Saturday, October 30, 2010

Again....

What is it with this place? Again with equipment that doesn't work. First there's her nasal tube that continually blocks on her. Today I don't get a phone call from her so I know something is wrong. I wait. No call. Finally I call her and she is awfully groggy and not talking much. I tell her to call me back in a while and again I hear nothing. My phone goes and now my brother and sister can't get through to her. They call and no answer. I'm hoping it's simply a matter of someone moving her phone and she can't reach it. Happens all the time. Drives me crazy and frustrates the hell out of her. So finally around 12:30 I try calling her myself and still nothing. I call the nurses station, tell them who I am and why I'm calling and I'm put on hold. For a long time I sit there listening to canned music. Occasionally someone comes back on and tells me they are checking. Finally after about 10 minutes someone comes back on and says "she's sleeping". Now, I know that's not right because she would hear the phone and pick it up even if she was sleeping. I figure I best get the hell to the hospital.

The minute I walk in I take one look at her and know something is really wrong. She can't even open both her eyes all the way. Her pupils are pinpoints. Her mouth is pouted, her hand swollen again. Her eyelids too. She has no feeding tube working. I can't get her to respond to me and when she finally says something it's so garbled I can't barely make it out. I see.......... she's sleeping right??

Exactly who the hell is this dim twit that answers the phone and thinks she's a Dr or nurse? I had issues the other night too. Whomever answered the bell in my mom's room didn't bother to call her nurse when we rang it because my mom couldn't breath and was gasping for breath and there was no oxygen tube for whatever reason. Some idiot had removed it.

I go back out and tell this woman I want both Michelle the dietician and her Dr. And she looks at me like I'm crazy. I go back in her room and wait and nothing. I go back out and tell her that something is very wrong and I'm not sure if she's had another stroke or what but someone needs to get here fast. Finally this woman manages to take it seriously and tells me she'll get the nurse. I told her to get the Dr.

Nurse comes in, one she's had just a few days ago and says that she wasn't like this this morning. She even ate a bit of lunch (liquid). Her n.g. tube is blocked so that's why it's not on. She can't get my mom to respond and goes for the Dr. In the meantime she is going to do an e.c.g. That is if the freakin machine will work. She can't get it to go no matter what she does. She goes and gets another nurse and she can't figure it out either and because it's Saturday there is no technician in either!! What?? Are people not suppose to get sicker on the weekends here? They finally manage to figure it out, it was a paper jam, and they get the thing to work. They even do it twice to be on the safe side.

The Dr. comes in and she can't get a response out of her either. She looks at how swollen she is. Asks me some questions like was she like this yesterday? Nope, I had a conversation with her when I left at 9 pm. She was a bit sluggish througout the day but certainly not to this point. The day before too. She had the gastic tube put in 3 days ago and even as terrible as that was for her (it took 4 tries to get it in) she had a really good day. She had several visitors and talked to all of them and had a really good day. The next day however she started to get tired and a bit weaker. The following day too but she had a low grade fever later that night but yesterday she seemed a wee bit better and we talked again for some time. Remarkably her hands had lost almost all the gross swelling too! They looked almost like her normal hands.

Today though her right hand is swollen up again. They take an x-ray. The Dr orders blood work done and then she orders cultures done too. The nurse takes all the cultures from her picc. I know that's wrong but when I make a remark about her last cultures and how then were taken from different arms she said nothing. Just continued what she was doing. The Dr tries to get her to grip her hand but nothing. She also tries to get her to hold her arm up but again nothing, it crashes down to her bed limp. She calls her and she barely responds if you're lucky.

She remains like this most the day and night. She's so unresponsive that they won't even let me give her ice chips. Nothing. So now she's not only not getting tube fed, I can't even feed her or give her anything liquid.

She seemed to be alert almost some time later and kept telling me she loves me. As much as it's nice to hear it it's spooking me. I tuck her in and I headed home since there was nothing else I could do for her.

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