What the heck to do in hospital??

[sue943]

The first few days I mostly slept then after that when I had physiotherapy I was told to walk so walked up and down the corridor a fair amount. Then when it was time for the stairs she said to go up and down at least three times each day so I used to wander down to the hospital shop or to the reception area and read the newspapers whilst people watching, and also walked in the garden and smelt the roses.

I also read some good books and watched television.

I would add, since it is UK that after a few days I used to get dressed in normal clothing (day wear) so wasn't wandering about half naked.

 

[Ross]

How did I miss this thread?

This one is an easy answer, Naked wheelchair racing! It's a blast.

 

[Bina]

By the second week, hubby and I were trying to set up poker games.

 

[hensylee]

once you wake up a day or so, aren't you sposed to be walkin the halls and climbin the steps. after that you are too tired for anything but just lying there in a stupor. I had my nurse cousin to chat with when feeling like it.

 

[hall]

I had my days and nights mixed up. I was up at night and watched TV. Talk about nothing on TV. Sometimes the nurses would walk w/me at night because I was awake. During the day (when I wanted to sleep) they wanted me to walk, inhalation therapy, visit........... For me, everything should have been at night.

 

[ponygirlmom]

Everyone says that while they are in the hospital that they do nothing. Like nobody says they check the internet or watch tv. Are you really that drugged up for 4-7 days that you don't feel like yourself at all. And by saying that, I am saying that I am an Internet junkie and can't imagine not posting here just as soon as I can!

Since you reposted this question as a new thread, I thought I would repost my reply here.

Not everyone says that! Before surgery I read many comments from people here who talked about reading, listening to music and watching TV.

Personally, I read e-mail on my husband's laptop and even posted to my "Care Page" provided by the hospital long before I could watch TV. I think two days after surgery I was propped up in my hospital bed with the laptop on the hospital tray, and three or four days after surgery I was sitting on the couch in the hospital room with the laptop on my lap. However, I absolutely could not follow any TV show. I didn't watch TV until the night before I left the hospital. I watched movies that night and all the next day. The drugs did affect my movie-watching, however; I watched a few really bad movies, and I kept thinking, "Is this a really bad movie, or is it me?" I later learned from friends that they were, indeed, bad movies.

 

[Cooker]

I strutted around the nurse?s station until the drugs wore off and then I crawled back in the bed and watch TV ?. I had surgery on a Tuesday and went home on Friday so really did not have to much time for boredom to set in.....

 

[ejonbry]

I was on the internet as soon as I moved out of CICU. I also watched movies(on my laptop). At night I would IM my 11 year old son on the laptop. TV not so much, too far away and couldn't focus on it for long. Alot of walking.......Alot of walking.

 

[Johnny Stephens]

I took a couple of books, but was so out of it that I never even cracked them. I was not allowed to have any electronic devices turned on within my reach until my pacer wires were removed. My wife smuggled in my electric shaver, but the nurse heard it from out in the hallway and took it away

I finally managed to figure out the stupid TV remote/ Bed adjuster / Nurse Call / Reading light device and got the TV going. First thing that popped up was a closed-circuit feed from the operating room showing a patient's fully-exposed heart beating away. Freeekkkout

 

[Cameron]

Admittedly I was a bit out of it with the secondary infection I picked up, but I couldn't contemplate reading - both the effort of holding a book up and the focus issue nixed that idea. I did watch a bit of TV, but not a super lot. I napped a lot between walks and for a lot of the time was basically a zombie, looking out the ward window at the North Shore mountains. My wife spent many a long hour looking at the outside of my eyelids! Not sure what a "normal" recovery would feel like, but I did feel pretty good up to the third day and posted on the forum at that time from the patient computer room. After that it was downhill for a week and then, when I was back in my body, all the focus was on getting out of the hospital and home!
Cameron

 

[IanH]

For some reason I couldn't concentrate on a book but I did like crossword puzzles and Sudoku. I stuck with the easier ones, especially at first. I even had a nurse photo copy the puzzles in the paper one day.

As for the nude wheel chair races that Ross suggested that kind of thing scares me, especially after my tragic wheel chair accident (I don't want to talk about it)

Ian

 

[ccummins]

OMG, I didn't know about the wheel chair races!!! Gives me something to look forward to. Though I am definitely going to ban my parents

 

[Ross]

OMG, I didn't know about the wheel chair races!!! Gives me something to look forward to. Though I am definitely going to ban my parents

Hahaha, in reality, you'll be too weak to even turn the wheels yourself and if you aren't, it would hurt your sternum way too much to try, but the idea is pretty cool don't ya think?

I remember the first day of football was on TV when I came around. The Doctors nurse asked me what the score was and I looked at her like ??? I told her, I'm watching the game, but I haven't a clue whats going on.

 

[ponygirlmom]

I remember the first day of football was on TV when I came around. The Doctors nurse asked me what the score was and I looked at her like ??? I told her, I'm watching the game, but I haven't a clue whats going on.

LOL! That is TOTALLY what it feels like to watch TV after surgery!

 

[lb151]

I still find it so entertaining that people actually believe they will be able to do anything after this surgery.....

 

[Ross]

I still find it so entertaining that people actually believe they will be able to do anything after this surgery.....

I find it entertaining that they don't believe how much it's going to knock out them. I can't say it enough, you feel like you were run over by one of these:

 

[sue943]

I must admit I really felt sorry for my daughter. She took time off work to be with me at the hospital, she arrived late on the Wednesday, she was with me on Thursday morning until they came for me, half of that time I was drifting with the pre-med. Then she hung around until I was in ICU, next day when I was out of ICU I drifted in and out of sleep so it really didn't matter if she was there or not. She had to go back home before I was really able to do more than doze on and off as she was getting married the following week and really needed to be attending to that. The wedding was planned way before my Surgery date was known and I wouldn't permit her to change her dates, far to complicated.

 

[Tbone]

Play with your bedazzler?

 

[Lynlw]

Play with your bedazzler?

you made me laugh...thank you

 

[Bridgette]

Once you start feeling a bit better, all you can focus on is getting out of hospital and going HOME, lol.
I got sick of watching TV, and couldn't really concentrate on reading. I walked the halls and stairs a lot, counting down the days till I could escape.....lol!