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Thread: Mandolin in the Hospital???

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    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Mandolin in the Hospital???

    I'm having knee surgery in a couple of weeks and expect to spend a couple of nights in the hospital. I'm wondering if anyone has taken his/her mandolin to play while hospitalized. Not sure I'll feel up to it, but just in case . . . .

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    I was in two years ago for a triple bypass.....I asked and they said it was fine since I was in a private room. Holding the instrument for any length of time was darn near impossible because of the position required. Tubes in the arms did not help. When I did play the nurses enjoyed it and would come in to visit.

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    Registered User Louise NM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Phew, I just read the title and thought your new mandolin had to go to the hospital! Glad the Weber is OK!! Seriously, though, I'm sorry you have to go in, Sherry.

    These days, and even more since Covid, they hate to keep anyone in the hospital for any reason. If you are expecting to have to stay a couple of days, you probably won't be feeling very well at all. You will likely have an IV stuck in one hand or the other, and may be kind of goofy from painkillers. Not the best situation for practicing. Will you have a single room? That could make a difference—or they could put you in with someone who brought their accordion. It's difficult to keep track of your personal possessions in a hospital. You are one place pre-op, away for surgery, then recovery, then finally in a regular room. You certainly wouldn't want to take your mandolin when you check in. Lord knows where it would end up. Could your husband bring it to you later if you felt up to it?

    Best of luck for a smooth surgery and easy recovery.

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    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Quote Originally Posted by Louise NM View Post
    Phew, I just read the title and thought your new mandolin had to go to the hospital! Glad the Weber is OK!! Seriously, though, I'm sorry you have to go in, Sherry.

    These days, and even more since Covid, they hate to keep anyone in the hospital for any reason. If you are expecting to have to stay a couple of days, you probably won't be feeling very well at all. You will likely have an IV stuck in one hand or the other, and may be kind of goofy from painkillers. Not the best situation for practicing. Will you have a single room? That could make a difference—or they could put you in with someone who brought their accordion. It's difficult to keep track of your personal possessions in a hospital. You are one place pre-op, away for surgery, then recovery, then finally in a regular room. You certainly wouldn't want to take your mandolin when you check in. Lord knows where it would end up. Could your husband bring it to you later if you felt up to it?

    Best of luck for a smooth surgery and easy recovery.
    In a pre-op meeting for the hospital, we were told visiting hours are from 8 - 5. So, I'm thinking my husband could bring the Alvarez (not the Weber) the second day - if I think I might be up to playing after he leaves. It isn't often I have the chance to play more than an hour a day, so, assuming tubes, etc. cooperate, I could play to my heart's content.

    I expect to have a private room, but a roommate with an accordion might be interesting, Louise!

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Wishing you the best with your knee surgery, Sherry.
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    Gummy Bears and Scotch BrianWilliam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Won’t you be quite medicated? Maybe just watch movies and eat popsicles. Here’s to a speedy recovery

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    A mandolin would seem fine but I would expect banjos to be banned in any area with patients with weakened immune systems

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Hope all goes well and you heal quickly.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Quote Originally Posted by BrianWilliam View Post
    Won’t you be quite medicated? Maybe just watch movies and eat popsicles. Here’s to a speedy recovery
    I don't know about being heavily medicated, but I can watch movies when I get home.

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    I believe you haven't been around here long enough to have seen this classic. It comes up now and then, as well it should, in order to provide some perspective concerning the evolution of taste, and the general public's perception of the mandolin. At one time, the notion of bringing a mandolin to a hospital may have been deemed quite ill-advised. Thank goodness we are a wee bit more enlightened these days.

    This is from the New York Times, 8/20/1897.

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    Here is an abridged version for easier reading:

    "The power of music, in fable if not in fact, is ever restful and soothing, inclining the listener to a state of physical tranquility ... But all music is not alike, and we can well understand that the right sort of music properly performed might exert such an influence upon a human being in a trance as to gently awaken him ... Instead of using music to awaken the patient, a creature in human guise was permitted to pick 'Sweet Rosie O'Grady' on the mandolin by her bedside, the result being that Mamie presently barked like a dog, snarled, and foamed at the mouth. It is useless to argue that she was, nevertheless, awakened, and that, so far, the experiment was successful; for the prescription called for 'music,' and while the circumstances show that the girl was awakened by noise, there is no proof that any other noise would not have answered quite as well. Few noises are so disagreeable as the sound of the picking of a mandolin ... But no well informed person ever called the picking of the mandolin music ... She did exactly what many sensitive persons with difficulty restrain themselves from doing when they are compelled to listen to the mandolin."

    Wishing you a successful procedure and speedy recovery!
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    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    I was hospitalized for three days a couple of decades ago for cellulitis in my right arm. I had my wife bring my Mederios travel mandolin in and passed the time with it. Then I got a roommate, so I thought I would have to stop playing, but he and his family liked it and encouraged me to play. He was terminal, so I felt like I made things a tiny bit easier for him. Most rewarding audience I ever played to!

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    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    I say go for it, Sherry. Even if you don't really feel like playing as much as you might have hoped, I think it would be comforting just to have a mandolin on hand.

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    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Quote Originally Posted by Sue Rieter View Post
    I say go for it, Sherry. Even if you don't really feel like playing as much as you might have hoped, I think it would be comforting just to have a mandolin on hand.
    I think so, too, Sue! Now if my husband will cooperate!

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Sherry, I have a little soprano uke tuned GDAE for such occasions. Makes for nice, quiet, mando-like noodling.

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    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Quote Originally Posted by Bunnyf View Post
    Sherry, I have a little soprano uke tuned GDAE for such occasions. Makes for nice, quiet, mando-like noodling.
    Just when I thought I had all the instruments I need!

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    I had both of my knees replaced last summer 6 weeks apart. You will only be there one night. Use the time to walk in the hospital as much as possible. Plenty of time to play when you get home.

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Sherry,

    I'm all for playing a beloved instrument in the hospital. My dearest friend for nearly fifty years had an extended stay inthe hospital and my wife and I would bring in his guitar and my mandolin on most days. We'd play for a while and then take the instruments back home. All the nursing staff sure dropped by and took really good care of my friend.

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    Registered User Jill McAuley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    My vote would be to see how you're feeling the day after surgery and potentially have your husband bring the Alvarez in to you. They didn't keep me in overnight when I had knee surgery (though they were debating doing so but then decided it was ok to send me home). All I was fit for when I got home that evening was watching something on Netflix and eating. The following day was rougher as there wasn't great overlap between the painkillers I was given in hospital and the ones they sent me home with so it took awhile for the ones I was taking by mouth to kick in. That was on a Thursday, but by Friday I was feeling much brighter and asked to have the mandolin left beside me on the bed so that I could pick it up whenever I felt like. It was much easier to comfortably play the mandolin sitting up in bed than it was to play the tenor banjo so the mandolin got a lot of mileage during my recovery! Best of luck with the surgery and wishing you a speedy recovery as well!
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    Registered User John Soper's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    I ripped/avulsed my quadriceps tendon (attached to the knee cap from the thigh) last summer. I ended up with a femoral nerve block and was discharged 18 hours after surgery with an indwelling catheter attached to a local anesthesia pump that delivered local anesthesia to my femoral nerve for 48 hours. Although the traumatic knee injury was extremely painful, I only took a couple of ibuprofen and Tylenol tablets after discharge. The hospital had so much going on while I was admitted that I didn't have any real opportunity to play mandolin until I was discharged and back home. Several of my friends have had elective knee replacements with a femoral nerve block and report similar freedom from severe post op pain.

    Good luck on your upcoming surgery. Listen to your Physical Therapist during recovery!

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    Registered User Mandobart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Quote Originally Posted by Sherry Cadenhead View Post
    I'm having knee surgery in a couple of weeks and expect to spend a couple of nights in the hospital. I'm wondering if anyone has taken his/her mandolin to play while hospitalized. Not sure I'll feel up to it, but just in case . . . .
    Whoa you've got the deluxe special unicorn health plan! Everyone I know it's like in-and-out, no overnight and damn near no recovery room allowed for anything short of a heart/lung transplant!

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    When I had the stroke in 2006, my wife brought my main axe to the rehab hospital, I could not play, but enjoyed looking at it and smelling it, and now they are mostly gone had to finally get my head around the fact that part of my life is over.
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    Registered User Jon Hall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Quote Originally Posted by Sherry Cadenhead View Post
    I'm having knee surgery in a couple of weeks and expect to spend a couple of nights in the hospital. I'm wondering if anyone has taken his/her mandolin to play while hospitalized. Not sure I'll feel up to it, but just in case . . . .
    Hey Sherry! You’re going to come through this like a champ. If you feel like it, why not play your mandolin in the hospital. I once snuck a tiny puppy into a hospital just cheer up my Mother. You’ll definitely have a lot of practice time during recovery.

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    As a guitar player, much of my motive for getting a mandolin was to have an instrument I could play while flat on my back.

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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Best of luck Sherry. Like John Soper mentioned follow your PT regimen to the letter. I had hip replacement surgery last September. I did all the PT sessions and daily home exercises and had great outcome. A friend who had a similar surgery barely did any rehab and now limps just as bad as before surgery.
    I was in and out of surgery and back home in 24 hours so I didn't bring an instrument. Between the general anesthesia and the pain pills I was in a bit of a fog that day.
    Stay healthy!
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  37. #25
    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin in the Hospital???

    Quote Originally Posted by dtb View Post
    When I had the stroke in 2006, my wife brought my main axe to the rehab hospital, I could not play, but enjoyed looking at it and smelling it, and now they are mostly gone had to finally get my head around the fact that part of my life is over.
    dtb, I hope you find joy in listening to the music.

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