so my wife had a hysterectomy monday

[SHRED]

Surgery was top notch but why are hospitals so noisy for recovery? Unless you pay extra for a single room forget resting. She is still here and I am sitting outside her room to guard against anyone waking her. Check this out...they took her roommate out at one in the morning, made tons of noise, and then left the light on after they left...wow. Shitty food and no sleep are not good yet it seems that is what hospitals are all about. So far I have stopped three people from bugging her in one hour.

Thanks for listening to me rant and I will try and get her home today!

[cbayer]

1. It's really tough.

Overworked staff, poor coordination of services, many public and not for profit hospitals managing right on the financial edge, insurance company demands that things happen fast, too many people writing orders to cover their butts.

It's a horrible place to be. Hope you get her home today and she has a speedy recovery.

[SHRED]

5. what is strange is...

...they made all that racket early this morning yet no one else has been admitted to this room.

[cbayer]

9. There are issues around shift change.

Since night shifts have little to do during the night, they are often assigned a lot of morning tasks - vital signs, bloodwork, etc. that they need to get done before 7AM.

Also, since surgeons start very early in the morning (generally 7AM for first case) and they want to make rounds first, they want all that data on the chart when they get there.

Not an ideal system, but that's how it works.

[SHRED]

11. this happened at 1am

Still no roommate.

[leftofcool]

12. I think I can answer the noise thing

One of the things nurses really want your wife to do is wake up and rouse once in a while even when she is resting. Racket is good because the nurses make noise, your wife wakes up and that lets them know she is okay until they can get back to her and do the normal checks. At least this is now they explained it to my husband when I had cancer surgery.

[SHRED]

13. thank you

I understand checking on her and she has been walking but this was a room cleaning at 1 am plus they left the light on when they were gone. No one came when she beeped them and she had to roll out of bed to shut of lights

[Justice wanted]

2. I will keep your wife and you in my thoughts.

[SHRED]

10. sweet

Thanks

[Speck Tater]

3. Just be thankful that ...

...the right hasn't yet declared hysterectomies to be preemptive abortions and outlawed them.

[notadmblnd]

4. Ask what the cost is for a private room.

when my husband was at U of M for his heart surgery, he was placed in a semi private room. I stayed in the hotel there. After surgery, I asked what the price of a private room was. The difference? Five dollars. I paid the five dollars, checked out of the hotel and stayed in his room with him. So ask the staff what the difference is, it may not be much.

[SHRED]

7. we asked both afternoons

...both times they never got back to us. Real crappy here I will do my best to get her out soon

[liberal N proud]

6. No one can ever rest in a hospital

If it isn't the noise in a ward, they are poking you and taking blood or some other test.

I have been in the hospital and never slept for the 3 days I was there. Doze off and in comes the nurse to do something or another. I swear, there must have been sensors that said, sleeping.

[catbyte]

8. Your wife has my sympathies. When I had mine

I was so doped up I really didn't notice all that much, but I do remember having a really annoying roommate. Demerol & morphine are really great amnesia-inducing drugs--you will remember more than your wife will! Hopefully her hysterectomy will be as successful as mine. I should have done it years before I actually did. Hot flashes are a bitch, tho. Still have them 8 years in... (TMI?)

Diane
Anishinaabe in MI & mom to Leo, Sophie, Taz & Nigel, members of Dogs Against Romney, Cat Division
"We ride inside--HISS!”

[southernyankeebelle]

14. I hate when your sleeping and the nursery come in and wake you up to give you

your med's. Crazy. This hospital we have here has only single rooms. I have been lucky I haven't had to share. I did one time when I had major surgery. I was hooked up to so much you couldn't imagine. It was a sunday. I was still coming out of all the drugs. They brought this young woman in the room and boy was she was hipper. She talked to much and was very loud. A car ran over her foot. She would get out of bed and almost fall. Her mother was so nice. She had gone out of the room for something and I begged the nurse if they could give her something to help her to be silent for awhile. She was driving me crazy and I really needed the care at the time because I could get out of bed. So the slipped her a micky and I had a wonder day of sleep. After 3 days she was finally gone. I was happy. It is no fun sharing a room if the person doesn't respect your space.

[Ecumenist]

16. When I first went into the hospital , I had a roommate that had an eating disorder-

she was morbidly obese and kept eating ALL.THE.TIME! The reason she was in the hospital was because she was DYING.FROM.BEING.MORBIDLY.OBESE! Between her REALLY loud eating, she was CONSTANTLY complaining and LOUDLY chatting on her phone! Oh, and did I tell you that she had LOUD and OBNOXIOUS visitors who WERE.BRINGING.HER.MORE.FOOD!!!
I wanted to strangle her because the cherry on the top of that nightmare of a cake was that she SNORED! YAY!! AND she had such lovely eruptions of ODOR...a dream come true!

I was moved after I had the surgery and was in ICU for 4 days. Once I came around, this was almost worse than the first room because there was a lady down the hall who had advanced Alzheimer's and she SCREAMED AND CURSED ALL NIGHT!! She would let go of the most BLOODCURDLING screams AND her curses would make a Hong Kong sailor blush! I swear to God that she sounded like something out of the Exorcist, so help me. The thing was that she didn't make any noise during the day. I wondered if she had something akin to "sundowner Syndrome" I couldn't say anything because I was on a respirator. THE.WORST.HOSPITAL.STAY.I.HAVE.EVER.HAD!

Oh, what wonderful, lovely, lovely memories Good times, Good times!

[Tumbulu]

21. Oh my goodness Ecumenist! What a horror!

I am so very glad that you survived!

[Ecumenist]

22. Thanks Tubulu. You're a doll!

[Ecumenist]

15. Bless her heart! I had one last year to save my life and I have to say that it was the single most

PAINFUL surgery I have ever had. The hospital is no place to get rest, (unless you consider a coma rest) or recuperate. Good on ya for guarding her and making sure she gets a much peace as possible.

[hedgehog]

17. When my mother was admitted to ICU, she was hooked

up to all these alarms that kept going off, but NO ONE RESPONDED TO THEM! What is the point of an alarm that no one pays attention to?

[applegrove]

18. That is one long recovery. I remember as a kid my mom doubled over in pain when she had

her operation. vibes to you all.

[Warpy]

19. I used to joke to my patients that it was the last place to expect a rest

and that was on purpose since we didn't want them coming back in too soon.

The problem is that patients are discharged as soon as they're medically stable, to convalesce at home. That leaves the sickest of the sick and I can tell you from 25 years of experience that they all love to go sour in the wee hours. But yes, somebody should have turned the light off after they whisked her roommate off to the ICU.

These are the reasons we actually tended to push sedation on them at bedtime. If they were awakened by a hullabaloo when a roommate or even the person across the hall crashed and burned, they'd get back to sleep easily once it was over.

[SHRED]

20. UPDATE...she is home and resting in peace and quiet!

[Tumbulu]

23. I am so glad to read this

Peace and Quiet- yeah!!!!!!

[handmade34]

24. hope she

rests well and is up and well very soon!!

[Celebration]

25. I can beat all these stories

I was in the hospital with my last c section decades ago. I wanted to get some rest while baby was in the nursery, my last night in the place.

THEY WAXED THE FLOORS IN THE HALL!!! ALL NIGHT LONG!! WITH AN EXTREMELY NOISY MACHINE!!

No problem--I'll call the nurse and get some sleep medication, which was prescribed if I needed it.

I called them-- THEY WOULD NOT BRING IT TO ME!! THEY WOULD NOT COME TO MY ROOM BECAUSE THE FLOORS WERE BEING WAXED. I had no hospital care whatsoever because of the damned waxed floors, and no sleep medication.

[SHRED]

26. wow...unbelievable