Who Cares?

HEW tuckered by noon...

This getting strong stuff is slow going, baby steps I guess.  Did one load of laundry, checked the mailbox, switched the bed out had lunch and have to rest!! Omg by this time normally I would have 3 hrs of chores behind me.  I know each thing that knocks you down in life takes a little piece of you with it...hope all the pieces are still around I need them at this point in the game. 

In 1997 Mom and I had a nearly fatal car crash.  A car turned left directly into our path, I was driving at 55 mph.  We spun around several times and both had to go to hospital by ambulance.  Mom was 73 yrs old at the time and she never regained back to her health  baseline from before the crash.

 I did heal physically but mentally it did a number on me, the what if's drove me crazy for about 2 years, then I went into a depression that lasted about 9 years! So mentally I never recovered, I was able to 'recreate' myself, but that old me died right there on that highway. 

She was so brave and strong...on life support for 7 days then in hospital/rehab for 34 days...I never left her side...I fought for her life with medical staff who seemed to be hell bent on neglecting her...to Dr's who only wanted to bill some bedside hours...I chased a Psychiatrist out of her room...and I took down his name and I told him when her bill arrived in the mail if his name was ANY WHERE on that bill I would sue him. And I meant it...one nurse told him that mom seemed depressed...well wouldn't you be?
Stuck in a hospital room with a trac in your windpipe, and they kept saying they could not wean her off oxygen and she was not wanting to go home with oxygen...So wouldn't you be depressed?? So here comes this "so called Dr." I was there and I asked him WHO ordered a psyche eval...he was not able to answer that he said he just thought he would stop by and see if she wanted something to help her sleep or to help with depression...that's when I told him to get the hell outta my mom's room and if I saw one single piece of paper with his name on it I would sue him for fraud!

Eventually I weaned her off the oxygen...they just were not doing their job..they would come in take off the oxygen soon as her sats dropped they put her right back on...left the room...so I began to let her go about 3 mins past that sat drop and it began to rise...and eventually she was able to stay at 95 on room air for 20 mins!! I called Respiratory into the room to observe and in 3 days she had the trac out and was on the road to home!!

We all need someone in our corner, someone who will put their neck on the line, someone to fight for us.  Another time a respiratory therapist gave her a breathing treatment with sulfur in it...my mom was allergic to sulfur.  I immediately noticed something was wrong her arms and face got red, and she became anxious...I called the respiratory to come back to her room, What did you give her she his having an allergic reaction..sure enough even tho above her bed in big red letters NO sulfur drugs, she had given her a drug with sulfur in it.  If I hadn't been there my Mom's airway could have closed up..

One other time My mom was in hospital rehab following hip surgery...she had like 30 of these big surgical staples running up her hip...and a dressing had to be changed daily..aides would come in there and try to change that dressing without GLOVES....I raked the head nurse over the coals and she had a staff meeting to discuss the SLACK in their game! 

And when I came in one morning and she was sitting on a potty chair by her bed with tears in her eyes cause they left her there I said "draw up her release papers she is leaving today." 
Oh we can't have her released yet, OH yeah watch me and try to stop me!!
They could not stop me from taking my mom out of there within 2 hrs papers were signed and I brought her home and wrote a letter of complaint to the Hospital administrator reporting that head nurse. 

You have control over your health or your health advocate does, you can not be held in a hospital against your will unless you are a threat to yourself or someone else and only then for 72 hours.  

You must advocate or assign an advocate for you! Even these nursing homes saying you can't visit..YOU CAN! Call a lawyer and have them phone the nursing home, you have rights and you can not be kept out...no way in hell anyone could keep me from entering I would have them show ME the admission papers that says I can not visit...there is no such thing...

Okay just had all that on my mind this morning as I was thinking who will advocate for me...answer no one..:o(