Wednesday, April 6, 2011

John was moved by ambulance to the Hospice this morning. It is just across the street and down the block from the hospital, but on the same property. It is a lovely place. John has half of a very large room. They allowed me to bring over the new Vicare air mattress we had just purchased so it was already on the bed when we arrived.
The move was very hard on him. He was very frightened and fighting the restraining straps etc on the stretcher. I rode in the ambulance with him to help quieten him down.
He is not happy with the transfer - he wants to come home.
He has a lovely window looking out onto a garden patio with a bird feeder right outside his window. he has a large TV with a VCR and CD player built in. There are three or four leather chairs and a pull-out couch in his room. Tomorrow I will take pictures.
However, the care he received today was underwhelming to say the least.
According to the nurse - we came on the wrong day. It sounded like it was our fault.
Wednesdays are when they have their staff meeting and consultations and so everyone was in the meeting and busy all day.
The result was that he did not get his 12:30 , 2:00  PD meds until over half an hour later than he should have and only after I chased them for them and finally said, give me the pills and I will give them myself. I asked several times about giving him feed and they never did that at all.
He was in great pain but the nurses would not give him anything because the doctor was in the meeting, and then in a family consulation, and they could not do anything without her OK.
She did finally pop in to see us and said she would be back later but I guess she got too busy. She did order something to help him quieten down and for the pain.
Anyway, the afternoon was terrible and we seldom saw a soul.
At 6:30 a volunteer came in and started to talk with us. She asked if I had had any supper (I actually had only had some cheese and crackers during the day) so she said she would stay with John while I went and got something to eat. Because he is still hallucinating, pulling at his tubes, trying to rip out the IV etc. and having awful back, leg, feet and toe cramps that need to be massaged,  I did not feel he could be left alone.
Just then Margie called so I asked her to come and pick me up and we went to Tim Horton;s for supper. Then we returned and I gave her a tour of the new digs.
While I was gone, John asked the volunteer to please drive him home.
When Margie came John told her to tell Bev to take him home.
I can't blame him as from his point of view he could suffer just as well at home as there. He cannot see the difference.
I hope tomorrow will be better.
They do not give out the meds for bedtime until after 9pm and John did not settle down well, so it was after 10pm before I got home tonight.
It was a disappointing day, and a difficult day because John is so unhappy as well as in so much pain.
His speech was a little better today sometimes but still not good and very frustrating for him when he could not make us understand what he was trying to say.

I'm afraid this was another two thumbs down day.