Prepare for Your Hospital Stay

Small Things: Big DifferenceContact InformationDigital ClockList of MedicationsNotebook and PensPersonal AdvocateAdvance DirectiveHand Mirror

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When preparaing for hospital stay, you'll have lots ot things to think about. Perhaps you'll need to arrange for someone to feed your pets or pick up your mail. There may be last-minutes work arrangements to be made. Thinking about what to bring to the hospital may well be the last thing you feel able to think about. But you should think about it, because a few simple steps taken in advance can make a big difference to the quality of your visit. Here are some suggestions for things to bring, things to consider, and things to know before checking into the hospital.

You should bring an index card with important phone numbers. Be sure to include your home phone number (in case someone needs to call on your behalf. Yes, the hospital will have it in your records. Write it down anyway, along with alternative numbers for your key contact(s) and who they are.

You may think you don't need the numbers of people you call all the time. Well, even if you have all 1700 numbers memorized, you must take into account the fact that you are in the hospital and conceivably under some stress. Your memory might not be working all that well. And if someone else needs to dial for you, you might not really have the numbers available in your head. Your fingers? Yes -- there is that physical memory thing. Ah, you say. But all the numbers are in my cell phone. Which you aren't really supposed to have in the hospital. Even if you ignore that mandate, you might not be in a position to recharge the phone (and good luck asking a nurse to break the rules and do it for you).

To be safe, I'd recommend bringing a spare copy of the card with your key contacts: one to go in your file at the nurses station and one to keep with you in the room.

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Be sure to bring a list of the medications you take regularly. These include prescriptions, baby aspirin, and any allergy pills. You need to stay on your medications and to do that, you must ensure that the hospital has the appropriate information. You will not be allowed to bring your own meds into the hospital -- they will be administered from the hospital pharmacy, because all medications must be recorded when given. This is for everyone's protection.

I recommend packing a notebook and a couple of pens. You'll get a lot of instructions in the hospital. Your medications are going to change frequently and the timing and dosages will as well. You need to know what they're giving you and what the doctor wants you to have. The two are not always the same, because information can take a circuitous route in the hospital. Several people will be involved in your care: doctors (including specialists who may only visit the hospital when summoned), nurses, technicians, dieticians, social workers. The one person who probably will NOT be involved in your case will be an overseer -- one person who keeps track of all the pieces.

Example: Once, in the hospital, I'd had some surgery and been NPO: nothing taken by mouth. That's standard before surgery and for some period after while they ensure that you are stable. Going without the liquids is the worst, in my opinion. Anyway, my doctor made rounds and cleared me to have liquids but neglected to write it on the chart. So when I asked for water, they wouldn't give me any. I told them the doctor has okayed it but hospital rules say that the orders must be in writing. The doctor was gone for the day, the nurses wouldn't -- or couldn't -- get anyone else in to evaluate, and by the end of a few more hours I was in tears.

So a corollary point to keeping track of what the orders are is to make sure you ask the doctor to write the information on your chart before s/he leaves the floor and then to confirm with the nurse that it's been done.

Sometimes a conflict can arise because the wrong person is issuing orders. In the hospital, my father was on a liquid diet because he was having swallowing issues. After days of pain and weight loss because he couldn't deal even with the liquids, a speech pathologist figured out that the liquids were creating a problem and that he needed to have pureed foods (try to imagine pureed coffee). Our family ended up fighting with the caregiving staff because the speech pathologist had written orders that needed to be written by the doctor. Who wasn't there, of course. My father suffered an extra day before the situation was corrected.

On more than one occasion, nursing staff have attempted to give me overlapping medications because a doctor entered new medication on the chart without removing the old one. If I hadn't made notes about the change I might not have caught the mistake before they double-dosed me.

Understand that I am not talking about incompetence here. Not really. But the truth of modern hospital care is that staff are dealing with lots of people; it's unrealistic to expect them to have each patient's complete history in their heads. Nobody is going to care as much about your case as you will -- so it's important to take participate fully in your own care.

On the other hand, you are a patient and the need to take charge of your care may be beyond you.

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This brings up a critical point: the need for a personal advocate. By this I don't mean a lawyer or other hired person. That might be necessary in some circumstances, but it's not what I'm talking about now. By "advocate" I mean a person -- family member or friend -- who has your interests as a priority and who can help you deal with the various matters that might arise. These can range from calling in additional doctors to getting you a straw for your ice water. It simply helps to have someone available who can keep track of the big picture with your needs in mind.

The person you choose to do this might not be the most obvious candidate, because personalities vary and some people handle hospital issues better than others.

This became clear in my family when my father was hospitalized. Unlike some patients, my father did not suffer from lack of advocates. Rather, he had too many. At least one doctor tried to hide from us on a couple of occasions because the sight of the whole (vociferous) family gathered in my father's room overwhelmed him. Eventually, we figured out that we needed to appoint one spokesperson (or, at least, one at a time) in order to accomplish what was needed. Then, too, my sisters and I all have different strengths. The person who was best at headstroking and cool cloths and soothing talk was not the person who was best at badgering -- er, politely asking -- the nursing staff to bring food, water, medicines, etc. And she wasn't the one who understood the hospital routine and why some things happened the way they did (and how to get around them). Or the one who was best at supporting my mother through the process, because she was fragile also and needed to be cared for while not trampling her spousal right to make decisions.

Another reason to have someone who knows you pretty well visiting regularly: medications can affect you in unexpected ways.

During one hospital stay, I was on some pretty substantial painkillers that made me hallucinate. My husband was travelling on business for the day and I was in a visiting lull, so nobody was around to tell the hospital staff that I was in an altered state. I'm sure they just figured I was a little crazy. Of course, I had no idea what was happening to me. I am still haunted by one dream I had. In it, my daughter and one sister, dressed in shirtwaist dresses like Aunt Bea in the Andy Griffith Show (with matching floral pillbox hats), banged drums and chanted Hari Krishnah. During that time I also dreamed I was running down the hall chased by nurses. In the dream, some event happened that caused them to thrust me into a shower. The next day, I awoke smelling of soap and with clean hair. I have an uneasy feeling that dream actually happened...

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An advance directive is a document that outlines your medical wishes in the event that you are not in a position to express them for ourself. One type of advance directive is a living will. Another is a durable power of attorney. The complexity of the document you have prepared can vary from a very simple page or two to a very elaborate document. If you have had an advance directive drawn up, by all means bring a copy to the so that it is available for your file. In most cases this won't keep you from having to sign the hospital's form also, but it clarifies your wishes, so you might as well tuck it into your bag. Make sure someone close to you knows it's there.

WARNING: The following is a possibly upsetting subject, so I've obscured it. Drag your mouse over the box to read the paragraph.

Designate someone to make medical decisions for you if you are incapacitated for any reason. Baldly put, this is the "pull the plug" discussion. I know it'sa frightening topic and one nobody wants to think about. But every time you go to the hospital -- even for something simple -- you are required to fill out and sign a form that outlines your wishes in the event that things go horribly wrong. This will be the case even if you have a phonebook-size slab of lawyer-blessed paper that covers every conceivable eventuality. You will be asked to name a person to carry out your wishes. So think about it ahead of time, if you are able, and pick someone. Discuss it with them, of course, to make sure they are willing to undertake the responsibility. Planning for this in advance will ensure that the subject is dealt with before any hospital stays. Hopefully, this will help to reduce the emotional impact.

A little plug here. Please make sure you've signed your organ donor card and that you tell the people at the hospital and YOUR FAMILY that you are an organ donor. This link will take you to a printable organ donor form.

Whew. That's done. You can open your eyes now.

Other things to bring to the hospital:

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Unless you're deathly ill, you'll want some distraction that doesn't require much effort. I used to bring lots of books and logic puzzles with me, but I found that holding them tired me after a while. Besides, it's difficult to concentrate when people are in and out of your room, taking your temperature and blood pressure, making rounds, changing the sheets, etc.

So you can end up watching a lot of television. Unfortunately, most hospital TV set-ups don't allow you to select a specific channel. You have to keep pushing the "up" button until something turns up that you want to watch. And if you press the button too quickly (or if there's a commercial on and you don't know you've come to a show you want) then you have to cycle through again to find it. (Tip: Here is another place where that pad and paper will come in handy.) When you check in, you (if you're up to it) or a family member/friend should take a few minutes to cycle through the channels and write down the numbers for the channels you like if they're different than the ones at home. Doing this at the binning will avert lots of aggravation, I assure you, and will make the TV listings useful.

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I suggest you bring your MP3 player, if you have one. Chances are you'll have a roommate, which means that there will be noise in the room that you aren't making. They might have visitors there when you want to sleep. Or your roomie might snore. Your player -- with a good pair of noise-cancelling earphones -- can be the difference between you getting a little bit of sleep and being totally exhausted. Don't expect big blocks of uninterrupted sleep in any case. Hospitals are not restful places. Another advantage of the MP3 player is that you can load an audio book onto it. While you might not have the energy to read books, you might enjoy listening to one.

While we're on the subject of blocking noise, it's not a bad idea to tuck inbring a package of ear stoppers. If your roommate really is a snorer (or if s/he moans a lot or talks on the phone all night long), you'll find these very helpful. Of course, if you're the one who snores, you can always give them to your roommate as a gesture of good will!

Into your bag, you should tuck hand sanitizer, a packet of antibacterial wipes, some antibacterial spray, and possibly even some of those disposable toilet seat covers. Just in case. Especially if you have a roommate, because that means 2 unwell people are using the same facilities. More than that if their family ignores the hospital rule about not using patient bathrooms. (We know your family won't ignore that rule, right?)

Hospitals have public bathrooms for visitors. They also have wall-mounted hand-sanitizer dispensers for them to use. Everyone should wash his hands before coming into your room. If anyone has a cold or anything like that, s/he should put on a mask so as not to infect you. They may be your family but you are in a vulnerable position. Regarding hand-washing: MAKE SURE YOUR CAREGIVERS (yes, this means your doctor also) wash their hands before examining you.

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Every afternoon, hospital staff will bring you a menu so you can check off your meal preferences for the next day. It's usually a little highlight of the day anyway, but it's also important because if you don't like what they bring you to eat then you won't -- and your nutrition will suffer. So if you have been out of the room (having tests or procedures or physical therapy) and miss the menu, ASK for it. Seriously. Doesn't matter for one day, but if you've got to be there for several days (or longer) then you'll really want to have that choice. It took me a while to figure out that I could ask for the menu -- and that I needed to because nobody else was going to remember.

TIP: Most likely you won't finish your tray of food, because appetites tend to be a little depressed in the hospital. Before they take away that tray, though, grab the crackers and/or dinner roll and any unopened containers of juice. I always make it a point to check off crackers on the menu, because sometimes, you get hungry in the middle of the night and it's useful to have a little something to nibble rather than having to ring for the nurse. NOTE: if you are diabetic or on a diet that depends on testing or a set schedule, then don't do this. As with any of these suggestions, USE COMMON SENSE and adhere to your specific medical restrictions.

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Pack some clothing for when you are released from the hospital. This should be VERY EASY to put on. Nothing tight. Preferably a top that buttons. If you are going to pull something over your head, make sure it has a large, open neckline. Specific requirements will depend on your reason for being hospitalized. If you've had abdominal surgery, avoid clothing with a tight waiste. If your leg is in a cast, try to avoid pants. Commonsense should be your guide. DON'T FORGET THE UNDERWEAR. Often, in the hospital, you end up not wearing undies, but you will want them when you leave. Try to bring slip-on shoes that work with socks. They should be stable, preferably with lower heels.

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About My Pictures

Any images I didn't photograph myself are from Wikimedia Commons and are freely available and are used with my thanks for such a useful resource. Most base images from Wikimedia Commons have been incorporated by me into a collage or otherwise manipulated to be more appropriate for my lens. The one image I have purchased (the woman with binoculars) is from iStockphoto.