I've been out of commission recently for a couple of reasons. I've been in the hospital for part of that, and I wanted to share my experiences of the hospital.

First off, being in the hospital is never fun. It could be whether you're in there for a simple broken appendage, or for a major surgery, or anywhere in between. It always feels like you are in there for entirely too long, no matter what you are having done procedure-wise.

Second, despite what you might have heard, the painkillers are amazing, but there's an enourmous downside to them. Especially with the opioid painkillers, like morphine or hydromorphone or percocet, they can have some nasty side effects. They're very very good at making you very constipated. And another side effect that is often overlooked is that they can give you pretty unpleasant headaches, even though there's no such thing as a "pleasant" headache. It can be very easy to become dependent or even addicted to them, and it can be very difficult to become un-dependent, but that's for another article.

Third, and most importantly, doctors are only important as far as the actual medical procedures. The real MVP's, (as the kids say,) are the nurses and janitors. They are the people who will help you to the bathroom, bring you your meals, give you the medicines you'll need, keep your hospital room clean, and do pretty much everything else that you will require. I can't stress enough that you should be kind to your nurses and janitors, because they can sometimes get you extra food or other things like that, and because they are so incredibly important to most of your everyday experiences.

And lastly, if you have a friend who is in the hospital, keep in contact with them, and visit them if possible. It will help keep them positive through the experience and will help make the experience go much faster for them.