Re: Inpatient vs Outpatient Question - helpers

[Guest guest]

You can always ask to have a family member stay. I was fortunate

enough to get a private room, and asked if my husband could stay

overnight. They allowed him to stay 24x7, even gave him a reclining

chair to sleep in overnight (although he says it was uncomfortable

and creaked whenever he moved). He was put in charge (by me) of

making sure I got my meds on time (even had a middle-of-the-night

verbal showdown with the nurses, who didn't want to get my meds at

that particular time), fetched clean towels & gowns, made sure I got

all the OJ I could drink (we cleaned out the floor stock, no apple

juice for ME), used the gunk-sucker (nothing to suck up, I wasn't

bleeding at all) and basically attended to all of my needs. All I had

to do was rest, drink and recover. If I had to do it all over again,

I would insist on that again. He didn't get in the way of the nurses

at all, and pretty much freed them up for other patients who needed

it.

> I, too, had upper and lower done about 2 weeks ago and it was done

as

> outpatient surgery in my oral surgeon's office. I went in around

> 7:00 a.m. and left his office around 4:30.

>

> When we were planning the surgery, he suggested that I might want

to

> have it done in the hospital but I (stupidly?) said I preferred to

> have it done outpatient so I could sleep in my own bed that night

and

> have all the comforts of home. If I had to do it over, I would

> definitely stay in the hospital. The car ride home was very

> difficult and the first night was HORRIBLE for both me and my

> caregiver. The only good thing was that I was able to take a lot

of

> showers to ease my nasal congestion and I'm not sure I could have

> done that in the hospital. But it would have been nice to have a

> hospital bed that could be elevated as opposed to sleeping on a

stack

> of propped up pillows.

>

> Having said all of that, there were times during that first night

> when I needed someone to help me with something ASAP (usually

> involving congestion or pain medicine). My caregiver was great and

> slept right by my bedside. But if I'd been in a hospital and had

to

> rely on a nurse to come when I pressed the call button, I'm not

sure

> how well that would have worked (based on some past hospital

> experiences). So, I guess my recommendation for people considering

> this would be to stay in the hospital one night if you're having

> upper and lower jaw surgery but also have someone stay there with

you

> that can be responsive to your needs if a nurse is not available.

>

> Sherri