A Recent Hospital Stay

I recently spent a week in the hospital. I had an abrasion in my esophagus, and I threw up about half a liter of blood. I do not know where I got the abrasion. I was told that it was the size of a paper cut. I had been sick all day. I threw up in the library restroom. I went to the bus station where I continued to regurgitate. I could not make it to the toilet when I threw up the blood. Someone called for an ambulance, and the bus station was evacuated.

It seemed that the doctors were trying to get me out of the hospital before I was ready. I was still feeling unsteady in my feet, and I was having difficulty swallowing even liquids and soft foods. On the list of prescribed medications that I received at the hospital was listed a piece of Nicorette gum. I remember a nurse giving me a piece of chewing gum. When I asked her what it was she said that it was for my breath. I was asked several times if I smoked cigarettes, and I told them that I usually did not smoke more than one or two cigarettes on a day. I do not know why I was told a lie about this gum.

While I was in the hospital my glasses could not be found. (Well, one of the lenses had been missing for awhile, but I can could still see better with one lens than I could without it.) The absence of my glasses added to my headache. I was not able to read while I was in the hospital, and I do not watch TV. I asked several times where my glasses were, and I never received a direct answer. I was told that this kind of loss was common at the hospital. Of course they do not compensate patients for this loss. I did find my glasses when I received my belongings when I left the hospital, but I do not know how long they had been there.

A few times before I left the hospital I was told that my blood counts were good, and that I was ready to leave the hospital. They paid more attention to numbers than they did to how I actually felt. For part of my stay in the hospital I wore a wrist band with the words "Fall Risk" on it. This seemed to be ignored. There were times when I felt dizzy and had difficulty getting anyone to walk with me to make sure that I did not fall.

I am even more convinced now than I was before that the hospitals in this country are more interested in making money than they are in the health of the patients, that they consider the rules of the hospital more important than the health of the patients and the main focus of the healthcare system of this country is making money.