Spectacular Rant!
My best rant to date happened today at the hospital. Little background, my Mom has been hospitalized for over three weeks for irregular heart beat and a possible mini stroke. She has been allowed to languish in a bed, in diapers with no one really making an effort to either walk her or toilet her.
I have been given various diagnosis including Failure to Thrive, Ataxia, Dementia and Heart Failure. I buy the heart failure, the rest is all bullshit. Finding a doctor has been near impossible and I'm beginning to think they are avoiding me because I ask too many questions.
Today finally she was given a pacemaker, albeit just a single chamber, which doesn't sit well with me. I was give no reasonable explanation other than, oh well, we can use drugs. Well no, the whole point is to have has few drugs as possible, my Mom doesn't tolerate drugs very well.
I arrived at the hospital by 9:30 am and left at 4:30. Somewhere around 3 I had my meltdown and the person to catch the brunt of my anger happened to be the social worker. It's not her fault I recognize that and I didn't yell or scream. It was a very calm rant but I made my feelings very clear. If my mother had been younger or had been a political figure she would not have waited three weeks for this procedure. I say that because our previous Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson received a pacemaker within 24 hours. I spoke briefly with the Surgeon who was from a different hospital just helping out for the day and he was very clear that after three weeks bedridden, my mother was suffering from hospital failure to thrive. That is clearly their fault but no one will accept any responsibility.
When I returned at dinner time predictably my Mom was confused again as a result of the drugs given to perform the surgery. I apparently missed the doctors by 5 minutes, yeh right. After three weeks, they know my schedule. I'm there twice a day for 5 hours total, they were just avoiding me. Hopefully by tomorrow the picture will be brighter and I will be in a better mood. Maybe I'm just tired.
Labels: Family
posted by Rositta @ Thursday, April 26, 2007
2 Comments:
Rositta, I just wanted to drop a note to let you know that I'm glad your mom got a pacemaker, although their decision still puzzles me. I don't doubt doctors are avoiding you. When my mom was in a coma, we'd show up at random times and they were forced to deal with us because we had no set schedule, and one of us was there nearly all day -- my brother during the day and me at night. When we used to make appts to talk with them, they'd show up 2 hours late; I think they were hoping to avoid us because they never called to inform us of their tardiness. That just made my brother more angry and he ended up throwing them out and getting someone else -- he can be an imposing figure at 6'3, carrying a gun (sergeant of a police station).
I feel for you. When can your mom go home? Will she need care at home or will she recover enough to get on by herself?
Getting another doctor in hospital is not an option in this country, unfortunately. Your stuck with the admitting doctor. I am doing physio with her daily now to get her legs moving. At this point she is so deconditioned that she is afraid. It's going to be a long slog but I am hopeful, it's all I can be. I will bring her home if at all possible.
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