So rapidly approaching operation date and I’m a bit lost as to what to take into hospital to keep myself entertained.

I’ve been warned I may not have such good use of my hands and arms initially, and I’m not so great with watching TV for hours.

Any ideas of ways to keep myself entertained? So far I’ve packed a book and some drawing stuff – but I realise these may be tricky if I can’t hold things too well.

Can you access talking books online – I use tidal for music but it doesn’t seem to a offer any other media.

I just took books with me. Too painful to do owt else.

I guess – was trying to be positive about the pain levels

Some type of tablet / ipad/ music player and noise cancelling ear / headphones

Do you like Doctor Who?

Hopefully it will be quiet as I should get my own room

Doctor who??? The doctor who or is it a hospital version of guess who?

i am on week 8 weeks post op on my ankle.
started with grown up colouring books, moved on to flying a indoor drone, then did a 1000 piece jigsaw, joined a online chess group and played lots of chess. played online scrabble for hours. did loads of seated dumbell workouts. cut out carbs and still put weight on. talked to the dog, she ignored me. cried out of frustration a couple of times. sulked most of the time. did a fair bit of online shopping……wildcat gear frame bag for my jones. planned a cycle tour up the west coast of france for next year. organised a riding weekend in coniston for mid november, when hopefully i will be allowed to ride my bike.

oh, and talked loads of rubbish on here, which helped me no end….. 😀

Adjustable w- sorry if I sounded negative. It was ok really but I didn’t tolerate the post-op tramadol so I could only have paracetamol. I was out walking a few days later though (it was a spinal fusion) 🙂

You could take some audio books on meditation – use it as an opportunity to explore something new perhaps?

Some kind of device with lots of tunes on (radio too) and some books would probably be what I’d take to hosp, and some earphones.

If you’re possibly moved to being with other people later on, my Mum discovered they’re a polite way of disengaging from people who are talking too much. She’d say ‘I’m just going to listen to my radio for a bit’ while smiling politely, and put the ear phones on without any sound going through them while perusing a book or magazine, a welcome refuge for some head-space I gather.

The doctor who

The TV show. I’ve a few audiobooks I could pass on if so.

I note that Vicky Pea has neglected to mention she took up knitting!
I suppose that’s not really an option though if you will be struggling with your hands.

Definitely audio books if you’re not into TV and may be limited in reading traditional ones – though a stand of some sort and a Kindle would probably make that a lot easier.

Though from what I recall when I was in hospital for more than a day visit I did very little.

Theres never been a better time to learn the bagpipes! Or knife throwing. They’re not your walls and if you nick one of your ‘volunteers’ theres always a firstaider close by.

some drawing stuff

good non fiction books – something stimulating rather than entertaining – and a note book. I took ‘Design for the real world’ by Victor Papanek and Greyson Perry’s autobiography. Then spent 5 days with my feet up re-booting my career.

Netflix and pirate bay.

Spinal fusion here too but in my neck. I already have myelopathy and they say my arms and hands may be worse initially so I’m trying to think of stuff to do that I can do with my clumsy hands

I’d love it if I could sit knitting but not sure it will be doable (I used to work free lance as a pattern checker – so if anyone has any knitting problems im always happy to help 🙂 )

Documentaries and all that probably, pick something you want to learn a bit more about

What about listening to podcasts. Try Dan carlin hardcore history

You should be able to get access to a boat load of audiobooks through your local library – most use an app called Overdrive which you log into using your library card serial number. They can be downloaded for offline use as well.

As above, audiobooks and podcasts! 🙂

I didn’t know the libraries did them – I shall look into that, thank you.

Podcasts also a good idea – although I’m not sure about the Dan carlin stuff.

In contemplating these answers I realise I more of a fan of documentaries and tales of travel and adventure. I’m sure I did like fiction and sci-fi when I was younger but seem to have lost that along the way

I didn’t do knitting til I came out of hospital though! I was flat on my back for 2 days and had screaming nerve pain in my thighs. I’d never done knitting before so I just knitted a very long stripy multicoloured scarf.
I hope the op is a success for you 🙂

I realise I more of a fan of documentaries and tales of travel and adventure

On the podcast front ‘Snap Judgement’ might be good then – more strictly ‘story telling’ than documentary (although some of the stories are more like observational docs) but tends to be first person recollections of often quite remarkable experiences which are then curated into themed sets. Tends to be tales from quite ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations rather than people who seek out adventure. It can also be tails from adventurers who got more adventure than they bargained for. The good thing for something like a hospital stay is theres lots of variety and theres frickin hundreds of episodes. Can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster mind.

Think and dream. Some of the most imaginative, witty/acerbic people I know spent lengthy periods of time as children in hospital in the pre-digital age. I’ve no idea whether it’s cause or correlation but how many opportunities do you generally get to lie back and let your mind wander?

Just get on the radio 4 podcasts.

In our time if you fancy being made to feel stupid or the infinite monkey cage for the same, but with comedy.

Great suggestions thank you, I can see me working my way through this thread:)

one of the great things about kindles, is you don’t need to hold them open

You prop them up and they’re hands free, you just need to ‘turn the page’. The book doesn’t want to close on itself so reading sitting or lying down is much easier

get a paperwhite one, wish I had one of those but my current pre-paperwhite version is still going strong so hard to justify the upgrade

If you have a tablet & WiFi, plan a touring holiday and use the Duolingo app to learn the language for your planned tour.
Cycling across the Cantabrian Mtns in Spain would be fab, or Slovenia, Croatia & Montenegro

EDIT: best wishes for the op

Think and dream. Some of the most imaginative, witty/acerbic people I know spent lengthy periods of time as children in hospital in the pre-digital age. I’ve no idea whether it’s cause or correlation but how many opportunities do you generally get to lie back and let your mind wander?

I’d echo that although with the caveat is that of the people I know like that its wasn’t so much the long stay as the sudden brush with near-certain death that put them there (brain tumour, run over by a bus, ambushed by the Viet Cong) that was more of an influence on their personality 🙂

But thinking time is certainly valuable – for me it was a rare chance to plan, all I normally get to do is react.

Echoing the convenience of Kindles/ Tablets over books – if you expect to do a fair bit of audio book/podcast/film watching and stuff you can find that your attention span for such things is much longer than your tolerance for ill-fitting or uncomfortable earphones.

Post op? Pick out some nice dresses!
Sorry just me that thought that? ??

Well she’s already a woman so that might be odd?

Good luck with your operation & heal well 🙂

Yes I have plenty of frocks already 🙂

Ha ha – luckily I already have a wardrobe full of those Cletus 🙂

We have a kobo in the house somewhere – that will be full of kids books but I shall sort that out.I perhaps should have thought of that before because my neck and arms already make reading in bed a struggle.

Not sure I come under the category of near death experiences – but finding out how close I’ve come to tetraplegia has certainly been a sobering experience. Currently feel as though I’m at some potential turning point in my life . . . So time to think and plan what I’m going to do next would definitely be good.

I haven’t lost the plot wrote the long message and that seemed to freeze so I gave up and wrote a short one . . . As if by magic the other one sent.

You can find some nice dresses for me if you already have plenty! I only own 3 😉

When I was in winter before last for 4weeks, I loaded up my iPad with audio and reading books.

Just one question do the public library audio book apps work on readers? (As I type that I can’t see how they would but I’ll chuck the question out there anyway!)

Just one question do the public library audio book apps work on readers? (As I type that I can’t see how they would but I’ll chuck the question out there anyway!)

I’ve only ever used Overdrive for audiobooks (I’m an unashamed audiobook addict…) but it appears you can download them onto a Kindle or similar machine; http://help.overdrive.com/customer/portal/articles/1481616-getting-started-with-kindle-ereaders

Another source of ebooks is a website called bookzz.org – but that site feels more internet pirate-y than just borrowing them from your library.

Sheffield libraries use and app called Oneclickdigital – i shall look into it