Sensing Spaces of Healthcare

 Menu

Back to results

Memory #10

From 2008/9

I remember… In around 2008/9, after surgery due to an ectopic pregnancy, I wasn’t allowed to drink and for what feels like days in my memory I had a kind of spongey stick doused in lemony-y liquid which was tantalising – not quenching as I couldn’t have much, but the taste is still something I associate with quenching thirst. In the same stay (I needed to stay a while after the surgery), I remember being on a shared ward and the sounds and smells of fellow patients waking in the night in pain or needing to use a commode – I don’t remember the exact smells, mainly the rustling of curtains in the night and then feeling a bit like I was intruding by being awake.

Other similar cards…

Memory #69

2020s

I remember … having surgery under local anaesthetic and hearing the beeps of the heartrate monitor – it stressed me out as it was going too quickly & I was trying to slow it down by breathing slowly. Mentioned it to surgeon who said ‘ooh I didn’t notice it!’

Memory #48

From 1960s

I remember… Clanking of the bed pan machine in 1960s when they were being sterilised. The night junior had the job of cleaning them.

Memory #44

I remember… The hospital at night is a time when noises travel down corridors into the ward and the bed-side giving rise to disquiet and disorientation and disturbance that interrupts the desire to sleep.

Memory #46

From 1968

I remember lying in the bed listening to cuckoos, when I was having my son. You wouldn’t be able to do that now

Memory #41

I remember… My last FMRI scan. The previous time was so noisy, so I’d been told I could bring in my own music. I decided that, as it was so futuristic that I’d listen to David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Big Mistake! The tapping and banging just felt as though I was in a space capsule about to take off. It felt v. lonely. Next time – must bring some happy tunes.