Well, I spent the night with her on Monday night and it proved to be a looooooooooooong night. When I first got there, she was chatty and in a relatively good night and then the pain set in and things turned nasty quick. Her colostomy began to cause her some serious pain and that was just the beginning. Her blood pressure also dropped very, very low and she didn't want to wear the oxygen. The night ended-up with my having words with the nursing staff because she needed assistance that I couldn't provide. I about blew when the nurse gave me 2 towels, sheets, blanket, and washcloths and progressed to tell me to do her job. I'm sorry, but Mom has too many tubes coming out of her body as a whole for me to provide the kind of care that she needed at that time. I told them that (kindly, mind you), and then after I heard the huffing and puffing I became very irritated and told them that I went to law school not medical school and I'm not trained to do the job. I told them that she needed assistance as soon as they were available, so I didn't mean that they had to stop right then and do it immediately. Now, if the floor was full of patients I would be more understanding but the floor only had 3 patients on it! It was so slow that the maintenance men had pulled all the furniture out into the hallway and were waxing floors. I became rather agitated to say the least but I did hold my tongue and checked my temper.
Actually, I didn't have to blow because I talked to Dr. Numnum when he came in that morning for rounds and he talked to the nursing staff about the situation. Her bandage had not been changed since surgery and he had written orders 2 days ago for it to be changed. Needless to say, after Dr. N talked to them, the next nurse was rather clipped in her dialogue but Mom was taken care of.
Yesterday, Mom was made to get up and walk more frequently. When I left the hospital that morning, her feet were very swollen because of fluid retention. Dr. N was very plain with her that she had to get out of the bed and walk. We know that she is in severe pain and would prefer to stay still but if she is going to get better, she must walk. Thankfully, the physical therapist as well as Dr. N didn't give her a choice. She was supposed to walk on Sunday but most of the nursing staff went home due to the lack of patients, so there wasn't enough staff available to work with her. When Dr. N found this out, he called in the therapist and made sure that she was going to walk. By the end of yesterday, Dad reported that she was walking and it was becoming a little easier for her.
According to Dad this morning, Mom had another rough night. The good thing is that the staff did cooperate and made sure that what needed to be done was done without hassle. She is moving better today and isn't putting up such a fight about walking. Hopefully she is starting to understand that if she doesn't get up, she is only going to hurt more. Mom is ready to go home but there are still certain milestones per se that she must meet before Dr. N is ready to release her. Please continue to pray for her.
