Last Friday my husband had to go to hospital for a small but painful operation. Everything went well and he is home again - has to take things easy for a few weeks, no heavy lifting or running marathons!
We have top hospital cover but he ended up in a share room next to the door, not even the window. It was a tiny dark miserable space and we were very happy that he wasn't staying in for more than one night. I could go on and on about hospital care, the mix ups, the inefficiencies etc etc. It is all so frustrating.
Last year at about this time a close friend spent 5 days in the emergency department in which time he hardly slept at all, I understand sleep deprivation is one form of torture. By the time he went into a ward he was as crazy as a cut snake. He didn't have private health insurance so was dependant on a public room being available so was housed in one of the most expensive parts of the hospital, the ED! - it didn't make sense at all. Earlier this year he was admitted again and again spent days in the ED. He was finally given a room but died soon after and I maintain he was so stressed it hastened his end. I had been told less than a week before by one of the specialists that he would have at least another two years.
Medicine has improved in leaps and bounds though and if you don't succumb to stress like my friend did, or die of a superbug or a mix up of medications, the breakthroughs are astonishing.
Years ago my husband wrecked his knee in a soccer accident. He severely damaged 6 of the crucial parts of his knee, cruciate ligaments, tendons, the actual knee cap, you name it, he damaged it. At the time, had he had a repair done, his leg would have been in a cast from his calf to his mid thigh for six weeks, then there would have been months of physio. The statistics of a complete recovery were something like 20%. He chose not to have the operation and walked very gingerly for about 15 years. Finally there were a whole lot of breakthroughs (pardon the pun) in knee surgery. T had the updated procedure, was home the next day with a sticking plaster on his knee and now his once damaged knee is probably stronger than its partner! Absolutely marvellous.
My first brush with hospital was when I was six or seven. In the 1950s if you had a sore throat or a bit of a pain in the side your tonsils or appendix were whipped out. I had had a few bouts of tonsillitis so was booked into the Mena private hospital in Mosman.
As lots of my classmates had had the operation, though NOT at the Mena hospital, and had told me about ice cream and jelly, a treat I rarely enjoyed, I wasn't at all worried about the prospect.
We turned up at the hospital, I was taken away from my parents and then woke up in a room with 3 adult strangers in the other beds. Nothing like a childrens' ward, just a big room with 4 beds separated by curtains. No parents to hold me in my hours of pain - there were visiting hours which had to be strictly adhered to - once a day.
I remember being very unhappy. When it was meal time I got a tray holding a baked dinner and a glass of orange juice! No jelly or ice cream! The next morning my breakfast tray held toast and tea! The nurse shouted at me to eat or I would get sick. I tried but the pain was excruciating. My mother came to pick me up as I was originally only scheduled to be in overnight, but they wouldn't allow me home because I had a fever and my wound was bleeding. What a surprise! Mutti told me later that she went home and cried.
When I was finally released from hospital Mutti had bought strawberries as a special treat (they were very expensive and we had very little money) but of course I couldn't eat them because my throat was raw. My fresh fragrantly laundered bedding was turned down and waiting for me. As well Mutti had bought me a box of pink tissues, something I had coveted, which was sitting on the table by my bed and a brand new pink metal reading lamp was clamped onto the metal frame of my bedhead. I loved all those things and really appreciated the love that had gone into the thought. It took a while but I recovered without any ill effects.
In those days children weren't allowed into maternity wards and I remember visiting hospitals with tearful young friends and having to stand outside with them while their mothers came to the window to wave.
When I had my second daughter it was lovely to have my first born come and visit me and her new sister in hospital. I can't imagine how distressing it must have been not having your children visit at such a special time.
I stayed in hospital for a week when my daughters were born. It was great because I was taught all sorts of things like how to bathe a baby, how to put a nappy on a newborn, feeding techniques etc. I think it is awful that new mothers, unless they have had a Caesarian, are choofed off home after a day. Unless you have had some experience with babies, how do you know what to do? My husband and I minded a friend's little boy for a couple of hours before we had our first child and we made such a botch of putting on his disposable nappy that I ended up using about a mile of masking tape to keep it on!!!
I strongly disapprove of sending new mothers home so quickly, unless they wish to do so, but it is great that you can go home so quickly after other operations. Years ago you would have to lie flat with bandaged eyes for a week at least after cataract surgery. These days you are in and out in a day, a routine procedure which has a huge success rate. Think cardiac surgery - multiple bypasses, transplants even, great strides have been taken forward. All the mechanical surgical procedures are greatly improved. Hopefully cancer treatment will continue to improve. Poisoning the body to get rid of nasty cells just doesn't sound right to me, but that's the option at present. Some diseases that were death sentences years ago, aren't anymore and that is wonderful. If drug companies supported research that actually fixed a problem rather than continued it, because they are making money, that would be even better.
Although most of us don't ever want to be sick and infirm, thank goodness for doctors and hospitals.
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