Posted by CareBear04 on March 15, 2006, at 15:40:09
In reply to Hospital experiences, posted by pretty_paints on March 14, 2006, at 10:58:33
Hi--
this is an interesting post because it seems like different people have different hospital experiences, especially depending on where they go. i think i've been on a psych unit six times in a little over three years and at four different hospitals.the first hospital stay wasn't too bad. i was on an adolescent/young adult unit, and they had lots of activities like art and ping pong, and the other patients were good support. it made me sad, though, becuase there were kids as young as 15 who were there for months, and i didn't think they had much wrong with them other than f----d up families. we were allowed hospital privileges, meaning we could leave the unit either accompanied or alone, depending on the trust factor, and wander around the hospital, which was cool.
the second stay was pretty bad. it was after a suicide attempt, and the doctors and nurses kept trying to drill into me how bad a thing i had done and, by extension, how bad a person i was. i was luckily only there for six days before my parents came to bail me out. at both the first and second hospital, cell phones weren't allowed, and we had to use the common unit phone to talk to anyone.
the third hospital was the best, amenities-wise, but it was a traumatic experience altogether. every young woman who came onto the floor got a book about borderline personality disorder, and for me personally, they tried to bully me into admitting an eating disorder when i didn't have one. my attending left during the middle of my stay, and a new witch of a woman doctor took over my case and kicked me out when i was still as suicidal as when i was admitted. then, they got all nervous and stuff because they thought i was going to sue them when i refused to sign out AMA (when they were kicking me out). i can laugh about it now becuase they were just so stupid and incompetent and because i had a great outpatient pdoc, but if i had reacted differently, it could have been a really tragic situation.
the rest of my hospital experiences have been overall quite helpful. they've ranged in length from two days to four weeks, and they've all been at the same hospital, which is ranked #1 in psychiatry by US news. the residents have been competent, the attendings have been attentive, and the nurses are the best. they would remember the names of my friends who visited and what kind of juice i like with my meds, and they even played games with me and chatted with me like i was a normal person.
after the first few stays, i swore i would never go back to the hospital, and i cried when i was admitted for the first time to the last place. since then, i've come to think of it as a safe place, and if worst came to worst, there are worse places to go and to be than this psych unit.
i would love to hear other peoples' experiences.
CB
poster:CareBear04
thread:620174
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060315/msgs/620667.html