Weekend request for OCF postersL hints and tips on thriving instead of just surviving hospital stay. On Ash Wednesday (2/25), I go in to give up half my tongue for Lent. The ENT says 10 days in hospital (3 in ICU and 7 regular) to recover from surgery and learn how to swallow without aspiration and use the PEG. Having only spent one night in a hospital in 61 years, it sounds like a long time.
First idea was from my sister who flew in from San Francisco last night to visit. (It is poignant because yesterday marked the exact 8 year anniversary of our mother's death and Monday, when my sister takes off, is the 22nd anniversary of our little brother's untimely death from AIDS.) She suggests getting a wireless netbook or laptop to send emails, post on OCF etc. My ENT said I would be too sore and have too many tubes, etc to type or read or even position the laptop and I would be frustrated despite the hospital's web page showing a beaming patient swathed in head bandages surfing away on his laptop. The ENT said especially the shoulder and neck would be so stiff and sore that it won't be worth it. Your experiences?
My wife is pushing paperback books - the old standby
My son is saying MP3 player.
My old hippie friends are saying: push up the morphine drip and meditate.
So please feedback on your take on how these well meaning ideas actually worked out.

Charm

My surgery was 9/25/08 and they kept me in a coma for 8 days after that so that I would not hurt myself because my doctor knows me and I would have wanted to go home on day 2. Anyway I digress, they woke me on Friday afternoon and on Saturday afternoon a friend of mine brought me a very heavy HP laptop. I plugged it in and propped up the bed and away I went. It was GREAT. I was able to check on my dogs, e-mail my sister when the nurses were being mean to me, and go shopping from my hospital bed. I really don't think I will ever go to the hospital without one again. I do recommend an extra blanket or a towel for your lap because the bottom of the laptop gets hot after a while.

Patty

Charm,
I'm planning to take mine. My husband found an old USB trackball that I can use as a mouse so I wont have to move my arms. Unless I want to type. I have my MP3 player loaded. I have a digital picture frame I need to load.(something to look at other than the walls) I wont forget my cell phone. I am hoping my family paces thier visiting so I don't have a lot of "alone" time. There is enough of them that they should be able to handle this, however they are not very organized! (they will all show up the first day and no one but the DH will come after!)
I assume that there will be a lot of drug induced sleeping to take up the "spare time"

Laptop was great towards the end of my stay, but didn't get much use before that. We didn't have wireless access, but what I did use it for was to play scrabble with visitors (I had purchased the game from Yahoo Games).

MP3 player with BIG puffy earphones to block out the hospital noise is an awesome idea, as is making sure you have a TV available from Day 1.

Cell phone for texting people is wonderful, and don't forget an extension cord which can handle all these plug ins and their chargers. Who knows where your outlet will be.

Hint: After the last surgery - when they took almost the entire other half of my tonuge, I found that drinking from a bottle make a huge difference once I was relearning swallowing. Seems to shoot the water to the back of your throat and kept me from aspirating it - check that out with your speech pathologist.

One day I was feeling sooooooooo rotten that a good friend of mine just crawled into bed with me. I must say, I still think of that as one of the greatest comforts I had while in hospital. People shouldn't be afraid to do that - crawl into bed with you and watch TV.

I also found magazines were good in that I seemed to have a short attention span. And yes, I agree with your hippie friends- ensure you are pain free but don't get hooked - detoxing from morphine is NO FUN.

You'll get through it, and the next time you think about it will be when someone asks you for hints!!

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Donna

Be careful about using a laptop on something soft like a towel because it may block the cooling vents and let your CPU reach some undesirable temperatures -- Something soft next to you, but something relatively stiff for the laptop to sit on.

My hospital had wired access in the rooms -- Just asked nurse to bring the connecting cable -- I would get out of bed and sit in chair, like they wanted me to do, with laptop on the movable table.

Good point Pete.

Both of our hospitals have WIFI. One advertizes it and even has computers set up around the hospital that you can use. The one I was in did not advertize it and had a little disclaimer for the docs to read before logging in, but I used it anyway. Noone said that I could not.



Patty

I have a similar heat pad to this one for when I use my laptop on my lap..stops the burn marks!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Targus-PA248U-Notebook-Chill-Pad/dp/B0000AKA8Y
Maybe use the Amazon link if purchasing as it benefits OCF
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/products/books.htm
They mention other items however there are some great books you may like as well.
I was lucky to have a blackerry (work supplied) that kept me in touch via email however a notebook is still a lot more flexible if you want to connect to the web easily especially this site.
Gabriele

http://www.amazon.com/gp/homepage.html?ie=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&tag=oralcancerfou-20&link%5Fcode=hom&%2Aentries%2A=0

My suggestion would be someone to be there with you AS MUCH OF THE TIME AS POSSIBLE. After experiencing my mother's multiple hospital stays and then my husband's - I ended up with the feeling that, even at the best of hospitals, a "patient advocate" is essential.

Best to you,
Anita

Anita

I returned from the hospital with the same opinion and I will never go again by myself if I can help it.

Patty