Saturday, July 5, 2008

Mom Went to the Nursing Home yesterday

Yesterday Mom moved to our local nursing home for what we thought would be skilled nursing care. My sister transported her by minivan to the home in rush hour traffic coming out of Omaha on the eve of July 4th. The traffic delayed her for 90 minutes. THis was too much for Mom to handle, given the extent of her surgery, the number of remaining staples and sutures she has left. She had to sit in a car seat.

When the girls got 20 minutes outside of the facility, they called to let the staff nurse know they would be arriving. Upon arrival, the bed she was going to be placed in was not ready for her, she had to sit in a wheel chair for 30 minutes while the staff made the bed with thin, stained sheets.

Mom had her catheter removed in the morning around 10am. She had not emptied her bladder at all, she arrived at the nursing home around 5:10pm. The staff put her in a bed and basically ignored her. They didn't know she had the extensive surgery she had, they thought they were going to get her and prepare her for surgery. (bear in mind she came from a hospital) They also told us she was not in a 'skilled' bed. Although the hospital staff had pre-arranged that admission prior to her dismissal.

No vital signs were taken. The charge nurse didn't know she had her catheter removed, nor that she had an order to do an 'in and out' cath if she did not void. (PEE) She was never assessed, therefore the staff didn't know she had a colostomy, had incisions that run from her left knee up to her vagina, and up her backside into her rectal area. This is the plastic surgery that covered those areas after her surgery to remove her vagina and her rectum. The same surgery in which the female organs and her colon were taken. The nurse at one point looked at me and told me she didn't have an abdominal incision. I asked him if he thought she might have one, as they took all of the organs, giving him a laundry list of organs that were removed by 5 surgical teams that did a tag team on her for 10 hours just 10 days ago. He was perplexed, he hadn't done his job to check on her, so he had no idea. Within 2.5 hours of her admission, we had an order to move her to a different facility. More tomorrow.

1 comment:

supermom said...

does this suprise you that Mary's facility would be ANY better than this. it may be convenient, but i don't think grandma would get the best care there. i am SO very glad you are moving her. yikes!