Sunday, September 19, 2011
7.45 am... Dragged myself out of a warm, cozy bed... and drove down a rainy grey street to dad's house to give him his 8 am pill... all the while thinking... pill in, Donna home and back to bed.
8.00 am... Found dad half in, half out of bed. "Hey dad, you ok there?"
"No." Was the muffled reply.
I tried for 45 minutes to get dad out of his bed. He was so weak and his left arm was not working at all. After minutes of complete despair, it was time to call the ambulance again. Two paramedics came and got dad up. I gave them his care card number and pill info... telling them he needed his Parkinson's medication at 8, 12, 4 and 8, which they wrote down. They strapped dad into a stretcher, and told me to take a break, as I looked like I needed it, and it would be a while at the hospital. Utterly exhausted, I worked out my upset and worry in attacking the laundry, cleaning the carpet of blood (relax... just a stubbed toe), and general tidying up.
THEN I collapsed into bed. (Yes, I went home and took care of myself... there's only one of me... so I had to ensure I wouldn't end up in the padded room in the ER.)
12.30 pm - The geriatric nurse called from Peace Arch to ask some general questions about dad. She said she wanted to do an assessment of dad, but at that point, they were thinking of sending him home, and adding in additional home care and was I ok with that. Yes... but do you have to send him home tonight? Can't I have a night's rest?
2.15 pm - The geriatric nurse called back to ask about dad's Sinemet dose, as they'd missed giving it to him at noon, and it wasn't fair to do an assessment on him without him having his Sinemet dose. And would I be able to bring his medication in to the hospital. WHAAAATT!? I had specifically told them about his Sinemet dose. And the paramedics won't take patients pills in, they say he'll get it at the hospital. Apparently at this point in time, he hadn't been "admitted", so the pharmacy wouldn't be able to admister pills. I was like, "Whatever" at this point. You're in a hospital, you work it out.
4.15 pm - Having not heard back from the hospital, I called them, only to find out that the geriatric nurse had gone home for the day. Dad had been transferred to the ER overflow room at the back of surgical daycare. (I knew exactly where that was, having had been there in January for dad's hernia surgery.) He definitely would be staying overnight, and probably the next night too.
6.00 pm -Feeling somewhat rested and ready for the next round of ??, I went in to see dad in his bed in the surgical daycare center. It was quiet at night, with only a handful of patients there. I've never seen the poor man look so exhausted. They raised his bed for his dinner, and he was wincing in pain. He coughed and he winced in pain. I was worried beyond belief... wondering what was wrong with him... he had spent hours on the floor the day before... must have been the pressure of lying on his side. He started off his chicken stir-fry dinner with a gusto, but pretty much fell asleep in his lemon meringue pie.
A discussion with his nurse about his Sinemet revealed that the pharmacy had prescribed it 3x a day. Uh, no... the neurologist has prescribed it 4x a day for dad, I explained to the nurse. She gave me a look and informed ME, that that's what the pharmacy prescribes in the hospital.
We'll see about that.
11.59 pm - Lying in bed, worrying about dad's Sinemet dosage in hospital... that's going to hinder him even more.
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