I am back from the "Dreaded Trip".
I was apprehensive about my mother going to a hospital that has been on the news lately for stuffing patients in closets and hallways and such, so I felt I had to do my daughterly duty, ensuring her safety. The previous surgery (in a larger hospital) 15 years ago found my mother on the OR table, ready for a thyroidectomy when the OR nurse informed her she was being prepped for a hip replacement - which probably would have been a serendipitous thing given the surgery being done
this hospital trip -
except for the fact that it would have been the
wrong hip. My mom freaked and needed a good dose of ativan to settle her down
that time. Needless to say, she preferred that I be there for this surgery.
Adding to
my anxiety - my sister-in-law is a Manager at the larger and much *better* hospital (so she keeps telling me) just south of where my mother was to have her surgery...and she had
nothing good to say about the place....so I was just a little bit worried.
Well, all that worry was for naught. All of the RNs and MDs were pretty darn good and the surgery went well with no hitches or mistakes.
AND my mother was lucky enough to be admitted to a four bed ward instead of a closet.
Bonus. However, to her surprise and shock.... her room was Co-ed. Nothing worse than 3 men on the other side of your thin little curtain to stifle a BM or a
fart good crop dusting.
She did exceptionally well and that next day I dutifully assisted her to the bathroom - my dad worried the whole time - "Let the nurses do it" - inferring that I had no clue as to what I was doing.
Dad....I AM a nurse.......geezzzzzzzz.
What's with the men in my life that they doubt my nursing skills?
The other patients were quite ok, despite being the opposite gender. Here is a rundown:
Patient #1 was a medical patient - lines out the ying-yang and a TPN. My mother over heard they had "brought him from the dead". Doesn't look like they did him any favors because he still had that pasty/waxy look, and rattly mucousy death moans that apparently kept my mother awake all night. He mysteriously disappeared after the second night.
Mom was in bed #2 - which should have been a bed with a view outside - but for some reason was without the benefit of a window. Who designed this room anyway? If you have the good fortune to get a "window" bed - you should at least get a window with it.
A guy that mom said looked just like her minister was in bed # 3. For social reasons, it was nice he was mobile. Maybe it is just me, but you would think it would be difficult enough to have to have a peaceful dump in a room with 3 guys - but when one looks like your minister......? There are benefits to having a roommate that is unconscious (see bed #1).
Bed # 4 was a younger guy (40ish) who fell off his vacation home roof and fractured his femur in 3 different places. He had an assortment of leg splints, neck brace, bruises and probably a pneumovac - it looked like. I tried not to look in that direction. I think he had suffered from a pneumothorax secondary to # ribs ....his O2 sats kept dropping while the PT worked on him....poor guy...he was a mess. Not so much of a mess, apparently, that he would be transferred to a bigger center. Thank goodness I don't have a vacation home to fall off of. At least, not anymore. Sold the ski Chalet a few years back.
Coming from Good Dutch Stock, my mom is a tough old bird. She and my father have a "hobby bed and breakfast" which they run on their own. It is no small feat - seven THOUSAND square feet with 8 bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms. The driveway is almost vertical...I kid you not....all 700 something feet of it, and the two of them (my dad is 80) go out there in the winter time and hand shovel the entire drive - top to bottom every time a skiff of snow falls. Keep in mind this is Canada. It does snow here.
Last year the snow came half way up their window. My dad has Parkinson's and my mother, a bad hip. You get the picture. Mom had to get that hip replaced.....before the next winter. My parents refuse to get assistance with the shovelling, the cleaning, the laundry, the cooking......we've even tried paying for it. No one else does it good enough, not even their own kids. Old people can be stubborn. Personally, I would not be unhappy if the place burned to the ground. Without them in it, of course.
Anyway, the trip there was nail biting for sure. Snow on the pass. Massive headache. Finally had to pop a propanolol for the anxiety and a Mersyndol for the headache. Washed them both down with a Timmy's en route. Not sure it helped any.
Did I ever tell you that the worst snowstorm I ever drove through was a snowstorm in Northern California in the month of May?? I left for Canada from Redding at 6 am....driving along in my little gold Mercedes Convertible and not 1/2 hr down the I-5 ....SNOW! It came down faster and harder and snowplows were passing me.....and finally when I got to Weed, the snow was so high it came up to my windows! Needless to say, I did a 180 back to Redding. Eight hours of driving for nothing.
Anyway, it snowed for at least 1/3 of the trip to pick up my folks. Figured it would. May doesn't guarantee good weather, travelling over the mountain passes. I counted 3 vehicles in the ditch on the way there.....one massive accident on the way back. Lucky for me it was on the opposite side of the highway both times.....lineups were close to several hours, I am sure. I don't know whether the person in the last crash survived. My guess would be no. The ambulance wasn't in a rush to get anywhere. The vehicle was pretty well flattened and missing parts. How could I tell that it was serious you say? I make it a habit not to rubberneck while driving down the freeway, but one wheel was in the inside lane on my side of the road. \This is just what I took in - in the 3 seconds it took to get past the scene......
I was so traumatized by the trip that when I stopped at Jysk to buy some drapes and a cabinet ...after purchase made, I forgot to go around the back of the store to shipping and pick up the cabinet. I only remembered it 30 minutes from home and at that point I wasn't going to drive the 350 kms round trip and wait in that 10 mile long lineup of cars due to that accident when I also had a night shift to work that night.
I guess I will have to wait to pick it up with my next segment of daughterly duty - I go back in a week to help Mom out at home when discharged.
I hope it doesn't snow.
[I was lucky enough to have saved the comments on this one!]
Posted by A NURSE at 1:17 AM
4 comments:
nurseXY said...
Holy smokes, coed rooms??
That's nuts!
May 8, 2010 4:29 PM
A NURSE said...
Ya. Co-ed....they have been doing that at various hospitals for at least 20 years that I know of....in a way it is ok, saves a lot of the moving of beds etc and the ensuing back troubles on one hand - never mind the shortage of either "male" or "female" beds on a unit. No one seems to mind. It just takes getting used to. Splits up the old women so they don't get together and complain so much. ;)
May 8, 2010 10:42 PM
Albinoblackbear said...
Hey--sorry to post a comment that is unrelated to your post--but I thought I'd just pass on...I used the new templates in blogger 'draft' (if you go to http://buzz.blogger.com/ you'll see them).
Before you start tinkering just go into your customize part (in the edit html) and there is a button that says 'download template' and then you'll have a backup copy of your original just in case.
I was wrestling with the photo size as well and since I am no computer nerd the best way I found to fix it was just to crop (on my iphoto) one of my scenic shots into a narrow panorama-type and then upload that version of the pic.
Hope that helps and good luck! :)
May 9, 2010 1:00 AM
Albinoblackbear said...
I forgot to mention--I am glad to hear that your mom recovered well from her surgery. You parents sound like they have true grit! :)
May 9, 2010 1:07 AM
