To ask for your most awful hospital ward companion stories?

[stripeyronnie]

Currently on a postnatal ward. Only been here an hour. So far someone has eaten reheated curry which I can still smell. Next doors toddler is watching peppa feckin pig on loudspeaker and a different toddler is opening my curtain whilst playing with a fire engine with siren on. Luckily baby is used to being at home with similarly annoying siblings (we've been readmitted) so is sleeping through it all. DH has been dispatched home for earplugs and other things to keep me sane.

I spent 10 days recovering from peritonitis in hospital in early May. The lady opposite me watched Jeremy Kyle on a tablet without headphones and every night her family brought her a kebab.
Lady next to me talked loudly about not wanting the "dark ones" to nurse her and that they shouldn't be allowed on their own on the ward at night...

I went into septic shock on a hospital ward and was shivering, turned out my appendix had burst, when I arrived back on the ward after having it removed the girl opposite kept reminding me how dramatic I had been when I was moaning about being cold and kept making sarcastic jokes such as 'we better keep the window closed we dont want her to moan she's cold again'. Feeling cold and shivering is a sign of sepsis, unfortunately not many people know this including nurses .

On an antenatal ward for a few nights recently. A younger mother to be moved her boyfriend in who burped, farted and snored throughout while they listened to terrible music videos without earphones. I was ready to go and sleep on sofas in the waiting area one night but thankfully a strict midwife kicked him out (despite the rule that partners can stay) and told her to keep quiet.

I was stuck in the bed next to a police officer. She'd unexpectedly ended up having a c section and wasn't happy about it. She complained bitterly all the time and used to boss her visitors around and was the same towards the baby.

My baby used to grizzle a bit last thing at night and my neighbour used to tut loudly whenever I had to get out of bed to see to him. She had me right on edge and I was too anxious about keeping ds quiet to try and breastfeed.

Postnatal ward immediately after giving birth. The woman across from me had her partner (obviously fine) and her whole extended family (parents, grandparents, siblings, always at least 8 people) there all day (I don’t know what happened to the visiting hours rules!) and there was basically an all day party going on. At one point her partner left to get her something from the cafe and her mum straight out asked if he was definitely the dad, which lead to a huge screaming fight and a midwife threw them all out.

While there was a moment of quiet a nurse came and did the drugs round, they say your name and you confirm your date of birth to confirm they have the right person I guess. She was born in 1998 (relevant for next part of story!)

When her partner came back she stage whispered “that woman [me] was born IN THE EIGHTIES” and he said “nah that’s too old for babies that’s gross” (I was born in 1985, this was two years ago so I was 31)

some people are pigs.

I had one night in hospital post-tonsillectomy. I was in agony, painkillers hadn't worked and the post op morphine had long gone.

The lady in the bed opposite me had something like emphysema, was on oxygen, and walked on and off the ward (without her oxygen) every 20mins for a cigarette during the day. Her snoring at night was like nothing I've ever heard before or since. Not a chance anyone else on the ward could sleep through it. Looking back I have sympathy for her, but at the time I was raging!

Me and baby have moved to the tea room for the time being. Baby screaming I can cope with and expect. Toddler full on tantrums not so much (and I fully understand why toddler is having said tantrum having just met new sibling but maybe it's time to cut the visit short!)

Neonatal ward. The woman to my left turned on the tv the second she got in and didn’t turn it offfor three days! She’d just had a baby. And she had people visiting her. Apparently the inane shit on day time tv was more interesting.

Are they "ward companions" now?
They used to be "visitors" and have been a bloody nuisance whenever I've been in hospital.

I am so grateful that I had my children in the 90s before it became usual for husbands/partners/whoever to hang around.

Certainly I've wanted to batter some visitors when I've been an inpatient.

I'm looking at you, people who had somehow found out my name but hadn't found out the fact I could go to the loo myself, albeit slowly...

"LaM! LaM! Wait for the nurse, LaM!"

Or the ones who shrieked sit-com/advertising cliches at each other from 5 minutes before visiting to 5 minutes afterwards. Exited on a drift of: "Shouldah gone to Specsavers! Hahaha.... bet we cheered up them on that ward!".

No. No you didn't.

I was in hospital last year for 10 days.
For the last four days I had an awful woman in the bed beside me. I was quite ill, she wanted to talk. Continuously. She never ever shut up.

She went on and on and on about how wealthy she was how she and her husband had bought a huge house cheap because it had belonged to a drug deaaler, How they lived in Canada and had huge amounts of land and property and could basically burn money, Uk was a shithole but they'd condescended to come back so her husband could get prostate cancer treatment on the NHS.

If I closed my curtains, she whipped them open to talk to me, If I went to sleep she woke me up (actually shook my legs to wake me even during the night)so she could talk at me.

If I went to the toilet she followed me and talked through the door. If Ignored her she hammered on the door, If I continued to ignore her she got a nurse to come into the toilet to check I was 'OK becuase she's not answering me'. If I answered her she stood outside and talked at me.

I told the nurses I couldn't stand it - I was in tears, They asked her to let me sleep, she would wake me to check I was OK. In the end after a couple of days of me begging them I got discharged early and they let me come in daily for check up and IV anti B's because I said I was discharging myself.

I'm hyperventilating here now even thinking about her. She wanted to swap phone numbers when I was discharged FFS !

The woman next to me after having ds. He was in scbu so we were in the special ward. She had her baby with her

She had her husband, two other kids and mum in all day everyday.

I had had a bad c section and ds was very ill so I was trying to express. And obviously wanted he curtains around for
Privacy.

She complained to the midwife I always had the curtains around and it wasn’t fair she wasn’t getting any natural light. And so the midwife pulled the curtains without checking several times and caught me either expressing or getting changed so teenage son got an eye full.

I ended up complaining and got moved to
A
Separate room. As they came to move me and the stuff the woman’s mother said ‘oh thank god for that. Now you can move next to the window now that selfish cow is moving’

Horrible people.

@KurriKurri
That's so awful I'm feeling anxious just reading it.

Oh god. The postnatal Ward!!
There was a woman who was really poorly and so was her child. She watched loud tv non stop day and night, her partner complained loudly when he had to come in early to go to SCU to be with the baby because he wanted to go to the gym.
The woman next to me made weird sounds and her baby cried constantly and then she complained when my then DD made any noise saying ‘I know you can’t sleep, that annoying baby is keeping you awake’ 🙄

I was on the post natal ward with a new mum who used to wheel her baby over to me so she could go out for a cigarette. So I had two squawking newborns to look after

Yes

stripeyronnie

I don't know if this will help because if you're on a postnatal ward you probably won't want to cook when you go home, but anyway...

Apart from the ghastly visitors, the food was a huge problem for me.
I couldn't eat pasta boiled for two hours or "cheese pie" that smelled like sick.
A really kind nurse fetched me chips from the staff canteen (obviously under the impression that all I ate was chips since I didn't eat "normal" food. I'm quite the foodie but was very grateful for the chips).

A less kind nurse told that the doctors wouldn't let me go home if I didn't eat hot food (the only thing I could tolerate was their sandwiches). I knew this was crap (the doctors had told me that they couldn't eat the muck we were served).

I kept going by imagining the nice food I would cook when I went home. Also, the luxury of going to the toilet in my own time; not listening to crap on the television plus crap on the radio at the same time ; not overhearing inane conversations...

Sometimes, hell really is other people.

Antenatal ward. The woman who ran her breast pump machine (this is 25 years ago now it was the size of a microwave) slurp slurp slurp all night

She was opposite me and sat legs akimbo everything hanging out all day long munching crisps at full volume

It is really only on hospital wards you realise they walk amongst us

Was terribly ill and in hospital. A woman was put in the next bed who had clearly been beaten black and blue. Her "D"H sat by her bed for the 12 hours of visiting time every single day and kept banging his chair against my bed. Luckily, the staff moved me.

Oh and another woman on the same ward kept trying to light up get cigarette. Not the best idea when we were all on oxygen...

I think I was the bad companion. Have name changed as this is outing.
I was in hospital following a molar pregnancy, just started chemotherapy. I was sat chatting to the lady opposite me. When I stood up, I had lost a lot of blood, it had gone all over her dressing gown. I apologised. I was 200 miles from home so couldn’t wash it for her :( her son washed it.
I think about this lady often, if you are this lady I am so sorry

I had a ruptured appendix about two and a half years ago, my surgery site wouldn’t heal so I had an open packed wound, I was due to stay in for 4-6 weeks while it healed.

It was like hell on earth.

1. Racist nutter in the next bed who constantly moaned about ‘darkies’ sometimes to me (I am a ‘darkie’). Thankfully he was gone after two days.

1. Screaming man, he clearly had dimentia (so not his fault), but he would shout all night and then snore all bloody day. He was there the entire time I was, so I discharged myself after two weeks.

1. The thug, I swear, but there is a time a place, a hospital is not one of those places. I generally ignored him but one day my boyfriend had brought my son to visit (who was only 2) and thug said something really really awful about us (do people not realise curtains are not sound proof!), it was so so hard to keep my mouth shut. So later that night I woke him and threatened to kill him if he ever said anything about us ever again, for some reason it seemed like a good idea at the time. I then walked to the nurses station and let them know what I had said, they said thank you!

1. The crying relative, she would sit by her relatives bedside and cry all day everyday, the best thing was one day his wife turned up, the crying woman had been his bit on the side! The resulting arguement was absolutely fantastic, I was genuinely annoyed when security removed them from the ward.

When I discharged myself I slept for almost 14 hours straight as I was so tired from lack of sleep.

I'm getting moved to my own room! Wonder if the midwife is on MN or just felt sorry for me. Hell really is other people!

his wife turned up, the crying woman had been his bit on the side! The resulting arguement was absolutely fantastic

My ex had this recovering from kidney stones. Wife and gf turned up at the same time and it ALL KICKED OFF

Was very entertaining