Dec 28, 2008

By Dec. 28th my mom was so out of it. She was hallucinating and grabbing for things that weren't there. She couldn't even stay awake for therapy. She had her medicine at 9:00 this morning and was so bad that my sister talked to the doctor about reducing her medicine. The doctor(Dr. Prenger), from the IPC group covering for Dr. Quintero, wouldn't even come see her. We tried to talk to the nurse(Kristin) but all she kept saying was that it was the medicine and that it would have to wear off. She was also not breathing right and we asked that someone take a look at that and she was trying to get out of bed saying she had to get to work. The nurse only said that she would keep an eye on my mom and then I kept persisting and another nurse(Mindy) showed the one nurse about an alarm on the bed they could put on. The whole thing is ridiculous. My sister and I were there for 9 hours today and the nurse only came in once and that is because I asked her to. Finally tonight when Bill came we started to leave and my sister forgot something and had to go back and Bill said a doctor(Dr. Kanard) had just been in so my sister went looking for him and we cornered him and told him our concerns. He said that he was just covering for another doctor but would review her chart. We must have gotten through to him because he walked in and took the pain medicine patch off of her arm. Then around 11:00 my mom called me and said that they had done and brain scan and it was ok. She was pretty coherent but slipped once and said something loopy and then corrected herself. So I hope that it was just all the medicine just catching up in her system. Boy was it ever scary. Mike was with us and he was even concerned. We are going to see if we can get her moved tomorrow to another facility. I'm shocked about the care she is being given. If my sister and I weren't there they would still be giving her the medicine and not watching her. They acted like they didn't care at all. The last thing she needs is a broken hip. I don't think that she should be in rehab at this point and that alone is a joke. They have her doing leg lifts and painting. We could do better than that at home. All her doctors are gone and people are covering for them. Pat K suggested along with Joanne to ask for the administrative person or the patient advocate. We will try that tomorrow. My sister is suppose to go home on Tuesday but doesn't know if she should. I can't believe this is happening to my mom. It's been a month now and I can't see the end anytime soon.