A personal story of visiting hospital

It has been interesting to visit hospital as a patient, not to mention all the doctor's visits and travel beforehand. As I work in the health area it is a good experience to see things from a patient's perspective. I had laprascopic hysterectomy in March at Wollongong Private Hospital.
Here are my reflections:

• If you think your iron might be low, ask to get it checked. Don't go for months with low iron like I did
• Fasting and clear fluids before surgery is hard to follow
• When channel surfing I discovered Xena, the warrior princess, is still on TV after all these years!
• After surgery it's all about getting the bowels working again- ask the doctors and nurses plenty of questions about what to take and when. Don't assume everything will work when you start eating again. Movichol seemed to be recommended by the staff and worked quite well
• Remember high fibre foods (prunes, wholegrain cereals, lots of fruit and veg) and drinking plenty of water are very important
• Move around as much as you can, when the doctor says it's OK, which is sooner rather than later. I was walking around the hospital 12 hours after the op
• Jigsaw puzzles are a great way to rest!
• True friends come to the fore when you need them
• Consider an IPTAAS application for re-imbursement of travel and accomodation costs if you live in a rural area. An online application doesn't take that long:
• http://www.enable.health.nsw.gov.au/services/iptaas