Looks like my exhaustion had an ulterior reason.
     After a good evening's relaxation and a good night's sleep, I awoke with an elephant on my chest. I guess I picked up my mother's chest cold. Not a good idea to reexpose her to that, so, knowing that the central nurses station, the body of the "spider" into which the care center has been architectural designed, has mouth covers and hand sanitizer for people who may be suffering from viruses, infections and such before they continue to the floors, I went in at 0700 this morning to let my mother and today's medical personnel on her floor know that I wouldn't be spending the day there. It may seem redundant to do that but you never know who the aids might be on the floor and it is always a good remind people that Mom has absolutely no idea what to do with a call button, thus, she needs to be checked for wetness, needs to be helped to dress and helped into her wheel chair, needs to be sat by the window with her magazines, etc. The weekend day aid was magnificent about this, but I have yet to notice that the weekday aids pay much attention to it.
    I have to mention, despite understaffing, the administration appears to be extremely responsive when they discover that an aid or nurse is incompetent and sloppy. Last week, one night, Mom's "side" had an evening nurse who didn't bother to read the med charts as she was passing out dinner meds. When she arrived in my mother's room she carried nothing but Mom's glipizide. I "reminded" her of Mom's Rx iron and breathing treatment. She returned with a standard iron supplement and no breathing treatment. I walked her to the cart, ran her through Mom's med chart and supervised her while she ferreted through Mom's med file (which has the cards with Mom's meds in plastic bubbles already set up for easy access and labeled with her room and bed number) and had her retrieve all the right meds.
    I probably should have reported her, but I didn't; MPS, MPNC (who were visiting), and I were too busy negotiating other Mom concerns. MPS and I discussed the problem that evening when we arrived home. I mentioned that I wanted to approach the problem from an angle that didn't alienate the nurse, who I figured was likely to remain in service, nor the rest of the staff. "I need them on our side," I said.
    Turns out the nurse has not reappeared on any of the floors since. My guess is that my mother is not the only patient who was treated to this nurse's lackadaisical service that night.
    I have to say that, despite severe understaffing and high tension, all members of the staff, including floor personnel, maintenance, PTs, supervisors and administration, are extremely responsive and helpful. I have no idea how they do it. I'm sure the turnover rate is high, judging from the fact that all the employees at Mom's intermediary care home where she was housed while I was granted five day "respite" had worked at this rehab facility and quit, and all informed me, ahead of time, what to look out for at the facility. Still and all, while people are in the employ of this rehab center they try their damnedest to give high service, often succeed, many spectacularly, and even manage to bond with some of their patients.
    I am appalled, though, daily, at the obstacles people in the care professions have to hurdle simply in order to do their jobs and remain alive to do them yet another day. We are not headed for a breakdown in medical management and service, people, we are there.
    I think I'll down my supplements for the day, drink some tea, cough, wheeze and blow my nose and continue a day of convalescence. My trusty Mac G4 iBook's hard drive finally died on Friday (it was five years old and, up until now, had nary a problem, it even still has the original battery), so its in the shop and due to be available for pick-up today but I doubt I'll get around to picking it up nd restoring its recent back-up until at least tomorrow. I just don't have much energy and I figure I'd better save what I have to check in on Mom this evening and alert the evening staff to my absence.
    I'm ruminating on the comment left by Deb Peterson about how caring for someone who is being cared for by professionals can be harder than doing it yourself. And, I'm finding out, more draining. I have never been as susceptible to physical and emotional breakdowns as I am right now. It's incredibly frustrating.
    One day at a time...one moment at a time.
    Whew. I'll be glad when we're all back home.
    Later.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 08:59   email  this post