Staying In Hospital With My Wife

[Murgatroyd]

My wife has to go into Hospital next week for an operation (Mastectomy) at the National Cancer institute on the Rama 6 road. She will be in hospital for between 3 - 5 days and I will be staying with her in hospital. I don't know exactly what to expect... has any member of the forum had the experience of staying in a Thai hospital with a loved one? Obviously I must take everything that we will need for a five day stay, clothing, books, laptop with an air card, DVD's to watch, etc etc.

Any further information about staying in a Thai hospital would be very welcome... I don't speak much Thai and would like to know the probable set-up, hospital rules etc.

[retiredusn]

stayed 5 weeks with my wife and it was better than most hotels. We had a private room with a fold down couch that made into a bed. The doc's and nurses were great always trying to make us more comfortable. the nurse's would even grab me a pizza on their way into work.

[geriatrickid]

Smart move. Patients recover much better when there is someone that keeps on eye on things. Everyone is more careful.

For your own well being, make sure you take some daily exercise, even a nice walk around the hospital grounds will do the trick. It rejuvenates you and gives the patient some quiet time to think or whatever. Bring some comfortable shoes and non tight clothes because you are going to be sitting alot. If you can manage it, try and take a break every so often, just to get your circulation going because you will be sitting for a long time. Hope you have a checklist because in our family people always forgot to take their reading glasses.

As soon as the doctor says its ok, be sure to get your wife out of bed and walking. Many patients resists and the nurses won't force it. The change in bed position, even if it means she goes to sit in a chair, reduces the likelihood of complications like bed sores or even blood clots. So, that means don't forget something comfortable for her feet. Some patients get swollen feet for a day or so, so keep that in mind.

They will probably insist your wife remain in a hopsital gown for ease of access to the wound, so don't forget her bathrobe thingy to let her cover up when she gets out of bed. If you have a comfortable pillow, you might want to bring that along. Hospital pillows tend to be the hypoallergenic foam that aren't comfortable after the 2nd night or so. And remember not to leave the laptop or valuables out in the open. They seem to grow legs and walk away from hospital rooms. At the risk of being crass, if your wife has valuable jewellery, consider leaving it at home. Rings mysteriously fall off patients' fingers while the get wheeled to and from the surgery.

And don't forget your cell phone charger cable.

[Murgatroyd]

Thanks retiredusn and geriatrickid, much appreciated.

I'll take and abide by your advice. Maybe I'll take my backpack for my laptop so that it doesn't get left lying around the room whilst I'm out... as a smoker I'll have to pop out every hour or so, and as My wife go's to sleep early I may venture out in the evening. I'll suggest that my wife leaves her jewellery at home. I'm taking several books, and some new DVD's to watch on the laptop. I'll also take fruit, sandwiches for the first day, and some coke zero (I'm type 2 diabetic and can't drink sugary stuff). I'd better start making that list.

Thanks again!

[BuckarooBanzai]

A great deal depends on where you are going to the hospital (big city or out country) and the hospital itself. Over the years I have gone to the medium level private hospitals - not the deluxe tourist hospitals or the state run basic hospitals. We never had a problem with my wife, and even other relatives sleeping in my room - always a private - but I can assure you that I have never been in a hospital that would come close to what I would expect from a hotel. Although they try and keep them clean there are almost always ants - on all floors - and the bathrooms are pretty disgusting suffering from a good deal of disrepair. Staff are usually very nice and if you keep your expectations in check you can get by just fine. But if you go to one of these middle ground hospitals you will have to provide about everything for both your wife and your self - towels, tooth brush and tooth past, toilet paper etc. Most of this you can buy on site but it is much cheaper just to bring it along. By the way, usually a bench is the extra bed but it is generally not too bad for sleeping. Before one comments what hospital did I go to I have been to many with all pretty much the same conditions as described. If you are going 1st class then enjoy, if not then temper your expectations accordingly.

[Murgatroyd]

We're going to the National Cancer Institute in Bangkok where we had a choice of 4 different room types, 300 per night, 600 per night, 1600 per night or the 2500 per night. We opted for the 1600 per night option.

Whilst it is a government hospital I'm paying privately as my wife's social security wouldn't cover it... the local hospital is very basic and my wife was really scared of having her op done there. She feels happy and confident about the Cancer institute hospital. I wouldn't want her to be worried about the Hospital... she's worried enough about the Op. I've told her that she'll still be the most beautiful woman in Thailand, and the only one for me.

I wish I could afford the Thai Nakkarin private hospital but with visa renewal time approaching I just don't have the cash. There wouldn't be much point in my paying for a private hospital and then having to leave Thailand because I'd run out of money.

Will I have to supply my own bedding? I don't know if I should take a sleeping bag. I'll take geriatrickid's advice and take my own pillows anyway.

[Sheryl]

Bedding, linens, blanket will be provided. If an extra set for you is not already there, you just ask for it. You are paying extra for a room designed to accomodate this type of thing.

the room will also probably have a refrigerator, hot water pot and may even have a microwave. And of course TV, possibly cable but probably only Thai language.

The bed for relative is often a very hard couch thing, if (like me) you find it hard to sleep on extremely hard surfaces you may be happier to bring along some type of mattress pad or to invest in buying one of those foldable foam ones available at any Lotis or Big C.

[Murgatroyd]

Thanks Sheryl and BuckarooBanzai,

I'll leave the sleeping bag at home then... and if the couch is too hard I'll nip out to the nearest lotus and pick up a foam topper for the couch.

[lopburi3]

There will normally be a pillow/case and an airline type blanket so you will be sleeping on the plastic surface of the couch so PJ's are in order. Lights may make it difficult to sleep but you should survive. Theft is a major problem as most places lack much security and family is coming at all hours so advise to leave at home is valid. For most Thai the visiting family member is a full time unofficial nurse so if that is not your expertise the hire of off-duty nurse can be done at reasonable rates (normal 2 shifts) to help take care of wife first several days.

[Murgatroyd]

Thanks lopburi3

I'll do my best.

[Murgatroyd]

I thought I'd bring this up to date by adding my experience of staying with my wife in the hospital.

The room we chose was the smaller of the two private rooms on offer, at a cost of about 1500 baht per night. ( The other would have been about 2500 baht and may have had a proper bed for the patients carer). The room was clean as a new pin, and had a balcony, accessed by sliding doors that also had a set of sliding mosquito screens. It had a TV (So important for my wife... Thai soap operas are such compelling viewing... yawn). It also had a small bathroom with shower . The couch was more or less as described by the other posters to this thread. reasonably comfortable, plastic covered, but about 6 inches too short for me (I'm six feet tall), and far too narrow for a good night's sleep. I had bought a sleeping bag, which was a good idea, as although a pillow and a blanket were provided they wouldnt have been very comfortable on the bare plastic surface. Nurses popped in and out on a regular basis, so sleep was constantly interrupted. My wife had her operation on the afternoon of the first day, and was bought back to the room to recover. The operation went well, and there were no complications.

One of the biggest issue was that of meals. My wife was getting hospital food, but I was left to my own devices. There were a number of stalls and small Thai food court downstairs, along with a small 7-11 shop in the hospital next door. I found myself living on pasties, coldish toasted sandwiches and the rather dubious 7-11 pork burgers. Whilst this would have been OK for a day or two, I was heartily sick of them after a week. I recommend bringing some microwavable pre-cooked meals from home. There was a large fridge in our room in which I could have stored several days worth of meals. I had access to the kitchen room at the end of the corridor, in which there were a couple of microwaves and a device that delivered boiling water, along with washing up facilities. We did bring fresh fruit with us which was a very good idea, as the fruit stall was extremely expensive, as were most things to buy in thehospital shops. I guess they have a captive audience. There were no regular shops within walking distance, to reach a tesco lotus I would have had to get a taxi, which I was disinclined to do because I didn't want to leave my wife alone for too long. I'm very glad that I took my laptop and bought an air card for it so that I could go online.

All in all I found the experience more or less tolerable, but had it extended for longer than a week I would have asked my wifes mother to come in and stay for one day just to give me a break... I was going stir crazy by the time we were told it was time to go home. All in all the costs of the episode came to much less than I expected. From first diagnosis at the Thai Nakkarin private hospital right through to the full operation at the National cancer Institute the whole thing cost just over 50,000 baht, or a fraction over £1000. I had expected to pay almost double that all in. I came away from the experience with a good opinion of the hospitals we had visited, but frankly I was very glad that we hadn't used to local hospital of which my wife was rather scared.

[Robby nz]

I would like to add to the good advice that the hospital beds can be very hard and could be uncomfortable for your wife who I assume from your posts is not Thai.

If this is the case you may have to buy her a topper pad, there are some very good ones available at the hospital supply shops near Victory Monument.

The room will also be Airconditioned and some can be quite cold so you both may need some warm clothes.

[Robby nz]

sorry failed to read your last post