Hospital roommate from hell

Since I have a few minutes before Bailey wakes up from her nap. I have to share my experience of recovering with a roommate in the hospital. Granted, I was only there for one night and half a day, I really wanted to strangle my roommate.

First of all, I was put in that room first because Bailey came early in the AM and my roommate came in at around 3pm. Young, really young (19-21 year old at most) Vietnamese girl with her "husband" and her entire family. With that, I mean her mom, dad, his mom, his dad, 2 sets of grandparents, aunt, uncle, and a couple of friends.

Now, if you are of Asian decent, which I am half of, you'd know that the Viets live with their entire 3-4 generations of families in one house. I do respect the fact that they value family, but there are limits.

The room was small first of all, and I'm shoved on the inside bed since I was there first. Which is fine because I have a curtain and I have first dibs on the TV channels. The SHARED restroom, however, was on her side and her area was covered with bodies of her families and friends visiting until 9pm. They are talking over each other as if they had no idea that there's another patient in the next bed recovering also. The elderly couple (her grandparents I assume) kept looking, more like gawking at me... even when I was trying to nurse Bailey. I said to them a few times "What are you looking at?" and they just smiled at me.

HOW ANNOYING!!

I had friends and family who came by to visit and it was impossible to get into the room. I finally had to use the restroom later in the day so I trekked over there with my IV pole and help from Chris. They wouldn't move! They could barely hear me say "Excuse me!" since they were all talking at once. Finally they moved but not quite out of the way. Their elderly were sitting right in front of the restroom doors and they had to be helped up and walk. She (the girl who had the baby) gave me this look as if I was inconveniencing them. I said "There is another patient in this room too". They were quiet for a while.

I get into the restroom and she had left a bloody mess in there. I'm not going to bother explaining what the mess was, I think you all know what I'm talking about. I called the nurse to come clean it up and she thought I made the mess. UGH!!! I go in there to use the restroom finally and ALL MY MEDICAL SUPPLIES WERE GONE!! She took them! My pads, my tusk pads, my antiseptic spray, and my cleansing bottle. I couldn't go pee without having that stuff!! I had to walk back out, interrupted her family bonding moment and asked her if she TOOK MY STUFF!! She said she thought it was all there for her. NO WACKO, your nurse will bring your shit! I was here first, this shit was for ME!! I called the nurse and told her I needed new supplies. I FINALLY got to use the restroom after a half hour ordeal which I shouldn't have had to deal with in the first place.

Visiting hours were over at 8pm. My friends and family (including Chris) left by 8pm. There was no room for him to sleep there and this would have been his last 'good' night of rest anyway, he went home. My roommate's friends and family would NOT leave! I asked my nurse when visiting hours were over and she told me she would get rid of them for me. They all finally left by 9 except her 'husband'. (she referred to him as both boyfriend and husband).

I nursed Bailey and we were both going down for some sleep by 11pm. Then I hear SLUUUUURP from the other side of the curtain. They were eating 2 big ass bowls of Pho. Vietnamese noodle soup. I get out of bed and peaked in from my curtain and asked them "DO YOU MIND?" she said "Oh, sorry". They must think I'm the biggest bitch on the block by now.

Her nurse wheeled in her baby around the same time. Now there's comotion since now she has to be prompted by an English speaking nurse for a half hour about the baby. This girl has no maternal insticts what so ever. Even if this is your first kid and you're totally clueless, you would read up and be less clueless than this girl. Seriously, she had NO IDEA what to do.

Her 'husband' finally left at around 1am. Lights are off on my side and her baby is quiet as well as mine. Her nurse comes in and finds her nursing the baby. "I thought you didn't want to breastfeed, how long have you been at it?" she replied "Oh about a half hour". She said that she thought she would try it. Well, the baby had had formula in the nursery (she was told this, but apparently she wasn't paying attention) so now she's overfeeding her baby. The baby throws up. She freaks out.

All throughout the night it was lights on lights off lights on lights off...... NURSE!!! NURSE!!!

Am I still even in the room? Is Bailey still in here? Does she even take us into consideration?

She asked the nurse "Can I have my own room? I don't like being with a stranger." YOU THINK I DO???? I should get my own room I was there first!!

Around 4am the nurse comes in and she's still up for some reason. The nurse asks her "When was the last time you changed her diaper?" .... "I'm changing her diaper?" she asks. The nurse is telling her all the basics that she needs to do and then told her that she's bringing her a Vietnamese version of baby care instructions. Thank GOD! You would think that with all her family around her she would know what to do!

About an hour later her baby throws up again. NURSE!!!! she called for help. The nurse comes in and apparently she's been nursing the baby for an hour and also giving her formula. I feel so bad for this baby already.

Her baby is in her hospital crib right up against my curtain which is right up against my bed. I can hear every breath of both my baby and hers through the rest of the night. Her baby would cry and I would wake up thinking it's Bailey. 9 out of 10 times it's her baby. Except that when her baby cried she would SHAKE THE CRIB!! I called for a nurse after the 3rd time she did that and told her. She stopped shaking the crib but started yelling WHOA WHOA WHOA for the baby to stop crying.

She would feed her baby while the baby is sleeping but pay no attention while she's crying. Hello!! McFly!! when baby cries, that usually means she's HUNGRY or she needs to be changed, not yelled at or shaken!

She fell asleep with baby at her breast. I really didn't want to witness her suffocating her baby while I'm the only one in the room with her.

The next day at 7am, her family returned. All the noise and chaos started all over again just when I was able to get an hour of sleep. The nurse asked if they can keep it down for me and at least 4 people looked over at my side of the curtain. WHAT??? Why do you need to look?? At 9am when visiting hours began, Chris got there. My doctor already signed my discharge papers at that point so we were just waiting for Bailey to be discharged. It took until 2pm, but we finally could pack up and go home.

They wheeled the wheelchair in for me and Bailey to leave and again, they wouldn't move. They are going to make my hospital stay miserable to the last freakin' minute.

Now that we're home and it's very peaceful here I pray to any god that that baby will be ok.

Ok, I'm done with my story!