Today I was in one of my english courses at school which is a class focused entirely on Hemingway. One of the stories we read involved hospitals, and my teacher, (who is fond of taking "polls") asked if any of us either worked or had been in a hospital for more than a week at a time. My class is about 60 people and I dont like to speak in public, so I didn't raise my hand. I am sure people would say "oh you should have," but I didnt really feel like commenting on "hospitals" because I could write a whole book. He is also the type of teacher who would ask you why, etc, and I didn't feel comfortable explaining, well, anything at 9AM. Anyway, out of all those people only ONE person said they had been in the hospital for more than a week, and it was when they were like 8 or 9. Now who knows, maybe there was someone in that room like me, who didnt want to speak, but it just struck me how amazing it is that SO MANY people dont have health problems. Having this chronic health issue is just such a huge part of my life that it is hard to fathom people who really never have anything wrong with them....never even need to go to a hospital, just a "doctor's office" which always to me seemed so weird...there is nothing at that office! I mean what do regular people DO at the doctor if they feel fine? Haha. Anyway, everyone in the room seemed to have an idea of a hospital that was pretty cliche..."ER"-esque, COLD, stark, busy and rushed. I mean for the most part that is true...alot of people said "dark" and "cold,"....well, I dont really LIKE the hospital but it it not exactly dungeon-like such as these people described. It was funny, nobody really focused at all on the good things that hospitals do at all, and a girl who worked at Mass General (i'm in boston), said that it was not a fun place to work at all, not happy. I thought that was weird for someone who obviously works there for a reason. Hospitals arent necessarily great but sometimes they are rewarding (for workers) and personally when I am there and see the cancer kids who have spent the equivalent of half thier years there, it sobers me up and makes me realize it is all relative. On a day like today...and a lot of days, it is really hard though not to be jealous of all those poeople in my class who actually have the time and mind to worry about other things... I know we arent supposed to be jealous, but sometimes i just really am. -Caitlin20 yr old with cf
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Hospitals
- Thread starter anonymous
- Start date
Hey I have felt that way several times. Once last year my friend invited us up to Berkeley to stay the night with an old friend so we were going to go that late afternoon, but we were sitting around bored and my friend said lets just go right now instead of this afternoon. So I said okay and she was picked up her purse and was getting ready to go. I was like wait I have to pack...and she was like "we don't need anything" (we of course weren't planning on sleeping or anything) I was like but I need my flutter oh and enzymes, and do I need my nebulizer oh and my antibiotics hold on.... basically she left the room with a purse and I left with a purse and a huge bag full of health stuff. It made me realize how much I depend on to get through a day. Its hard to imagine what life would be like if you didn't have to think about your health every day!
well, of course healthy people who don't normally get hospitalized on a regular basis think the hospital is a terrible place. it's a place where you stay if you're really sick, with needles and other unpleasant things. we've just grown very accustomed to it, and also experienced the day-to-day life in various wards in various hospitals, thus seeing the calmer side of things, beyond the frantic rush they show on ER. i mean, they have to show it that way on ER, even exaggerating things a little, so that there would be more action. hospitals are much calmer than tv shows <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">i guess you can really see the difference between healthy people and someone like us, when you define "a short stay in the hospital". personally, my longest has been 4 months, during which i even selebrated my 20th birthday. so after that, if i need to do two weeks, that's really nothing. and at the same time, if one of my healthy friends would stay 2 days in a hospital, they'd be treating it as a traumatic experience.i guess we just learned that hospitals are allright. they can help you. where i go to have my check-ups [and i go tomorrow, by the way <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">] i'm known almost everywhere and every time i come it's like meeting up with friends - what's up, how are you, oh is that a new haircut, stuff like that. and running tests in the meanwhile. when i was a kid my mom used to try and make it better for me, those "check-up" days, by going to the mall afterwards or, like, if i needed new clothes, then she's schedule those few hours right after checkups, so that the good experience [mall, clothes] would overshadow the not-so-good [hospital]. after my first surgery, when i was ten years old, we went to the toy store and she got me a doll and a doll baby carriage. too bad i am too old to play with dolls <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
oh, and about needing so many stuff [meds] to get through the day - i think we all can tell stories <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">like, how every time i travel abroad it's always a hassle to take my nebulizer - it has to go as hand luggage because it's a fragile thing, and security people don't know what a neb is so i spend half an hour explainign what it is and what i do, which sometimes includes taking it out, with everything out. i don't mind that it's in public, i'm not embarassed, but i'm holding the line, i don't like doing that. then, the medicines... aw gosh. five thousand questions about what's that and how much do i need every day and if i only go for ten days, why do i carry a small farmacy? because a healyhy person usually takes vitamines, maybe sometimes something for the cold, and they totally can't understand the concept of someone relying on 35 pills per day. then again, sometimes i try to see things from the side, and i think that if i were healthy, i'd be reacting the same way. oh and how about iv's? once this guy came to our house, a new neighbour or a salesperson - point is, somebody who sees me for the very first time. i open the door. i'm hooked to an iv. so i'm holding this small round box which is the pump. so he sees me that wherever i go, i carry this with me. odd, huh? and not only that, but it also has a thin tube that goes to under my shirt [i have a port and the tiny box sits on my ribs under my left breast]. i can only try and imagine how it all looked from the side and what did the poor guy think!
My daughter, 6, seems to be spending a great deal of time in the hopital these days. After the first couple of days getting the picc in and all the meds on schedule she actually has fun. She knows all the nurses and they all come in to say hi as soon as they hear she is in again. Our childrens hospital has so much for her to do: school, bingo, art classes, cooking, all kinds of stuff. Last month while in we went on a pass and went to the race track. She got a ride in a racecar around the track, just for being a patient. All of this fun doesn't begin to make up for the down sides of having Cf, but I wish people could see more of what goes on in the hospitals for regular patients. Maybe more people would volunteer or donate. Her highlight was last May when Miss America came to her room and she got her picture with the real Miss AMerica crown on. She took the picture for show and tell at school and it helped the kids to know that there is some fun in her life while she is gone. I would love to hear how often people are in and what they do while there.
I like to think of my hospital stays as a retreat. I get away from all the stress of school and what not, and get to ofocus on my body, mind snd spirit. I get alot of reading done. Sometimes it is stressful, though, and I do cry and get annoyed when the doctor comes at seven in the morning and when they come to draw blood in the middle of the night. But I can always leave during the day, and I can have people sleep over in my room. Debbie22 yr old w/ cf in CO
<blockquote>Quote<br><hr><i>Originally posted by: <b>Anonymous</b></i>My daughter, 6, seems to be spending a great deal of time in the hopital these days. After the first couple of days getting the picc in and all the meds on schedule she actually has fun. She knows all the nurses and they all come in to say hi as soon as they hear she is in again. Our childrens hospital has so much for her to do: school, bingo, art classes, cooking, all kinds of stuff. Last month while in we went on a pass and went to the race track. She got a ride in a racecar around the track, just for being a patient. All of this fun doesn't begin to make up for the down sides of having Cf, but I wish people could see more of what goes on in the hospitals for regular patients. Maybe more people would volunteer or donate. Her highlight was last May when Miss America came to her room and she got her picture with the real Miss AMerica crown on. She took the picture for show and tell at school and it helped the kids to know that there is some fun in her life while she is gone. I would love to hear how often people are in and what they do while there.<hr></blockquote>aww, that's really adorable, about your daughter and miss america <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">i'm in hospital not very often, because when i need an IV treatment i do it at home, i only stay at the hospital when i need oxygen or feel so bad that my doctor would rather keep me under her eye. however, i did spend a total of 7 months because of my anorexia - 4 months inpatient, 1 1/2 months coming in every day from 8am to 4 pm, then almost 2 months inpatient again. i'm facing another long stay as we speak [type <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">]. what did i do? i read a lot. i go to the computers room and go online and chat with friends, or play games. i usually make friends while i'm in and in the anorexia ward we were a bunch of teenage girls with anorexia/bulimia/binge eating, and we all became friends. i watch tv. my friends come to visit me. i actually spent my 20th birthday in the hospital, so they let me out for a few hours and my mom came to pick me up and we went to the mall for some shopping - she paid for everything! then there's always people from the show business coming over to the children's hospital [i'm still in kids' part though i'm almost 21] and that's nice. i have people envying me because i met some people <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> also, there's nothing like the hospital to catch up on missing sleep hours <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">