#167 January 9: Here is one thing I learned today while whiling away the hours while David is in back surgery. Texting is both a blessing and a curse. Now the OR texts you cryptic updates while your loved one is in surgery. He went back to the OR at 1:17 and the procedure did not begin until 2:49. At 3:43 I got ‘procedure progressing”. These are lifelines to family members and their brevity is fine, and I’m sure much more is going on than is being communicated. I also am getting MANY texts from friends and family that they are thinking and praying for us. The blessing is the thoughts from friends and the OR communicating with me. The curse… every time the phone dings, I jump! 1/8
#168 January 10: At the hospital, twiddling my thumbs and
browsing during David's surgery. They didn't start til almost 3 pm. so it
will be a LONG DAY... but every cloud has a silver lining. These is great
pic on FB... but note it is in Ukraine. I surely hope it is still
there... and it puts my day in perspective!! 1/8
#169 January 11: Q R codes became
fashionable during Covid. I finally
dropped my Luddite ways and embraced them when it was the only way to see a
menu. The hospital has embraced them too
and uses them to check on the patient before receiving meds, etc. The very nice up side is, they can do this in
the dark with just the brief “photo” light shining to pick up the code. SO much better than being disturbed with
light switches on and off. 1/8
#170
January 12: Today has been a frustrating day in the
hospital. There have
been several miscommunications and confusion over who should/could/did order
what. Every organization needs an S. O.
P.: Systems Operations Manual and I have learned that in the hospital you have
doctor’s orders, and doctor’s notes.
Orders obviously supersede notes.
Getting what you need in the right column is key and then getting it
communicated to the right person is essential.
Compound that with the nursing shortage where we have had fill-ins from
traveling nurses and rotating/swing nurses who are unfamiliar with each floor
and doctor’s protocol. From the
patient/family perspective, there is no way of knowing where the breakdown is. We’re not interested in blaming anyone, just
problem-solving to get the care that is needed.
THEN I stop and imagine what if there were
tunnels underneath the hospital filled with military terrorists and only a few
doctors and no pain meds? What if I came
here for refuge and heard bombs instead?
Instead of complaining about the food, what if there were none? That perspective makes my frustrations seem
minor. 1/12
#171 January 13: The ICU is both
wonderful and scary. The rooms are huge
and the nurses are very attentive and work as a team. If “your” nurse is busy, another one will
answer your call quickly. But when they
bring in the crash cart and put pads on you “just in case”, it’s pretty
scary. Luckily Dave weathered the drugs
without any arrhythmia – twice!
#172
January 14: ICU nurses aren’t used to patients who can
walk and talk. Some find it refreshing
and others aren’t sure how to handle it.
#173 January 15: You always hear
that the hospital is nowhere to try to sleep and that is very true. But
compounding that is the number of people that care for you on a regular floor
and how silo-ed in their roles they are.
Figuring out everyone’s role and dealing with all of the different
personalities is exhausting. Each person
has their own way of doing things and once you figure them out, the shift
changes. Dave has 2 doctor teams: The GI team has a PA, NP, Resident, On-Call
Doctor, and “Fellow” (a doc who likes to talk and give advice but can’t make
any decisions). The Surgery team has a
Surgeon, Resident, and PA. The floor
assigns you a nurse, tech, vitals person (who is only sometimes the tech), and
blood person. Occasionally the floor
manager will come by, as well as the nutritionists (one to take your order,
another to deliver it), care manager, and volunteer. All of these people rotate on 2 shifts, but
only 1 nurse repeated a shift with David.
That’s 16, SIXTEEN! Folks not counting shifts and daily changes. In his 8 days in the hospital, I’m sure he had
somewhere between 30 and 40 caregivers!
When I was teaching and
consulting with teachers and parents on children with behavior problems, one of
the first things I would do was list all of the adults the child had to interface
with. No matter how much the team tried
to be consistent, each person had their own personality and interpretation of
the “rules” that we were expecting a 2 or 3-year-old to figure out. No wonder he or she would often melt into
tantrums! As grownups, we don’t have
that option (tho I kind of think the lady next door reverted to her toddler
self and had a meltdown or two!!)
#174
January 16: The nursing shortage came “home
to roost” during this hospital stay. The
floor nurses are stretched so thin that they are basically reduced to being
pharmacy dispensaries. Giving out meds
is about all they have time for unless there is an urgent need to change a
bandage. Unfortunately, David’s bathroom
needs were often paramount and while they cheerfully did his duty, it wasn’t
always in a timely fashion (though given the circumstances, we didn’t complain,
and were more than content with a tech).
I was just petrified of a fall (and still am!). Many of our nurses were “traveling nurses”
based mainly out of Greenville, SC. They
have to travel a certain distance, and Charlotte counts as “far enough”, yet
commuting back to Greenville is fairly easy. One night one of either the
traveling nurses or rotating nurses confessed that no one on the floor was permanently assigned there, meaning no one was truly comfortable
with the processes and where things were.
When I found out about the job description, I thought it might be an
interesting way to nurse. One of the
nurses did tell us about Arizona and the Pacific NW. But from a patient's point of view, it was less
than desirable.
#175 January 17: We were in “9
Tower” at Atrium, one of the older areas of the hospital. It has not aged well. Since David has been part of designing
several hospitals we were quick to critique the rooms and halls and speculate
whether Odell did the original design.
The main area where the room and floor were out of date was there was nowhere
for the nurses to store and use their “COWS” (Computers On Wheels). As a result, the floor was cluttered with
rolling chairs and computers, making walking with a walker a true obstacle
course! The furniture and walls had a
good bit of wear and tear too and except in the ICU, there was no chair that
could accommodate David (adjustable, recliner).
In the second room we occupied, there were no chairs at all, just a
bench/sofa/bed.
#176 January 18: Coming home is
wonderful, but I wasn’t quite prepared for some of the different caregiving challenges
I would have to learn. First, while I expected
“good days and bad days”, I quickly learned that they often occur on the same
day. “Good or bad” is more a function of
where David is in his med cycle. It
took 2 nights, but when we were able to “almost” sleep straight through the
night and get 4 to 6 hr of sleep at a time, it greatly improved our attitudes!
#177 January 19: The other thing I had to learn
when we came home was how to safely maneuver through the house. Clay came and helped set up a lift chair for
Dave that is convenient to the bed, bathroom, and elevator. While this works well, what we didn’t plan on
was all the things that have to be plugged in (the chair, phone charger, laptop, CPAP, etc.) Safe wire management is
my biggest challenge, as again I am petrified of a fall. In the hospital, OT gave him a pair of tongs
for reaching things. This works well, as
long as the tongs are close by or not dropped! Lol
#178 January 20: While our house is not small,
it is “compact” with 3 floors of living area.
There are very few areas for walking.
And with the temperatures outside on the downside of freezing, clearing
a path is a challenge. The house has no
halls. We are grateful for the elevator
and we have found a short path that is a figure 8 around the dining room table
and coffee table in the living room.
No comments:
Post a Comment