What is a couple days stay in a hospital like?

22 comments

1. It’s fine. You are disturbed alot during the day like breakfast, ordering your meals, blood tests, consultant rounds, washing, lunch, visitors, medical observations etc.

   If your on groovy pain relief like morphine this can become annoying being disturbed constantly.

   Night time can be much quieter unless your on a ward with loud snoorers or have someone with severe mental issues that’s noisy all the time.

   Your likely to be around people alot older than yourself generally because people over 60 have alot more health problems but just remember everybody has a story and it’s fascinating observing people from a range of different perspectives you all have a commonality of being in hospital so it can be a great place to meet other interesting people if your the type to be open to chatting.

   If your more solitary then takes some earbuds in and just listen to music / podcasts or watch netflix etc. on your phone.

   It’s not bad to stay in hospital in my experience although it’s lovely to get home.

2. I spent three weeks in an isolation ward a couple of years ago. Meal times tend to be very early. The evening meal was served just after 5pm. Take something to do that you can dip into, like books or crosswords. You’ll be tired after the operation and you will get interrupted. They might let you off the ward to use the hospital shop or cafe. There’s usually TV and WiFi for a fee.

   When they let you out the pharmacy will often take ages to sort out any meds. It could take several hours. Again, be prepared for more waiting around.

3. Main thing is bring something to do. Headphones, phone, book, laptop, switch or something. A powerbank too – there’s usually plugs but sometimes they’re not in a place to use your device and charge unless you’ve got long wires

   Otherwise, Goodluck and have fun

4. Take ear plugs/headphones for night time.

   No matter what you will get a snorer/screamer/constant whiner at night.

5. Take earplugs and an eye cover for sleeping. I also like podcasts to pass the time, sometimes reading feels like too much effort!

6. Most patients are old and have dementia. Take good ear plugs and plenty of things to keep you distracted.

7. It’s honestly not *that* bad.

   I’ve been in a few times and whenever I wasn’t on an IV I was able to leave the ward for a smoke, walk around and just generally kill time

8. Depending on what hospital you are in internet may be dreadful. So I would recommend downloading a film or two or your favourite series.

   Always bring headphones and earplugs for the night. Machines will beep all night and people will snore.

9. TVs are less common now, and those that are still installed are an absolute rip off. However, there is almost always free WiFi for patients, so take a laptop/tablet to watch stuff.

   Otherwise, books and magazines etc are good as they don’t require you to concentrate for a set amount of time, and you can put them down easily when you start to feel tired.

   As others have said, there can be some noise if you’re in a bay, or other patients are confused and make noise.

   All the best for your operation, and I hope you have a smooth recovery! Come talk to us on r/nhs if you have any other questions.

10. When I was about 14 or 15, I had to stay in the hospital for a week, but the teenager ward was full, so I got lumped in in the kiddies ward :/.

    I was bed-bound, this was pre-wifi, had a tv that only got cebeebies and maybe cbbc, that was designed so I couldn’t connect my playstation up to. Screaming and crying children 24/7, was absolutely hell

11. My experience wasn’t great. 2 fellas died in my ward over the 3 days (both during the night) and just generally, noise and disturbance.
    Being woken up in the night to have readings taken.
    Bored to death mostly.
    Couldn’t wait to get out.
    Good luck !

12. Take something to do. My local hospital has WiFi but it’s not brilliant, you pay to watch the hospital TVs (they were free until 9am) and it’s not cheap. You probably won’t sleep much as someone is always doing observations on someone else. The food is really hit and miss depending on the menu’s and I’ve never had a good hot drink on a ward because they tend to use the cheapest tea and coffee, so if you have any visitors ask for food and drinks.

13. Take clothing layers and a fan. Wards are either too hot or freezing cold.

14. It’s a roll of the dice to be honest. You can range from opiate induced bliss for a few days to “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” level of being bed ridden in a room full of nutters.

15. It’s not too bad but my sleep was very disturbed. I found the nurses at night really didn’t care about talking at the tops of their voices and waking everybody up. Definitely bring an eye mask! They didn’t turn off the lights in my ward until half eleven one night and it was awful. As others have said, bring something to do and bring headphones. You’ll be fine, if a little bored!

16. Having stayed for almost a week in hospital last year, my tip would be to request the vegan/ vegetarian menu if the main menu doesn’t appeal. I couldn’t have milk at the time (breastfeeding my baby who’s allergic) and there was a great selection of really tasty curries, casseroles and more interesting dishes. They were like frozen ready meals, but honestly much tastier than a dry jacket potato or sad sandwich.

17. Ear plugs, headphones, download shows/podacasts and a long phone charger. Easy to slip on shoes

18. Don’t take anything valuable – wandering patients with cognitive impairment, relatives and, yes, staff with no morals will help themselves. Anything requiring the use of a plug is supposed to be PAT checked before use to make sure it’s not going to blow the hospital electrics, but often that’s ignored, so make sure you take a charger/plug that’s not damaged. Try to get dressed post-surgery – the psychological impact of wearing pyjamas keeps you in ‘poorly patient’ mode. Be patient, but absolutely do tell a nurse if there’s something wrong – they aren’t mind readers, so will appreciate being able to fix the issue for you instead of having you get frustrated about it. Remember that bathrooms are shared, & some people don’t always tidy up after themselves – tell a member of staff if something needs cleaning. Most of all, try not to worry. Every single member of staff has your best interests at heart & wants you to have a smooth journey & swift discharge. Feel free to ask questions. Best of luck.

19. Bring things to eat, especially if you have dietary requirements. Last time I was in hospital they looked flummoxed when I asked for the vegetarian option. Even if you don’t have dietary requirements, hospital food is often borderline inedible. I have distinct memories of being in hospital as a teenager after surgery and being unable to keep anything down until my parents started bringing food in for me – I was eating it, my body was rejecting it. 

    Think cup noodles, cup a soup, John West tuna light lunch, jerky and other things which can be eaten with access to nothing more than boiling water. 

    Take a very long power cable for your phone, headphones, power bank and a book. 

    An eyemask and earplugs are a good idea. They can take some getting used to, so practice at home first. 

20. I’ve been in for 45 days so far this year.

    Trust me when I say, it’s rarely if ever quiet at night.

    With a short stay you should be fine but I highly recommend noise cancelling headphones and if you have one, a tablet to watch stuff on. This was an absolute life saver for me.

    Finally, get up and walk about as much as you can if you’re allowed to. I did walks up and down the ward multiple times a day, it’s good to keep the blood flowing.

21. If my last year (3x week long stays) is anything to go by, boring. Make sure you take some (quiet, so nobody else has to listen to them) things to entertain you (tablet/handheld console like a switch with headphones, books, I took a sketchbook and pencils) so you’ve got a variety of stuff to do. I found the NHS free WiFi was alright for scrolling Facebook etc, but wasn’t good enough to stream so if you are there for a couple of days and it’s an option at your hospital, I considered it well worth paying for the NHS premium WiFi for the week (I think it was £11 for a week) which was good enough to handle watching Netflix on my tablet when the free WiFi wasn’t.

    If it’s an option (obviously it depends on your fitness to) I highly recommend trying to get off the ward for a bit while you are there, even if it’s just to the coffee shop or (my preference) take a book or something to a bench outside to get some fresh air, sunshine and a change of scenery, just let the ward nurses know what you intend to do and ask them what time you need to be back for next dose of medicine or whatever.

22. If you’re a University student, the hospital might have Eduroam, which would mean you don’t have to pay for Wi-Fi.