if truth be told, being hospitalized *was* a pleasant experience. it was nice having someone watch over me to make sure i was taking my meds and asking me how i was feeling on an hourly basis (hourly in my case due to my rapid cycling). the nurses at the most recent hospital i attended were wonderful. in the morning, they would gently touch me on my arm or shoulder to wake me (since i'm completely deaf without my ci's) and wait until i had my ci's on before speaking to me. they also used to guide me from my room to the tv or activity room.
having said that, some hospitals are better than others. the first one i attended was great about providing me with a tactile interpreter, but they also removed my ci (i only had one at the time) while i was sleeping. they justified this because i was hearing voices and they thought the extra sound stimulation provided by my ci's would frighten me. needless to say, i was extremely upset about that. the nurses at this hospital also weren't as attentive to my needs as the most recent hospital i attended. at the last hospital i attended, each room had a nurse call button you could press for a nurse to come see you. the other hospital didn't. if you needed to see a nurse, you had to walk down to the nurse's station.
i mentioned having difficulty hearing other group members. at the time that happened, i didn't know sign well enough to use a tactile interpreter otherwise i would have. incidentally at the time of my hospitalization that year, there was a deaf patient who did use an interpreter and i was *so* jealous of him because he could understand everything that was being said. it's ironic too because during that period of time, i was hospitalized due to severe depression after having lost my hearing. as you can imagine, group wasn't exactly the best environment for me to be in.
