Adventures in the Hospital

Sorry for the radio silence lately, my life hasn't been that interesting lately. I was supposed to have a meeting with the bus company yesterday regarding their terrible customer service, but I had to miss it due to hospitalization. Whoops, bad timing, I know. The real kicker: I spent 16 hours in the hospital to hear "rest and take some painkillers". I went in with severe abdominal pain, I came out with less severe abdominal pain, a bump on my head, a bump on my "good" knee and a whole lot of frustration. This adventure has led to the following list. Presenting UtterRandomness' Grand List of Things That Are Irritating About Hospitals/Health Care:

1.  Hospitals that only staff one doctor in the ER. Really? One doctor? How about two? 
2.  People who complain about the Canadian health care system but are unwilling to pay higher taxes. You get what you pay for, and personally, I'd be willing to pay more in taxes for lower tuition and better health care. 
3.  Nurses who complain about not being able to find a good vein in a person who is dehydrated. Of course they couldn't find a good vein, they wouldn't let me eat or drink after I came in, and after I'd been there 12 hours, you better bet my veins would be hard to find. You could have at least let me have a couple sips of water. 
4. Nurses who lie to keep themselves out of trouble. I fell off the hospital bed, onto my face, while I was waiting for a CT scan. I passed out, probably due to not having had anything to eat or drink since 7pm Sunday, by this point it was about 11:30am Monday. The nurse had me sitting on the edge of the stretcher, completely alone. When I got back to the ER, the nurse who came in to check for a head injury asked me what I tripped over. I didn't trip, I fainted. This mysteriously never came to be entered into my chart. I had no intention of blaming the nurse, but some kind of acknowledgment that I didn't just trip over my own two feet would have been nice. It might have also been nice if anyone had tried to figure out why I fainted.
5. People who complain incessantly that people who got there after them were taken in first. Two things for those people: first, the triage process determines who gets in first, it isn't first come first served. Second, shut up, complaining isn't getting you anywhere and it's just annoying the people around you. 
6. No one gave me an ice pack for my head. :(
7. The freaking Weather Network. If you're going to keep me in a room for however many hours, please put something more interesting than the Weather Network on the TV. 

All in all, it was a particularly unpleasant experience. I do not enjoy coming out of the hospital with more injuries than I had when I went in. Anyone have any other hospital/health care pet peeves/irritations?