This is my second full day home from hospital, and an attempt to get my thoughts together about what was good and bad about my recent hospital stay and everything wrapped around it.
First of all, I cannot not fault a single member of the team. They work above and beyond and worked surgical miracles on my body, which is bouncing back towards rude health with every passing moment; no, it's the infrastructure wrapped around the outside which gives me such cause for concern. I wrote to my boss that I had received first world medical treatment in third world conditions. It may be a exaggeration, but here's a short list - the light over my bed was cheap, nasty, and not just the bulb was missing, the fixture into which you would place it was broken; bathroom taps which didn't turn off properly in 2016 still didn't; there was only one working shower on the entire ward, and it was of such poor design it is impossible for someone without a firm grip/hand wrapped in a towel to turn off, there's no slot into which to place the shower head so you can just stand there and let the hot water envelope you, you have to hold it in one hand; the radiators everywhere, especially in the shower, are way too hot and people were getting burnt, it looks like a support rack in the shower room but it's nothing of the sort.
As far as I undertand it, a modular shower unit doesn't cost a huge amount; from being stuck at home during the daytime three years ago, I recall all the TV ads about the invalid-aid style house fittings. Imagine if a plumbing company took on the challenge of designing/installing invalid friendly modular shower units in hospital wards and wallowed in the good publicity it created?
Not enough bits to hang from /put on /store stuff while you're groping uncertainly about with only one hand free, with that showerhead in your hand.
If you know how things work (have been through the mill before) you will have an inkling of how bits and pieces work and what to watch out for. But if you don't...
With three separate wired pads (bed controls, pain control, nurse call button), I was forever losing track of one or more of them - my simple inability to turn around even slightly post-surgery meant I could not simply search for them. The instructions for the bed and the nurse call button ought to be provided before surgery so we can familiarise ourselves with how to use them and what they mean.
<more to come>
Gathering my thoughts for a third collection of bits. Nowhere to put the soap!!!!!
Special Person Update
12 - 18 months prognosis and 2nd opinion
Facing chemo for the 2nd time and frightened
CA125 wisdom please!!
