Mom had an appointment with Dr. Schwartz yesterday(Aug 03.)

Mom was not a happy camper this morning, was a little better with coffee. Still Ms. Grumpy. She was better once we got to the docs office, but I heard her give the paramedics a hard time.

Before leaving for the doc, I usually have paperwork to pick up. Today I was supposed to get her Xrays. Hillcrest was clueless about this, so were the Xray folks. I thought maybe it was my fault and I forgot to tell someone but it wasn’t. YAY!

Well. Once we get to the docs office, they put you in this little room. Winds up with me, mom, a nurse, the doctor, and a student. Dr. Schwartz was not amused to discover that there were no Xrays. I confirmed with him that he did order them.

He got further po’d went he got a look at moms splint. *It was the wrong splint!* She’s been wearing this sucker for a week! She was supposed to have a wrist control splint – ordered by Dr. Schwartz, and was given a resting hand (pan? not sure what the nurse said) splint.

Quoting Dr. Schwartz: “I’m livid over this.” Ya. I can tell.

They also had the wrong dressing on her – what they were using will rip her skin. (Sidenote: on getting back to Hillcrest I asked a nurse *not* to bandage mom at all unless she’s spurting blood. Just give her a piece of gauze to stop any blood. Honestly, they drew blood earlier, put gauze and paper tape on the crook of her arm. She asked me to take it off and let me tell you, I thought I was going to faint taking that tape off, because of her skin. And there wasn’t a drop of blood on the gauze.)

They took the splint and bandage off, put the splint aside. I got a glimpse of the area where they operated, and it looked good. They proceed to take out the sutures.

A smell started wafting through the room. I thought, OMG! My feet are stinking up the place! I wanted to crawl under the building. Come to find out – it wasn’t my feet – I checked. It was the splint they had on moms arm. Is it customary not to change it? It really stank. It smelled just like my shoes can smell.

Dr. Schwartz said is was going to call Hillcrest and talk to the director.

Meanwhile, we leave. We were outside waiting for the van and Dr. Schwartz came outside and told us he spoke to the assistant director.

When we got back to Hillcrest, the assistant director was at the nurses station and they were talking about mom, and was going to talk to the therapists. I don’t know what happened after that – noone came to talk to me. I do know they were working on getting the Xrays delivered (I had offered to take them to the doctors office if needed)to the doctors office.

Mom ate a good part of her lunch, I washed her hair, then left. She was waiting for therapy to come get her and resplint her.

-Mom did not go get her hair done. No idea why.

-Not doing therapy on her arm. She refuses to do the exercises.

-Mom has some kind of bacterial infection, which is causing diarrhea. She’s on antibiotics for that.

-Spoke to nurse practitioner – forgot her name. Discussed mom going on a tranquilizer, and is sending a shrink for assessment. While the nurse was talking to mom, mom said one thing and 2 seconds later said the complete opposite. I forget what it was though.

-Pain medicine has been upped, because mom is complaining that the Percocet isn’t working. But also found out this afternoon, she hasn’t asked for pain medicine since July 30. I told the nurse that she’s not going to ask for it – she won’t remember to – she would be better off if they gave it to her automatically till she gets thru this. No wonder she’s a bear.

-I’ve come to the conclusion that noone knows what the other is doing.

-Apparently the new roomie has taken to yelling. She’ll never beat mom at the yell game though.

Mom did well at the doc’s office today. No screaming. She did not remember going there last week. She does remember Dr. Schwartz, says he looks like a kid. I don’t necessarily agree. Last week when they were taking her to surgery she called him Doogie Howser, lol. Talk about pulling something out of thin air. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doogie_Howser,_M.D.

Dr. said she’s healing nicely. Mom demanded to know why he didn’t operate on her shoulder and he said because he didn’t need to. “Oh” she said.

He said she doesn’t need the sling anymore and the stitches should come out next week. Said something about a couple of weeks longer and can’t remember for the life of me what he said.

He wrote a prescription for a certified hand therapist, who will make a special splint for her, along with therapy for the wrist. She needs to have xrays done, social workers office is arranging all of that, and I have her appt for next week set up along with transportation arranged.
She’s got an appointment for 11 am – ewwww – next Wednesday.

Somethings wrong with her. She only wanted one cigarette today. Birds fell from the sky when she refused a second one, lol.

She wanted to know today “how she ended up in this place.” Her memory is so odd. One minute she can tell you in detail what happened, the next, not so much. Today she remembered pulling glass out of her face, but doesn’t remember pushing the button to call the alarm place. Last week she did remember this. Says she has diarrhea all the time. I don’t know how. Percocets are the worst for constipating you. She said one of the Haitians (who in real life is really a Cuban) is mean to her.

saw pics of moms wrist at the docs office yesterday. i’ve attached my rendition of what i saw.

Mom has been taken off morphine and put on percocet. it seems to be working better and longer for her. she seemed pretty chill today for the most part, she even laughed a few times. wasn’t amused with the potato chips and candy bars I brought her. Took her a couple of nightgowns and robes. She was po’d because I didn’t hang them up.

She isn’t terribly amused with the diaper thing. The nurses don’t fasten it on her, but only because she wouldn’t let them, so at this point they’re resorting to what’s easiest to deal with on both sides. Also complained about no bedpan – but I explained to her that she’s been refusing to use it.

She seems to have hit it off with Rhoda the Roomie, who told me that she thought mom slept good last nite. Mom confirmed this. Rhoda is very laid back. Got her life story today, lol.

Talked to Cloreth.

She said that right now we’re in a wait and see, can’t really do anything regarding assisted living right now. It depends on mom’s health and how mom is assessed: social workers, doctors, etc.

Broward elderly care cannot add more hours for her, because of budget.

Gave me a placement counselor name and number.

Mom got a call at home from memorial outpatient from a nurse scheduling her for pre administration testing, scheduled for today. I’m like no, spent a good part of the day getting this straightened out. Hospital didn’t realize mom was a patient there, nor were they aware that she went to Hillcrest rehab. I whined about her being released when they could have taken care of this while she was at the hospital. At any rate, it will be handled between the rehab place and the day of surgery.

no operation. not till next week. the doc was going out of town for a few days and felt really uncomfortable doing the surgery and leaving town. so he requested that we put it off. so we did.

mom is losing it seems like. she was a bit better today but the nurses can’t go near her without her screaming. she uses the f word and calls them the n word. she’ll say something to me and while she knows what she’s trying to say i sure as hell don’t lol. she might mean the sky is blue but it comes out mishek gon dor yip. strange stuff.

she’s being released tomorrow. They first were trying to send her home and i’m like …um…no. there is no way i can take care of her 24/7. i can’t move her – still got that bum shoulder, and when she fell like 3 weeks ago I picked her up and damn near dropped her. i don’t have the patience either and told them so. i’m not afraid to admit my limitations.

so, after i … didn’t really get rude with the social worker, but i was like…maybe you didn’t hear me so i’m gonna repeat this, lmao; the sw found a rehab facility to take mom to. she’ll be there for several weeks and will go there tomorrow. they will provide transport to/from the doctors office (though why the man can’t come to her is beyond me),
and will take her to the hospital on wednesday for surgery. she’ll stay overnight and go back to the rehab place the next day.