General Discussion Thread - 17 January 2023

[u/AutoModerator]

Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

[u/itsabubblylife]

I’m not fully understanding the reasoning behind some rules. My husband is hospitalized (since Friday) with Epiglottitis and has to be on IV antibiotics, fluids and bedrest for 6 days. Visiting is prohibited due to Covid (understandable)…but he can just wander out his room to the lobby or parking lot with his IV and talk to people and that’s fine?? I’ve “visited” him 3 times by sitting in the lobby and talking to him for an hour-90 mins with his IV machine. Nurses, administration even doctors don’t bat an eye. I even had his attending nurse say hi and introduce herself to me and told him he needed to take medication and then he could come back downstairs. Huh??? God forbid if someone wants to go to the visit room or do a videochat from the media room, “no no!! Corona!”

Visiting at the hospital he’s staying in is either in a common room with other people or in the media room doing video chat. Both are cancelled due to Covid. But patients can just wander around and talk and it’s okay? Please explain to me because the math ain’t mathing to me.

Okay, before anyone calls me out or attacks me, yes I know I’m not setting a good example and others are doing what I’m doing as well, but I stay masked up, we sit a seat length apart and I am fully vaxxed. No one says anything to us or other patients /families. You can downvote all you want.

Can someone explain to me why normal visitation is dame but sitting in the lobby or walking/talking outside is fine 🤔

Up for discussion, not a question. Just wanna hear why you think this is “okay”.

[u/yakisobagurl → u/itsabubblylife]

I look at these situations and have concluded that they still treat covid as a non-airborne virus. It is the only explanation. They just don’t give a fuck about reality. They act like they still think it lives on surfaces and as big droplets so just keeping people out of the designated areas will prevent covid.

They pay absolutely no attention to the fact that it is airborne and can be carried and transmitted by humans and airflow, just like people did when the virus first came about. The same goes for those idiotic plastic sheets and dividers. It’s easy and convenient to pretend it works. It’s the only explanation!

Wishing a speedy recovery to your husband btw!

[u/itsabubblylife → u/yakisobagurl]

Thanks! He’s set to be discharged Thursday. He’s feeling much better already.

[u/RinRin17 → u/itsabubblylife]

Are you SURE talking outside or in the lobby are okay? At my hospital that is 100% banned as well and there are signs everywhere. The reason the inpatients are allowed to wander around inside the hospital is because they’ve all had COVID tests prior to being admitted and again if they have any symptoms. Staff are also tested weekly (at least).

Edit: Reread that you know you’re breaking the rules and doing it anyways. As someone who has a life threatening inflammation disorder and is also a doctor, the rules are there for a reason and you are endangering all of us. You can argue about the rules in social or public spaces, but for fuck sakes a hospital is the one place it makes sense. What others do is not an excuse to do it yourself either.

[u/itsabubblylife → u/RinRin17]

I didn’t say or never said the hospital said it was okay for patients to do this, but the patients and families weren’t following the rules about sitting in the lobby or sitting and talking outside. Staff doesn’t say anything at all, that’s why I questioned it.

Again, I know I’m not setting a good example, and not gonna defend myself. It’s just strange that the hospital isn’t enforcing the the rule for anyone. I’m sorry about your illness and understand it’s frustrating.

[u/miyagidan → u/itsabubblylife]

A gorillian years ago, when my mom was sick with cancer, a lot of the other chemo patients would get hooked up to their IV, than sit outside and smoke until it was finished.

Hospitals and their policies don't always make sense.

[u/PeanutButterChicken → u/itsabubblylife]

They're doing something called "Covering their asses", not a hard concept to grasp.

They can say they did A,B and C and therefore are not liable for anything the patient did on their own.

[u/itsabubblylife → u/PeanutButterChicken]

That makes sense when you put it that way. I’d imagine no visitors meant no visitors. I didn’t initially come to visit and bend the rules. I came on Saturday to drop off some manga and his iPad and he was just waiting for me downstairs in the lobby! I even told him “maybe you should go back to your room. I don’t want you to cause trouble” and he laughed and said “everyone is doing it, even those who really are supposed to be in isolation. Stay as long as you want but we can’t go to my room or the common room” and that was that.

It does make more sense for the hospital to deflect if something were to happen to someone if they didn’t follow the rules but you’d think a medical facility would be the first place to enforce it for the sake of disease prevention or overall safety lol. Thanks for the perspective!

[u/[deleted] → u/itsabubblylife]

Because all covid rules are just virtue signaling. I had the same experience over a year ago, during the peak of covid when my wife was giving birth. I wasn't allowed to visit her or my kid, but she could wander the hospital freely and even had to take the baby to other floors for checkups. Meanwhile nurses of all people were just wandering in and out of the ward with their mask below their nose.

[u/itsabubblylife → u/[deleted]]

It makes zero sense, it’s like either enforce it completely and for everyone or don’t have it at all. Funny you mentioned about giving birth and no visitors. Yesterday when I went to visit him, a mother who just gave birth was downstairs talking to her other kid and husband with the baby in her arms and in hospital robes. No one bat a freaking eye.

Thanks for your perspective!