|
Well, mom is now in the nursing home. Of course, that wasn't easy. She was transferred there last Wednesday (3-AUG-06) and was there for probably about 5 hours. Then she told the nurses aide she was having some mild chest pain, and BAM. They activated their emergency protocols, and the ambulance took mom to the hospital which shares a parking lot with the nursing home.
I received notification of this at work, while I was sitting on a one-to-one with a patient in restraints. I couldn't get the attention of any of my coworkers, so I made a couple of phone calls from the exam room, and established that mom was in good hands, and they were doing an assessment in the ER. As soon as I was able to extricate myself from work, I ran over to the ER, which is about 3 miles from my office.
I stayed there until they made the decision to admit her and then got her settled on the telemetry floor, which happened at about 0900. At that point I had been awake for 26 or 27 hours. My last official conscious act was to call off work for that night. I slept 8 hrs, woke up, visited at the hospital, had dinner and went back to sleep for another 10 hours. I guess the stress finally caught up with me, because I don't sleep like that.
Mom has now been returned to the nursing home with stern instructions from the cardiologist not to tell the nursing home staff that she is having chest pains ... after he got the laugh he wanted, he then explained that he was the coverage cardiologist for the nursing home and that he was giving specific instructions about trying two rounds of nitro and seeing if the pains resolved before they called 911.
In all the transfers, the only actually expensive piece of property that my mother had in her possession has gone missing ... her eyeglasses. She did not take them to the ER, and definitely had them at the nursing home. I know this because I filled out the admission property sheet. Every other disposable plastic basin and bottle of hospital mouthwash is there, but no glasses. Luckily, she only really needs them for reading, and I got her a pair of drug store reading glasses to use for the time being. I filed an incident report, and I hope that they turn up. I asked Saint Anthony for help and everything.
Tomorrow will be her first big day, as her physical rehab will begin.
|