hospital when I am in private room and they have pain under control so I am just kinda chilling. HATED hospital when having my kids as I was stuck in a room with loads of others and both times the poor lady opposite me had a projectile vomiting baby...which was nice...

Dinosaursgoboo · 04/09/2016 19:42

I had a lovely stay in a gynae ward last year! Had a 1 year old and 4 year old at home, and I was pregnant so a week's rest with entertaining company, food and drink provided, lying in bed and nice (on the whole) nurses was was just wonderful. I was properly ill (though thankfully nothing with long term consequences) and just so very grateful to be being looked after. I've spent much too long in hospital with sick babues, though, and that's always been horrible.

justwhatineed · 04/09/2016 19:43

I had a lumbar puncture last year with an overnight stay, I had a lovely time

youarenotkiddingme · 04/09/2016 19:50

Last time I spent a night in hospital was with my DS.

The lovely nurses came round at 9pm when kids asleep and reminded us parents Costa was open til 10 and it was their job to watch the kids if we wanted to go!

I swear dust was left on the floor road runner style as we left!

ThatsNotMyFuckingLife · 04/09/2016 20:02

My GP is referring me for hernia surgery - I wonder whether I'll have to stay in...

maddiemookins16mum · 04/09/2016 20:04

I was in hospital in Calgary, Canada once, OMG it was like a 4 star hotel!! Own room, huge number of tv channels (it was 30 years ago) and one of my meals was a juicy steak with a can of root beer!!

Bitofacow · 04/09/2016 20:14

Is it morphine time again nurse??

Thatsmeinthecorner2016 · 04/09/2016 20:15

I get severely claustrophobic in hospitals and get bad anxiety attacks. I wouldn't last a day without going crazy unless I'm dying.

chough · 04/09/2016 20:33

I can see the attraction if you're receiving good care!
I was in hospital a few months ago for surgery after an accident, and the care was abysmal: this particular hospital has a very bad name in the area, and my GP later told me that around 80% of his patients who are admitted there have cause for complaint.
Wish you a speedy recovery.

GColdtimer · 04/09/2016 21:06

Good luck for the op Starting. I had the same injury and have had no problems. After the op do take the drugs regularly. If you don't and the physio comes round to get you to hang your leg over the bed to get the circulation going you will very much regret it!

bertsdinner · 04/09/2016 21:42

My sister was in hospital a couple of years back with a hysterectomy, I was quite envious. She was moved to a ward with only 3 of them on it (they were like an overspill on an unused ward), it was quiet, nurse on duty was lovely.
The food was dire, but we took her sandwiches in or she could hobble down to the shop/canteen. They came round regularly with tea and biccies, it all seemed so cosy.
The fly in the ointment was one of the other patients, a woman who talked about her constipation endlessly and drove my sister mad. The woman took to greeting me and my mum with " well I still havnt been" and apparantly drove the nurses mad with her constant moaning. The other patient was a young Asian girl who read all day and pretended not to speak English, to avoid being pestered by "constipation lady", although this had little effect. We felt sorry for her as we picked my sister up and she was left with this woman and her bum problems.

crossroads3 · 04/09/2016 22:02

YADNBU OP. Have just spent 2 nights and a day in hospital (well last weekend, Saturday to Monday) with ds who broke his arm and had to have an operation, and even though I did not sleep well at night (he was on a ward with 4 children and their parents) I didn't want to go home either. The lack of demands made on me, and the enforced hibernating from the world was very peaceful. H and I do not really get on, so it was also very nice to be away from all of that.

crossroads3 · 04/09/2016 22:03

(Hope your foot mends quickly).

Oysterbabe · 04/09/2016 22:14

This thread is hilarious!

I've often thought while sat at my desk being shouted at by some dickhead client who I can't tell to fuck off due to needing a job to pay bills, that I would love to do a reasonable spell in prison.

FinderofNeedles · 04/09/2016 22:36

Oyster yes! At work once, when we were going to a lot of trouble to make sure that a client could access 2 different lots of funding, someone said that we'd better take care with the details in case we got into trouble. I joked that I'd volunteer to go to prison, saying 'no housework, no DCs demanding things and 3 meals a day provided, what's not to like?!'

Tumbleweed .... but they were all men and clearly didn't get the joke.

gingerboy1912 · 04/09/2016 23:41

I do fantasise about having a spell in prison. A nice one obviously where I have no housework, no school run, no food shop or bills to worry about and where I could sleep a lot, watch tv and read. Grin

OvariesForgotHerPassword · 04/09/2016 23:46

Hope your foot is better soon OP

I'm terrified of hospitals and doctors. I've had white coat syndrome since surgery as a baby, it absolutely petrifies me to even think about going into hospital. I've been in quite a bit over the last couple of years and almost every time I've discharged myself against medical advice out of fear. I'm an awful patient!

And yet I want to be a paramedic Grin I feel fine about giving the treatment, just not receiving it!

shins · 05/09/2016 00:25

A friend of mine spent a week in prison (activist, disobeyed an injunction) and she said it was so relaxing -met a couple of murderers but most women were in for petty crimes and not scary. I was jealous!

ZebraOwl · 05/09/2016 05:08

I'm grateful for the amazing care I've received in hospitals (I also have some pretty horrific stories, umph...) but I can't imagine ENJOYING a hospital stay.

Being in a single room is definitely nicer than being on a ward in terms of getting to sleep, but it does increase the feeling of isolation once you're well enough to register that.

Last summer I was in for a couple of weeks where I mostly felt about as OK as I usually did (bearing in mind at that point I felt incredibly sick the whole time & kept randomly throwing up) & just found it frustrating. Not least because prior to my admission I was told I'd only be 2 nights (I have complex health needs so they wanted to admit me the night before putting NJ tube in & I'd go home the day after it was done as long as it was all working ok... Ha!) - I had a proper sobbing session when told it would be at least a week. And then the tube didn't work & I had to have it withdrawn by 20cm & I cried some more... For most of that admission I was fine though & if I hadn't been able to make myself useful to other patients I think I would've gone mad.

That stay I had to run to get help if someone was ill-ill because there was someone in our bay who'd been busily bed-blocking with her imaginary ailments for actual months who CONSTANTLY rang her call-bell, including when staff were in the bay; & threw SPECTACULAR tantrums when she didn't get what she wanted. So staff were always surprised if it was one of us calling for them instead. I wasn't about to let a 95yo woman wet herself because of that, nor leave the woman who "replaced" her thrashing about in pain & struggling to breathe. Both times I went to find someone I got "I thought it was Bed 4, OK, I'm coming now... And you should be in bed! You're ill too you know!"

Bed 4 would copy whatever was wrong with other patients/demand the same treatments as them & sulk massively if she didn't get them. And she'd figured out what to do to trigger certain things & the best time of day to get stuff she wanted done. I had to have paracetamol inserted into my medication list because she pitched such a fit about my being allowed my oxycodone without "trying" a lower strength painkiller first. After she saw me have it IV nothing would serve her but that she have it IV too. Bed 5 had a serious episode of angina & needed chest X-Ray; wasn't well enough to go down even on her bed so portable X-Ray was brought up to ward. Bed 4 then developed chest pains that meant an X-Ray was ordered. Porters came up, she refused to go in wheelchair; they say that's fine they'll take her in her bed; she says she is too ill to be moved. Poor porters come up several more times, she refuses, too ill to go, the X-Ray must come to her. It came to Bed 5, why not to her? She is so ill, this is not fair, she is disabled, they are so unkind to her, they mistreat her all the time because she has no family... We then got a further tantrum because she was told very firmly that she wasn't going to Mass because if she wasn't well enough to go for an X-Ray, she certainly wasn't well enough for that. That was the same AWESOME nurse who actually told her it was a biological impossibility for her to be dissolving food in her mouth as she claimed. I had to sit on my hands so as not to applaud. I actually did give her flowers at the end of her shift as my friend had brought them in for me & although they were allowed on that ward I didn't have anywhere to put them & tbh she more than deserved them - had I had a medal handy I'd have given her that! All the nonsense about suddenly being unable to eat was because she wanted to have a feeding tube put in - I was struggling with the effects of suddenly gaining several kilos within a week (which was basically all fluid, but VERY uncomfortable all the same!) & feeling self-conscious about people staring at me when I ventured off the ward & as well as her antics with food (she drove the poor catering staff to distraction with her totally made-up & ever-changing dietary "needs" & constantly harassed the dietitians, on one day calling non-stop because the ward dietitian saw me & not her because "you're not on my list for today Bed 6 & I'm very busy; we've had a lot of discussions & I've told you it's up to the nursing staff to decide if patients need to see me" thankfully she'd assumed the dietitian was going to her after seeing me or she'd have screeched non-stop while we were trying to talk...) she actually TOLD me that SHE was the one who ought to have a feeding tube, she was so ill & so thin & so unable to eat. A couple of the night staff found me while I was having a little cry about that (I associated feeding tubes with people vastly more underweight than I was at that stage so it really struck a nerve & I have A Thing about wasting NHS resources...) & cheerily told me if they could they'd put a really wide-gauge NG in her & do bolus feeds through it...

I missed one of her most spectacular tantrums as I was Really Not A Well Bunny & managed to stay asleep while she ranted & raved about favouritism & the nurses spending all their time with me & Bed 1 (who was really quite poorly post-op bless her) because we were young & pretty. I was just sleeping, I didn't need one nurse, let alone two! Why did noone remember SHE was the person who was ill, who was disabled? She was ringing her bell & they didn't answer because they were fussing over someone who was just asleep. Bed 1 told me there was quite the set-to & she got a serious telling-off including for her habit of disturbing the rest of other patients...

I've also shared with shouty!woman (whose brother, Sir Brother'sName, was head of a large charity - she always referred to him by his title) who had been on the hospital pain management programme when she broke her wrist. She needed surgery but should have been discharged the next day. However, she flatly refused to go. They hauled in another consultant to back hers up & still couldn't lever her out. I, meanwhile, was desperately brokering some weekend leave so I could go to see "Hansel & Gretl" at the Opera House (I got the leave & a couple who sponsored the performance arranged for some of the dancers to meet me & sign photos for me... Am a lucky Zebra...) while she behaved exactly as if nurses & HCAs were servants. She tried to force one of her daughters to come in to visit her rather than going to see her MIL. A long-arranged weekend stay, some distance away, with a MIL who had cancer. "But mummy's broken arm should be the most important thing to you now Daughter'sName! I just can't believe you're being so SELFISH!" She also ended one of her MANY phonecalls to Sir Brother'sName with "no, it's no good, I'm going to HAVE to go, the woman next to me is on the phone & she is SHOUTING in foreign".

Have had all sorts of weird & wonderful wardmates but I think the most distressing was after my first reconstructive knee surgery when I was 22 (& genuinely, in my PJs, looked about 12) spent a night with the elderly lady whose bed had been opposite mine until that evening when they'd moved me to be closer to the toilets as I was starting to mobilise (top tip, never agree to bilateral knee surgery, it is a horrific experience, especially if the aftercare is poor) alternating between terrified screaming & wailing about them having killed the little girl (ie me) & were going to kill her next; and singing "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam". She had a raging UTI, which had gone unnoticed because of the dire "care" on that ward. They wouldn't let me go to her to see if I could calm her down by demonstrating my still being alive. SadAngry