Hospital calls!

Recently, my father and father-in-law were admitted to the hospital, just a week apart, in different hospitals, for different ailments. They have been discharged since.

We are blessed to have a big, loving extended family and friends and well-wishers. Even though, we, the immediate family members, try to keep the admission to the hospital discreet, word spreads around and we have a stream of well-wishers visiting us at the hospital. And then begins the ordeal of updating each person on the condition of the patient, how they ended up there, what the doctor recommends, when he will be discharged.

Sometimes, I think, a statement, similar to the press release would be apt, with periodical updates. We have folks with different persona visit us. I recall this nice caring relative of ours, visiting the hospital on one of those days. No sooner had he arrived, he began his own narration of how he felt the ground shake upon hearing the news of the admission and how he arrived in the hospital still shaking. It took nearly 10 minutes for him to “settle down” and then, ask the patient, “How are you now, Sir?” We saw him off later, after treating him with some cool drinks.

There was another relative of ours, who ended up bringing a high-calorie dessert to the patient (maybe because of the presence of the bakery next to the hospital). Incidentally, the duty doctor offered to share it with the staff, as the patient was not allowed to have anything of that sort.

There are folks who come in to update the patient with the recent events and the topics range from politics to family gossip. Once, this kind realise that the patient has nowhere to escape, they let it go (verbal diarrhoea is the ailment this visitor suffers!). It was divine intervention indeed, when the nurse got him out of the room just as the duty doctor came in, to check on the patient. The patient had developed a slightly higher BP, after this visit! “No more visitors for the day” instructed the doctor to the nurse and security.

Then, there are the loud visitors, who visit and create so much noise, that the next door patient, sends their attender requesting the visitors to lower their volume. The next day, however, we had to request the next door patient to lower their TV volume. Perhaps, a tit-for-tat from the other patient was played out. You also find people, who drop names and get access to the patient, even when the patient is in the ICU and it is not “visiting hours.”

We, once, had this tech-savvy visitor, who ordered from the food ordering app, for himself, while waiting on the patient. Then, there is this quiet, never-expecting-anything-in-return kind, who visit the patient, bring in meals (the “patient-kind”), serve food, make the patient comfortable and leave the patient with a positive feeling.

As long as it works in favour of the patient, the different flavours the visits bring in, are always welcome, I suppose.