I've always smoked in EMUs. The nurses here are always very good about that. The nursing sister who was watching me used to let me smoke out the window and she'd warn me when the neurosurgeon was coming. And the most recent one I did was in a more open hospital, with detachable EEGs, so the nurses would take me outside for smoke breaks. It's against doctor's orders, but my mother taught me early in my epilepsy career to be rebellious in hospital if that would make it more bearable. Okay, okay, now I'm going to get a lot of flack, but it's crap enough and the wards we have are single bed ones, so no bothering other patients.
My MOST IMPORTANT advice is get yourself some of that dry shampoo and take whatever products/fragrances/hot water bottles with you that will make you feel less ugly and more cosy. Nothing bothered me more than not being able to wash my hair.
I got a bad case of insomnia because they'd force me to stay awake till 1 am and then want me to sleep on command. At that point, I was already wide awake again. The only way I could cope is to have a whole range of very different kinds of entertainment. You get sick of being in one room all the time, sick of doing the same thing every day, and you have to ward off the cabin fever.
My first video EEG only lasted three days because the neuro used adrenaline, lights, and hyperventilation to bring on a seizure and that was that. Much, much better.
For my second one, the neuro didn't want to provoke a seizure at all. He said it was much better to let it come naturally, so he'd essentially leave me in that room for as long as it took. It was awful. I have no idea if there is any benefit to that approach but I certainly preferred the first one.
For my first one, the nurses and doctor purposefully tried to stress me out as much as possible and even asked my mother to do the same. She told me on the second day, and after that it became more tolerable.
Make the most of visiting hours. Organise all kinds of different visitors. Tell them to bring games. Those snatches of time can be enough to support the whole day.
