Hospital stays are autism hell confirmed

So i’m currently stuck in hospital with gallbladder issues, and i’m finding it so hard to be so overwhelmed ALL of the time. I’m 22 and i’ve been put on a ward (UK) with 7 elderly people, two of which seem to have vary degrees of dementia. I’m already in constant, agonising pain, and for neither my brain nor my body to be able to take a break is really starting to take its toll.

The past two nights have been hell, the woman in my section (two sections with 4 beds for non UK folk) has been up all day and night asking the same questions over and over again with the same cadence which is already driving me up the wall, not to mention the top of the lungs screaming and CONSTANT talking

Bringing us to the reason i finally had to talk to some like-minded people somewhere, old lady in my bay is extremely quiet tonight which was bliss until the other one started up her incessant coughing. When i tell you this woman is coughing and clearing her throat every 15 fucking seconds i mean it, always sounds the same, always loud as HELL from a whole bay away (i can’t imagine being next to her and i feel for whoever is). I felt bad initially as obviously neither of these two patients can help it, but god the urge to say PLEASE shut the fuck up is overwhelming (and of course, in actuality entirely unreasonable and i wouldn’t ever)

It’s gotten to the point that I’ve been sat here in tears wondering why it can’t be socially acceptable to press my call bell and ask if they can do something. On top of that, as soon as she decides she wants attention from the nurse, she switches to yelling “OI OI OI OI” and her cough magically disappears, so I’m sat here coming up with all sorts of conspiracy theories and winding myself up thinking she’s doing it on purpose, the things the overwhelmed brain is capable of!

I have tried earplugs but unfortunately i find it overstimulating to have things in my ears, i also can’t use over ear headphones for music or white noise because that drives me insane when i’m already wound up due to too many sounds. I cannot wait to be out of this place and back in my quiet room, disregarding the patients that are overwhelming to me that can’t help it, theres still so many things in here that are a reminder of how annoying peoples habits can be. Another patient had her dial tone ringing at full blast from her phone for about 5 minutes calling someone over and over again at like 1 in the morning, all i could think was “they’re not picking up!! leave it alone!!” (couple that with them all being old and having to have everything yelled at them and repeated a billion times, good LORD)

I’m so beyond tired of being told to “just deal with it” and that “nobody enjoys being in hospital” as if i don’t have vastly different requirements, don’t even get me started on the way half of the staff have treated me once i’ve told them i’m autistic, it really is so isolating

TL;DR i would rather eat my hand than be in this hospital for another second