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Originally Posted by AllyKat:

No I don't want this ostomy. It is devasting. And my roommate keeps yelling that she can't share a bathroom with me cause of the smell, feels dirty in there, her friend comes and carries on with her.  I have to measure the fluid and if they don't clean it fast enough she goes crazy. 

The roommates I had over my three surgeries at Mass General in Boston beats yours. They were mostly addicts screaming during the night, if not an addict it would be someone who snored really loud and would leave their TV on blasted, as well the overhead light. Like the previous posts suggested you have to keep bugging the shit of out the nurses to get your own room. Even ask to speak to the charge nurse and explain what's going on. If they have the room they'll give it to you, if not I suggest getting headphones and listening to music or something to block out the unwanted noise. 

One of my nurses gagged everytime she came out of my bathroom.  Seems as though she was highly sensitive to the smell of blood and that is what I was passing due to an obstruction.  I never even knew blood had an odor!  I bet these people who are especially sensitive to the smell of effluent never had kids or changed a diaper of youngsters who had typical bodily product odors!  That should cure them!

Hi Alley

I've been off of the grid for a while and just signed back in...read your post...Arghhhh!

Number one, you are a patient...you do not neeed to justify yourself, your bowels or your output to anyone. Not even another patient...let alone their visitors. Their visitor are just that, healthy people who come to bring joy and comfort to the sick, not critics of your output!

If your roommates visitors make unwelcome comments about you or your medical condition then I would kindly (or not so kindly) invite them to leave the hospital property or take their visit to another venue like a visitor's lounge or a self-service cafe.

They do not have the right to make you feel embarassed or uncomfortable when you are the sick one!

Darn I hate that!

If they continue to do that then I would report the conduct to the patient's advocate or someone in a similar position (or the head nurse?)

You are vulnerable enough as it is, you do not need more pain and suffering.

Hang in there kid

Sharon

I have a hard time with smelling GI bleed stool, because it brings back bad memories of being a kid, and the passing of massive bloody stools. Can still remember I'd know I was bleeding by the smell, before I looked. I still remember the smell of my UC days, and trying to cover it up with old time Lysol. Those smells together make me kinda blarghy, and I'm a nurse. I smell loads of bad stuff in the ICU, most I can get past.

I work with some folks who can't tolerate the smell of vomit. Some ARE parents, clean their kids up fine, and truly don't have issues with any other smell, but that just gets them. "Neuro breath" smells the same, across the board, and is a terrible smell (if you ever get a chance to experience it).

The worst for me is the smell of warm, wet, leaking edema... When someone is so swollen, they just weep massive fluids out of their tissues. It's such a warm, sickly sweet smell. Makes my stomach roll.

But. I can and do put on a face that says nothing bothers me. Some nurses are good at that, others, not so much.

After my recent thyroid cancer surgery they roomed me with a guy who was a bit older.  I only stayed overnight but there was a caution I saw in the hospital room to not speak to the other patient about his/her medical condition.  We were separated by a curtain but I saw him go to the bathroom a few times and he was (from what I could overhear in the conversation with nurses) in the hospital for some kind of  a throat surgery.  He never at any time in the approximate 24 hours I was in there with him ever addressed me directly but he overheard one of my requests to the nurses and said "I want the same as him."  I similarly respected this no communication rule.

 

I noticed he kept getting up the go to the bathroom and didnt understand why he was not using his urinals.  Men are given a big jug and we can simply stick are penises into a jug when we need to piss.  In fact I filled the thing up at one point before they emptied it.  But this dude kept getting up to go to the bathroom and I wondered if he was just too doped up on pain meds to figure out there was a urinal jug near his bed.  The pain meds constipate hell out of you and I seriously doubt he was crapping.  But I didn't say anything because it's his business and not mine.

 

The guy sounded like he had a very good sense of humor with the nurses but never attempted to speak to me, I assume in observance of the hospital admonition.

I am very sorry you are having trouble with your roommate.  my first surgery i was 19 and they kept putting me in a room with others.  When we explained my issue they gave me a private room.  I think my dr asked for it too.  That may be an option. 

 

I hope you are either on the way home or you can get a private room very soon.  

 

BTW - Most People in life are not as rude as your roommate about our conditions.  

Back on Dr C's Floor at Mt Sinai when I went through about 6 emergency surgeries in 6 months they doubled me up with a poor woman who had just had an emergency colectomy and was dealing with her new bag...she wept and wailled and howled all day and night for a week and cried constantly at the smell...her hubby was at a total loss (they were pretty young too)...

I had brought some tiny perfume samples with me and slipped him a few...told him to have her put a few drops under her nose before emptying the bag out (him too) and then to perfume her nighty as well.

It made it more tollerable for both of them...although she didn't wish to be seen from behind the curtain (she was window side) I did try to console her a bit...it made relations a bit more tollerable (so did the ear plugs that I had brought with me)..

to each problem comes a solution.

Sharon

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