Is it weird to enjoy going to a hospital?

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Earlier this year, I developed a health problem. And starting about 2 months ago, I started going to the hospital once every 10 days on average to get it treated. That meant one minor surgery and a battery of procedures. I know the drill very well by now: report as orderd, check in, change into my gown, wait, get procedure'd on, change back, walk out. I usually treat myself to something from the hospital food court afterwards, especially if I had to fast beforehand.

I noticed something. In the grand scheme of things, despite my intense discomfort with needles, I ENJOY getting those procedures done. I always feel comforted and cared for, the hospital is one of the best in my city, and I feel totally safe expressing my pain, knowing that it'll be treated with compassion, rather than patronizing "caring". The doctors, nurses, and techs almost always have excellent bedside manners. I often make small talk with other patients in the gowned waiting room (different than the fully-clothed public waiting room). "So what are you in for?" is all it takes to get a conversation going. (Punchline: it's the same question subjects ask each other in a jail holding cell, and most patients get the reference.) They usually react extremely well, and ramble to me like they would to their nurse; I do the same in return.

It's a far cry from my medical experiences as a child. Major hospitals were generally OK, but pediatric clinics were only slightly better than butcher shops for pigs. And god help me if I asked my parents for a snack from the food court at the hospital they took me to. I got scolded on the spot!

So this makes me wonder: Is it weird that I ENJOY getting hospital procedures done? I mean, it's a hassle to take off work (my boss is generous about it, though), go to a hospital, change into a gown, obey bizarre instructions, undergo a tedious procedure, and feel sore after. And yet, I don't find it miserable at all.

Last edited by Aspie1 on 01 Oct 2022, 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I suspect familiarity helps make it a comfortable part of your routine.

We get most of our medical care at a hospital. I like going because they have good food!

Yes.


I get my blood taken at the GP's office it is just a chore.

Although its not that weird cos people do fake sickness to get attention in hospital

That's true. The first time I reported for a procedure, I was skittish and nervous the whole time, and didn't say a single word to anyone while sitting in the gowned waiting room. Now, procedures for me are something most people would react to with a bored yawn and an eye roll. I guess feeling comfortable enough to make small talk with other patients is a good thing.

My hospital's food is just OK, at least the one in the food court. I never stayed long enough to have a full meal brought to me. The time I had minor surgery, all I got was a buttered croissant and pineapple juice; it's hard to screw up those.

I get that you would like the attention you was getting if you felt cared for.

Personally I can easily do without it.

I've been in our hospital for two surgeries. The first one they messed up my throat so much with the air hose that for the week or so I was in the hospital afterwards all I could eat was scrambled eggs. The second one was unscheduled-urgent-not-emergency surgery so they admitted me for a couple of days until they could squeeze my surgery into the schedule and they could not feed me because they wanted to keep me ready for surgery...and a few hours after surgery I was discharged.

But when I'm in there as an outpatient, or accompanying my bride, I enjoy the food in the dining hall. If the daily specials don't interest me I can still get a good panini or a piece of pizza. (I think my bride tries to get her medical appointments on Taco Tuesdays.)

It's understandable because your experience there at that particular hospital has been nothing but pleasant and there's no stress factor, with your boss being understanding, plus the nice time at the hospital food court. The whole thing sounds like fun. It's not weird at all. I'd feel the same.

I always enjoyed visiting my dad at the hospital when he had an operation and stayed there a while. It was a modern, clean environment with a nice convenience store, a restaurant, a franchise cafe, and a nice upstairs garden etc in it.

Yeah, it's a very good hospital. My job's insurance company works closely with them, so going there for treatment saves me a lot of money. So that's what I've been doing. I'm honestly floored by how comfortable my hospital experiences today feel, because my childhood pediatricians were garbage! (And in my youth, I was healthy, and didn't need to go to hospitals or see doctors.)

Yes.

Also, if you're a patient you definitely won't enjoy the bill.

I've spent a lot of time in hospital. Likely months to a year in total.

I used to think it was OK in a private room if it was a quiet part of the hospital, and the nurses were attentive.
It was nice to stay in bed and have someone make food for me instead of single parenting.
The noise of the machines beeping drove me nuts, though.

These days hospitals are extremely short-staffed and stressful.
My mother was just in for nearly 7 weeks, without a private room.
Between the noise of TVs, machines, people crying and screaming, and the smells / lights, I went nuts.

I don't care how good the nurses are if I'm in sensory meltdown, which I was just as a visitor.

Yes it is weird.
That's why there's a thing called hospital addiction syndrome, where people enjoy the experience so much, they'll start to make up ailments to continue going and getting all that attention they seek.
It's a slippery slope.

I hate the hospital. I was in and out of it I don't know how many times, but it was always horrible. Pain, sickness, fear, trauma that induced emetophobia in me as child. The air in hospitals feels like it's eating away at my skin. The walls make my bones ache. The bed sheets are like razor blades. Everything stinks of urine and death.

And if they force you to go in there for mental health reasons, it's a million times worse.

If I finally decided to end my life, it would have to be successful because death is preferable to being trapped in a hospital which is where I'd end up if the attempt failed, and then I'd be treated like a parasite and a nuisance by the staff.

The OP is speaking of his experiences as an outpatient.

I doubt he would like spending time in a hospital overnight or for many days.

I was in the hospital in the summer of 2018 due to my right leg swelling up because of diabetes. That was the nicest 14 days of my life. Most of the nurses were compassionate from the beginning, except for one who I had to train. I trained her to understand my love for Germany and to understand why I needed to wear a specific hat whether I was inside or outside and she turned out to be as sweet as the rest of them after that. I got something that I felt I never got from my family and that's unconditional love. It sucked that the TV on my floor had to be turned off at 10 in the evening, when Hogan's Heroes came on but I'd watch it on YouTube earlier on.

My daughter went to hospital numerous times as a little one. In some ways I liked it because someone else was in charge of her and could make her better, while I was just exhausted and frightened.

My hospital experiences as a child were generally pretty bad. Pediatricians were callous and unsympathetic toward my pain and discomfort, plus I got in trouble with my parents for looking scared; nurses and techs were nice, though. It's like they all sincerely believed I couldn't feel pain, and was just being a coward.

My hospital experiences as an adult, on the other hand, were extremely positive for the most part. Medics make a thorough effort to minimize my pain and keep me comfortable, including giving me pain strong meds street gangs kills each other over.

As I mentioned in a different thread, it seems like medics who work with children have much worse bedside manners that those who work with adults. Perhaps that's why I'm "enjoying" my hospital experiences today. I was treated as subhuman by doctors as child, and I didn't need hospitals when I was young, so it's the first time in my life doctors are treating me with actual dignity.