10 Things I Hate About the Hospital

A decision still hasn't been made about when Lynnea will have her next surgery, or what procedure will be done. Since I have had a lot of time sitting around at the hospital with not a whole lot to do in the past week, I decided to come up with a top 10 list of things that I hate about the hospital. So, here you go.

10. A lack of hot water. I understand that not having super hot water in the bathrooms is for my own safety, but I'm getting tired of taking lukewarm showers.

9. The "privacy" curtains in all of the patient rooms. Well, more specifically, the pattern on these curtains is really awful and bothers me a lot. You would have to see the curtains to understand.

8. The lack of privacy. I've given up on even putting up the "Mommy is pumping, please do not disturb sign" on the door when I have to pump because it seems to be an invitation for everyone to desperately need to come into the room.

7. The new monitors. About a week before we were discharged last time, the hospital replaced all of the monitors in the rooms with new ones, and now no one seems to know how to make them work properly (although Corey and I are pretty good at answering any questions about them because we've sat through the in-service on them a couple of times now.)

6. The food. I know, it's hospital food, and I shouldn't have high expectations.

5. The lumpy cot. I admit that the lumpy cot really is a step up from sleeping on the pull-out chairs, but not by much. . . not that it's possible to get a "good" night's sleep anyway. . .

4. 4am vitals. I'm not really sure why it's necessary for the nurses to wake my daughter up at 4am to check her vital signs. . .

3. 6am weighing. I'm even more clueless as to why they think that waking her up again at 6am and getting her naked in order to weigh her is also necessary (although I have to give credit to the few nurses that have been willing to weigh her and check vitals all at the same time). . .

2. 7am blood draws. As if getting up at 4am and 6am weren't enough, the lab techs think it's great to come in and turn all the lights on at 7am while loudly announcing "I need to take some of your baby's blood."

1. The phenomenon that I can only call "hospital time." What I am referring to is the fact that, in the hospital, time seems to function differently than everywhere else on the planet -- for example, when the resident doctor comes by and says that the rest of the cardiology team will be doing rounds "in a half hour or so" you shouldn't expect them for at least an hour and a half (unless of course it's time to pump -- again, just stick a sign on the door and the doctors are sure to arrive within five minutes), or another example would be "we'll have a plan for your daughter by next Monday or Tuesday" . . . well, it's now Thursday, and we still have nothing.