Jeanne's gastro feeding tube popped out on December 30th, requiring a trip to the Emergency Room at UCLA Medical Center to have it popped back in. (Note to self...in the future, I will do everything humanly possible to avoid an emergency room visit during a major holiday weekend. Whatever you may be thinking about the quality of emergecy room care during such a time...now matter how large you think you can conjure up that nightmare...please mutliply by 10X!) Don't misunderstand -- everyone in the ER certainly means well, they are just completely under-staffed and overwhelmed. So they hire non-UCLA nurses and staff on short-term contracts to pick up the slack. And I observed these "temp" nurses and staff having difficulties with everything -- from accurately taking a patient's temperature to moving someone 100 feet from their room in the ER to x-ray to taking a readable and usable x-ray.
After spending almost 12 hours in the emergency room, it was determined that Jeanne needed to be admitted to the hospital. First, it seemed that she had a minor infection accompanied by a low-grade fever. Second, although a temporary replacement to her feeding tube was provided in the ER, a permanent feeding tube couldn't be inserted for the next 4 days because the appropriate hospital personnel were all on vacation for the holiday. Third, the swelling in Jeanne's left leg that our visiting R.N. from UCLA had pronounced as "nothing major...something to be checked out the next time you take her to the emergency room," had turned out to be a broken leg. (Full Disclosure -- the nurse remembers this conversation very differently from the way I remember it)
And so our 15-minute procedure to replace Jeanne's feeding tube turned into a 4-day hospital stay. During those 4 days, we watched Jeanne's minor infection improve, we waited to have someone -- anyone -- from Orthopedics talk to us about Jeanne's broken leg (that conversation ended up not happening), and we looked forward to Wednesday, Jan. 2 -- the earliest date possible to have Jeanne's feeding tube replaced. Lots of waiting, watching and looking forward.
The good news is that Jeanne maintained her good spirits. In fact, she was healthier during this hospital stay than in any of her previous hospital stays so, relatively speaking, it was a very low-stress adventure made up mostly of sitting around while the holiday season wound down and the hospital was actually open for business again.
I hung out with Jeanne in her otherwise-empty hospital room (it's hard to attract roommates during the holidays, I guess) and helped her pass the time. And I can honestly say that for everything the emergency room seemed to be lacking in the way of quality care, the nurses in "5 West" were the polar opposites. They were great. And unrushed for a change. And always smiling -- even though they knew they were among the very few in the hospital to be pressed into service over the holidays.
So that was how we spent our winter vacation. I'm hopeful all of you fared better. With so much time on my hands, I had a couple of interesting conversations with hospital personnel and Medicare personnel regarding which "home health aid" services Medicare actually covers. But that conversation is still evolving into what will ultimately be an interesting post for every caregiver reading this blog. Look for it in the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, Happy New Year!
My heart goes out to you--yeah, holidays and ERs don't mix!
I too, had many, many hospital stays--with my mom--who struggled with a heart condition, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. ER's don't handle these things well.
If you're not violently throwing up or profusely bleeding, you can forget being seen or cared for in decent time.
As a long-time caregiver, I go into what I call,"hospital mode." I can live off of hospital coffee and hospital food, and an overnight bag--indefinately (although I'd like not to test that theory--it may rival the famous documentary, "Supersize Me").
Stay away from the ER--they'll kill ya!
Hope 2008 is a good one.
~Carol D. O'Dell
author of Mothering Mother: A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir,
available on Amazon and in most stores.
www.mothering-mother.com
Posted by: Carol O'Dell | January 07, 2008 at 01:07 PM