"This place is insane"
I've spent 21 out of the past 30 days in hospital. No joke. It hasn't been a fun time. There has been a lot of pain, a few scary moments, a lot of visits from family, a few laughs, and a lot of healing. But today I bring a rant.
I'm proud to be Canadian, one of my favourite things being a spoonie and Canadian is our health care system. It's free. Wonderfully free. Of those 21 days I spent in hospital, I had a major surgery, multiple scans, CTs, procedures etc and it didn't cost me a dime. But it's not without flaw.
The hospital I stayed in is disgusting. To the point where I questioned it thinking "Is this really Canada? Really?" The hospital I stayed in was built right after the Second World War, dating it enormously. The building is so old you can't even drink the water from the taps because the pipes contaminate the water. Ew. The bathrooms are so small there is hardly enough space for a person of my stature (5'2 and barely 120 pounds) and an IV pole, let alone a bigger person, and IV and a crisis! There was no air conditioning either, and in August, holy crap that was awful.
I stayed in a ward, which means a room that has 4 beds in it. My roommates were seldom less than 45 years older than me. That sucked. Having roommates at all was awful. The room was cramped and crowded, there was absolutely no privacy, as only thin curtains divided the space. If I was in pain, my roommates heard it. If they were in pain, I heard it. Night time was a nightmare because not only my IV pump would wake me up, but so would the other three womens'.
The other thing that really got me was how sick the other patients were and how little was being done to protect us from each other. The other patient, I don't know if it was the stubbornness that came with old age, depression due to illness, or what, but they were SO SICK. Like, couldn't get up to use the bathroom sick. I was introduced to the concept of bedpans and commodes over this hospitalization. EW. When you hear someone literally beside you pooping and peeing you get freaked out. That's disgusting, and dirty. And sometimes they wouldn't ask the nurse to clean it for hours and it would reek.
A lot of the patients were very uncompliant as well. They would refuse to try and get up and walk to aid their recovery, or use their incentive spirometers to regain full use of their lungs after surgery. They would complain about catheters, IVs, food, lack of food, nurse's attitudes, nurse's organization and methods, doctor's schedules, and just about anything else they could think of.
I can't believe this is acceptable hospital procedure in a country as nice as Canada. I know it seems selfish and naive, but good lord no hospital should be built ever again that without only private rooms. Honestly. it is near impossible to get a private or a semi private room in that hospital because there are only 1 or 2, per unit even though they don't really take up that much more space.
The part that enrages me the most was that a private room was given to a particularly horrible roommate of mine because she was so awful. I tell no lies. She was just so awful to the nurses and the other patients, so disruptive to our sleep and recovery that she was moved into a private room, despite the fact that she was probably the most uncompliant patient ever. Lucky bitch.
The truth is, I shouldn't complain, I was treated very well, the nurses were amazing and totally run off their feet. I'm getting better. But let me add one FINAL insult to injury: there was no wifi.
