HOSPITAL EXPERIENCE

I’M READING A BOOK about the CIA. I also just spent three days hospitalized for dehydration stemming from a bug I caught that turned my discharge into liquid and dehydrated me. I mention the CIA in this context because, on the subject of torture, the hospital staff could teach the CIA people a thing or two about sleep deprivation. They practice constant patient interruption 24 hours per day. Wake you up to take your vitals. Wake you up to give you meds. Wake you up to draw blood. Wake you up to take your vitals (again). Then there was the nurse who said she couldn’t use my port for fluids, even though they had hooked my port up with fluids in the ER and it was still running, because she had no specific order from a doctor to do it. Then she performed the ultimate idiocy. She unhooked my fluid line! I was there to get hydrated and she was furthering my dehydration. I’m home now, and okay again, but I have this feeling that the hospital didn’t necessarily make me better. I survived it.

Some recently said, "The hospital is no place for sick people."

Absolutely true.

Proud you're home and doing better…

Glad you're home and hopefully past all of it. Henry, I think you should write a novel about just that: the hospital staff/CIA connection. It would probably scare the crap out of the general population, but folks on here would just nod our heads and think, “Yep, I can easily see that.”

I hate the hospital. I have PTSD from staying in the hospital for over a month. Everything is backward there, or so it seems! And I agree, no rest or sleep will be done while in there! I hope you are hydrated now and feel much better. Does anyone have any tips for staying hydrated? Since my ileostomy, this has been one of my biggest problems, and I feel like nothing helps.

Getting Support in the Ostomy Community with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister

Hello Z

If you Google oral rehydration solutions, "ORS," you will find many options, St. Mark's solution being one of them that you can make cheaply yourself, among others. I chased the same hydration thing for ages until I realized it was food that I wasn't getting the most out of. I now take meal replacement drinks twice a day, and that seems to keep me on top of things.

Hello HenryM.
Thanks for this reminder of hospital life.
I might have added my pet irritation with the 'wake-up' thing. That being, when office staff and others are allowed on the wards in shoes that sound as if they've been shod by a blacksmith. This seems to happen throughout the day and night, so sleep becomes almost impossible. My gripe is that the wearing of quiet footwear would not be too hard to enforce. 
Best wishes

Bill  

Glad you're home and okay. My gripe about my recent hospital stay is that visiting hours were 24/7. WTF? My roommate had a constant stream of visitors coming at all hours of the day and night. I finally complained enough to the nurses that they moved me to a private room.

Yep…a recent hospitalization found me all hooked up for fluids, but the nurse failed to plug the machine into the outlet. The next day, my I.V. was leaking, and my arm was wet, and the sheet was wet as well. Upon examination by the nurse, she claimed it was not wet as she felt the sheet with a gloved hand…..jb

Many hydration drinks and ORS recipes… my problem is pouring this stuff down my throat! jb

Sadly, it's true... 6 months in the hospital, barely any energy at all... Blood checks every morning, in the middle of the night, then up by 5:30 a.m.... the countless times after my port finally came out... (which, if not in the arm and it's in the chest or closer to your shoulder, feels like they're trying to kill you) my IVs would blow... Being put in ICU the last time for no reason... would have been fine on the regular medical floor... all because I had one procedure done, which I've had done before and always was in and out the same day... Then the one thing that makes me feel even worse... them holding back my insulin because they don't want to give you too much... they rather have it high than low... but okay when you're already close to the 300s (for those that don't know, around 90 is normal when fasting... 250 more than 3 times in a day in a row, they make you go to the ER... and then you eat and only are given 3 to 5 units... (depending on your situation, it should drop down to 150... some people will need more... One unit only gives me 25 to 30 lower, and I need 1 unit for every 5 carbs I eat usually...) pretty much diabetes, having it sucks... plus being sick makes it harder to control)... it doesn't help, and then telling the main doctor in charge it's not doing anything and I feel more like crap than I did before coming... all they say is it's protocol 🤨

Hi all, what irritated me was the nurses at the end of the shift opening up the IV to run faster, causing my arm to inflate like a water balloon. My elbow and shoulder would ache like crazy.

G-Day Justbreath,

You have to drink like your life depends on it, because it does.

IGGIE

There's that magic word to hospital staff:  PROTOCOL.  To them, it explains everything, no matter how nonsensical.  It's like the word GLITCH to an IT person.  

I wondered at your brief absence, and I'm glad you are home safe and sound. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate how lucky you are to have a home with someone there who cares for you and doesn't wake you up unnecessarily at all hours.

Terry

I agree this whole 'anytime' visiting hour thing is crazy. I was next to a guy once who would have his entire family visit every night, and they were loud. They would run around the halls trying to find chairs to accommodate them all and then cluster them around the guy's bed, with the curtains completely drawn, as if that would deaden the sound! They stayed and stayed. There was always some sort of commotion going on during the night, so being wakened a few times was normal. Around 6 a.m. the next morning, my neighbor on the other side would have her sister visit, and they would converse loudly for an hour or so. Sleep was very hard to come by. Doesn't seem very conducive to healing, does it?

Terry

WTF? In my recent hospital stays, they have enforced strict visiting hours, kicking people out if they overstayed. The only exception was when they were admitting someone or moving them in from surgery. They'd let the family come in for 15 to 30 minutes before kicking them out.

That was true in both the big city hospital and the small rural one. Y'all need to move here.

I was told by one nurse that they try to be more accommodating to people, as people's work schedules are not what they once were, where nine to five was the norm. Hospitals here don't have set visiting hours anymore, and doctors and nurses can use their discretion. It just often seems that it's at the expense of other patients.

Terry

Is this your nurse?

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Oh Henry. Deja vu. 5 wks at Mayo. They would wake me every 2-3 hrs. Worse? The Vampire shows up between 1-3 am. Human pin cushion. Dehydration gave me kidney stones, bilaterally. Rehab was painful. Every time I get sick or eat something nasty, my pouch fills w/ liquid. Got some free samples of "Diamonds." Drop one in the pouch & it thickens it right away. MaO does not like us mentioning name brands, unless they are a paid advertiser! They have flagged me before.

"Wake up!! It's time for your sleeping pill!!"