That being watched in hospital makes me feel uneasy

[Turnthebloodyheatdowninhospital]

Names changed inspired by the fact I am in hospital and they need to turn the bloody heat down. I nearly cried when the women next to the window closed it- Anyway

I am on the nicest quietest ward I have ever been on (heat aside) but I am in for a week so the seizures I have can be monitored. I am hooked up to a portable eeg so have these wires stuck on my head (not very comfy).
however the thing that is strange that in our bay there is nurse basically watching over us all the time. So she is sat there all night and keep looking from one of us to the other.

one the plus side everyone is lovely and quiet and no one is pretending they are a duck (last time I was in on another ward). No one is talking on loud speaker, the 2 ladies opposite me have headphones in watching something. The lady next to me is reading quietly (after handing out earplugs as she snores- bless her)

so all good. It’s quiet, it’s dark but having someone watching me is making me feel really weird. And I don’t feel I can sleep Would anyone else feel the same

I’d feel strange too, OP. I’ve always found sleeping on a ward hard anyway and knowing someone was watching would be even weirder. But you will get tired enough at some point to fall asleep and after a few nights you’ll get more used to it and find it easier.

Hope things cool down and the observations help you get the treatment you need.

I agree with @MumbleBumbleAppleCrumble, try to change your thought process from being watched to being monitored.
I was in hospital last year, kidney stone (absolute agony) the whole experience was pretty awful.
The care given was beyond excellent but the heat, the noise, the being woken up to be monitored or being woken up by other patients 😬
We had a nurse who sat in our ward on a laptop tapping away all night.
The only respite from the pain, in between the morphine, was sleep and I didn't get much of that!
You have my sympathy, hope you get home soon.

Horrid for you OP. Unfortunately, it's obviously necessary. You must be feeling ill physically with lying down all the time and being uncomfortable.

You're under observation and it really is awful, I was in ICU and I was right next to the desk and I was frightened. They moved me to the HDU and did the same thing.

Kindly, it's for your own good. It might save your life.

I hate being watched too, but sometimes it's absolutely essential to get you well. I hope you feel better soon.

I had telemetry a few years ago at Kings, it was such an odd experience and felt like I was in a science experiment with all the wires attached to my head. Mine was video so every little thing, bar using the loo, was monitored, recorded whilst at the same time being watched in another room. I tried to immerse myself in reading so I could block what was going on. I also did some rather difficult crochet to keep my mind occupied

Completely natural to feel uncomfortable in this situation. You know it’s for your own good, but you are allowed to say you don’t like it. I hope you get the information you need from this investigation.

I'm guessing it's so they can describe the seizures in addition to the EEG results? In your normal every day life you're not going to have an EEG machine on so it'll be helpful if your friends, family and colleagues know what a seizure looks like.

Unless everyone on the ward has tonic clonics- in which case I would have thought the machines you're hooked up to would alert ward staff to an emergency?

Completely understandable to feel like that OP- it's a weird situation to be in. However family members of mine have witnessed unobserved hypos, seizures etc on hospital wards- so much better to be watched. My gran actually fell and had a subarachnoid brain haemorrhage in hospital because they were understaffed and not able to watch her.

Are you taking the pee. They are monitoring you FYI doing there job

You can't. You're not the only patient there and she is a professional doing her job. Ridiculous.

Yes it is weird, and normal to feel uneasy. But it must be necessary for the study.

When my mum was in a ward someone would sit in during the night. When she had her own room they would sit outside the window.

ask for a fan if you’re struggling with the heat. Or ask to swap beds with the lady next to the window.

I really don’t get the aggy comments here 🥴 it’s perfectly justifiable that you feel weird, I don’t know anyone that would want someone watching them whilst they are trying to sleep! Are you able to turn on your side at all? Perhaps adjust the pillows to support your neck and turn your head away from the nurse if you can’t physically lay on your side. And when you next get visitors ask them to bring you an eye/sleep mask :) hope you feel better soon. Xx

Totally get where you're coming from, of course it's uncomfortable having someone watching you while you try and get some sleep. You're not weird to feel that way

What are you reading, she said she's NOT going to order her to go away 🤦

After a night on a mixed ward, where no one was watching and a male heroin user climbed up my bed to demand a lighter so he could warm up more heroin, I quite like a watched ward bay!

Good god, the heat! Why are hospitals always so unbearably hot? I swear if they turned the thermostat down five degrees to a more comfortable temperature it would save the NHS about £3B a year. Hope you’re well and back home soon.

There’s some right dickheads on here tonight.

OP I completely get it, I would feel weird too and very self conscious.

When my son was in PICU, he had 2:1 care and then when his condition improved, he had 1:2 care. It felt so strange having someone be in our space constantly but if you are there for a good while, you do adjust to it and it becomes your new normal.

When he moved to the ward, it felt strange NOT having someone there all of the time. 😂

Either ask nurse for window to be kept open and / or request a fan / get one brought from home

If you don't feel you can speak to the nurse, have a word with the chaplain or ward visitor.

Sounds like you're on an observation ward, and there'll be a good reason for that, so please just try to ignore the 'watching' and relax?

I understand that it feels a little weird, but it’s great that they are paying close attention and keeping you safe. ♥️

Ignore the sarcastic/rude replies, I totally get what you’re saying. I go into hospital for day admissions and our ward has a nurse sit in, it feels weird when I’m awake, I don’t know how easily I’d sleep. Can you ask for your curtains to be pulled round?

I was hospitalised as an emergency recently. I was feeling dreadful, on morphine , Due to being furthest away from nurses station and other patients having curtains drawn, I was not visible to staff. A male visiting the female patient opposite me had stayed on after visiting time had finished. He was a metre from my bed and staring at me. Twice I went to the nurses station and showed them a note I’d written on my iPhone explaining this was happening and I felt unsafe. The staff shrugged and did nothing . I’d have LOVED to have had a staff member keeping an eye on me

If the curtains were pulled round the nurse wouldn’t be able to see the patients which would defeat the point of her sitting there.