Puzzle Description:

The first two days I got my meds, not always at the right time, but I did get them. For some reason, on the 3rd day, which no one could explain, I was not given my pain medications which I was supposed to get at 6, 2, and 8. I would ring the call button and be told they would be right back. Nada. The bed was so uncomfortable it was unbearable without pain medication. On my bed you could not raise the knee section and the head section at the same time. I gave up, folded up my blanket and sat on the floor. The night nurse, who was pretty nice, was making her rounds and didn't see me at first because I was behind a chair. I explained why I was there and she rushed out and came back shortly with my pain medication.

#1: Garden Pretty (DotyRoberts) on Aug 21, 2016

This is a reminder: We are the village, caring for one another. We need to ask one another to be our back-up person. I know of a care facility worker who absconded with pain meds.

That's probably what happened to mine come to think of it.

OMG!

:)

I've enjoyed solving these, but really hate to hear about your experience!

Thank you, Leah.

One needs a gatekeeper in a hospital. You are so correct, Garden.

I agree Tom, it is so important to have someone to advocate for you, a friend or relative, when you are in the hospital. In this case you, Norma, were at least able to take some action that finally got the attention of a good nurse. I shudder to think what may happen to a person who is not able mentally or physically to advocate for themselves.

They need Emperor Aldège to step in and make things right,don't you think Sgusa? Wait don't answer that buddy. I know your probably going to say that he is already the administrator of this wonderful establishment. Chances are your drugs were sold on the street Norma. A couple of missed doses from each patient amounts to a lucrative business bordering on Donald Trump size profits. :)

Yikes is all I can say.

Oh, how awful. You are really doing great with your pictures showing what happened. They say that art therapy is suppose to help get out our feelings inside. Is this helping you to get over the painful memories. If so, keep them coming.

More, Norma, more!

I'm enjoying the puzzles, but I hope you're complaining to someone who might do some good. There must be a regulatory agency or something.

Thanks, everyone. I'm sure there are regulations, but on the surface this place would have looked OK. They kept it reasonably clean (the cleaning solutions stunk to high heaven) and except for being outdated it would be like child protective services where they go into a home several times and fail to detect that children are being abused. At least I wasn't physically abused as happens in some nursing homes, but I was only there temporarily.

Good thing for that Norma! Another good puzzle

Thank you Susan.

Norma hope you made a full recovery. Sorry for your experience. I could tell you some stories about my experiences taking care of my mother with Alzheimer's...

this is extra traumatic, the second time around

Hugs, Norma!

It's important to have someone advocating on your behalf not only to make sure the facility is doing the right thing, but also to make sure the facility is doing anything at all!

When my mother was gradually disappearing due to Alzheimer's, my sister, who lives in the same city as my mother, noticed that, if she visited regularly, the aides took pretty good care of my mother. But if for any reason she didn't visit for a couple of weeks, she'd show up and it looked like the aides had done nothing whatsoever for my mother. One time, my sister showed up at 1 PM and found my mother still in bed, still in her pajamas, and when she tracked down an aide, learned that my mother had not been given anything to eat or drink that day. The aide simply said, "She said she didn't want anything."

My sister ended up having to engage several people there, to get them to understand that my mother is (at that point) almost totally unaware of her surroundings. She may have no idea was breakfast or lunch even *is* that day. It is up to the aides to make sure she gets up, is dressed, and has something to eat.

Every time my sister showed up after that, and every time my brothers or I were in town and visited, the facility seemed to be doing a better job. But my sister got sick at one point, not from COVID but during the pandemic, and couldn't go by for a couple of weeks. But the next time she visited, it was as if she had never spoken to the aides.

So yes, someone needs to be an advocate for your loved one, but they need to visit regularly as well, or the facility will realize you're probably not coming by, or may even believe the family doesn't care. If they're the type of aide who shows less than admirable ability to do their jobs, which is true for an unfortunately large number (not the majority) of aides, they will stop taking care of your loved one.

I wonder if these places deliberately hire poor help or if poor help are the only ones who apply. More recently I had another round with a nursing home that was just slightly better than the one in this series. I was convinced they were on the take with the pharmaceutical companies because they kept trying to stuff me with meds I did not need without consulting me. I finally called a halt and stopped all meds for a couple of days then added back only the three I needed. They kept trying to be sneaky, like disolving something in the water they gave me to wash down the pills. One nurse would out and out lie to me. I complained about her but they just moved her to another area as I saw her when I was able to get up and walk around and get some exwercise. My sister had insurance that would pay for her stay in a really good nursing home near her, but along came the pandemic which closed the doors of most nursing homes.

That sounds awful, both of those nursing homes. And it's scary how many of us may well someday live in one. (Assuming civilization doesn't collapse from climate change and/or warfare. Sigh....)

The healthcare system in the US could improve in many ways.

Amen to that, Jota!

I keep thinking about this and wondering if there is anything we can do to (1) protect ourselves from this treatment, and (2) to protect everybody in nursing homes.

Fortunately, our home base of operations is Iowa City and we have mostly outstanding nursing homes in our immediate radius. The staff really bonds with and cares for their clients. I personally hope I never have to live in one...I did have to go for three days once.

Sadly Valerie a lot of people seem like they just don't care about patients. It makes me sad, when I see the amount of people protesting new Florida law for Kindergarten to grade 3, instead of demanding a better health care system.

Great puzzle, terrifying experience. I'm sorry you went thru that. When I was in the hospital waiting to have my gall bladder removed, I was disconnected from my IV so I could go out to get something from my car and when I came back in, they didn't reconnect me. Since I was scheduled for surgery, I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything. My surgery kept getting pushed back and I was without fluids for 27 hours before they realized my IV wasn't connected. They only realized it when I started going a little delirious from dehydration and complained of a bad headache.

That's awful, Alicia. Another time I was in the hospital with a heart attack and several of the sticky pads hooked to the monitoring equipment came loose and they would no longer stick to my skin. I managed to pull the curtain aside at the foot of my bed and in a glassed in room across from me all the staff were standing around laughing and talking Absolutely nobody noticed me waving. I could have died and they wouldn't have noticed.

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