subject: Making It A Little Easier When A Friend Is In The Hospital [print this page] Hospitals are dismal places to spend even a small of time, let alone an extended stay of days or weeks. Even visitors to hospitals get the feeling of doom and gloom the same as if they were visiting a morgue.
Many have taken their children, parents or friends to the hospital pediatric ward, emergency room or nursery and found them to be bustling hives full of sick and injured people being transported through the halls on gurneys at top speeds. No wonder the patients are terrorized, but so are friends, family and clergy, anyone who visits the patients in these halls of the ailing. The sad fact is that if you have a friend in the hospital who would really prefer jail stay, you need to visit them to spread at least a modicum of cheer.
1) Visit. Often. The worst thing about being in the hospital is the horrible isolation that goes along with it. When my oldest son was about two he spent a week in pediatrics being treated for a respiratory infection. I stayed at the hospital with him, and during that week the only people I saw were his nurses, his doctors and volunteer that brought the therapy dogs through. Since he was too sick to go down to the playroom, the loneliness drove us both a little nuts. Company was very, very welcome.
2) Bring the patient something to keep him occupied. To a hospital patient, boredom is right there after loneliness. Along with your visit, bring him something to do to ease the boredom when no one's there but him and his healing squad. Bring in books, puzzles, hand held video games, art sets, crafts and DVD's if there is a DVD player in the room.
3) Bring snacks and real food if his diet allows. If you have ever eaten a meal in a hospital either as a patient or a visitor, you know what that is like. Hospital food is bland, bland, and bland. Everything tastes like cream of wheat without brown sugar or raisins, unflavored jell-o, etc. There can be no snacks because the patient's caregivers feel the need to monitor his food intake. Anyone showing up with tasty snacks, even if illicit, will be welcomed with open arms.
4) Listen. No, nobody wants to hear about how dehumanizing treatment in the hospital can be. You feel like a pincushion by the time you're done. You really want to go home. It starts feeling like a mantra after a while. But let them talk. They need to, and it'll help you both feel better by the time they're done.
5) Talk. The patient is basically in solitary confinement. Tune them on to current events both in your own locale and around the world. Reassure them that there really is life outside the dreary walls of the hospital.
When you seriously think about it, the best thing that can be done for a friend and their family while hospitalized is to preserve some sense of normalcy. This gives them a semblance of real life, and when they finally get sprung from the hospital, they can get right back to their life along with their sanity.
