It's been a wild week. Right after we got the good news and stayed on the road all day Annie called late that night worried that mom's BP was high along with her pulse. I asked Denise to go and check so off she went. Denise called back and between us three we talked mom into letting us take her to the hospital, which took some doing. We took her to Ft Sanders in Knoxville and while mom was in there Denise said she had A Fib. I actually think they'd let you die in ER, oh wait, they did two days later let a man code. It amazed me that probably only a few people actually needed medical care there, most seemed to need a fix. It was more like Springer meets the side show. One guy I wanted to knock out just to shut him up, I think everybody did. I keep thinking there has to be something that could be done for somebody other than feed an addiction.
They ended up sticking her on the eighth floor, the cancer floor where you go when you have people extremely sick. At this point I'd like to thank UT, you all done a great job when I was there, and I saw just how excellent the care was now. Annie spent the night with mom and we came home and caught about 3 hours sleep at best. I was quite surprised and impressed with Annie. Her devotion and knowledge, especially being a new nurse. Charts were not filled out, orders not sent, they even took her BP by placing the cuff upside down and taking temperatures by sticking the thermometer in her mouth as she swallowed iced tea. To beat it all, the other RN lied like a dog, which didn't last too long as Denise and Annie both caught and confronted her and the other RN. Funny how they'd change their summation then go right to the next lie. We finally got her transferred to the cardiac floor after the main RN on the oncology floor stated they were a cancer floor, not a heart floor and they weren't prepared and didn't know how to care for a patient with heart issues. That lead me to say, wanna know a secret, you not only suck at heart care, but you suck with cancer care too. The Cardiac nurse told mom that if she had went to UT she would have been home in 24 hours or less, we're now working on day three. They were day and night on that floor difference. The nurse's station actually looked like a nurse's station. No charts strung out and it didn't look like prat girls gone wild. They actually were watching the monitors, organized, and working. Covenant Health Care has a long ways to go, and that includes doctors there too. Might want to curb those advertising dollars for quality, I expect better care for my animals.
It's taken until now to get back on track from all the excitement and lack of sleep, Denise is still wiped. Despite all of that, the week has been good overall. I pulled the biggest Banana Melon out of the garden I've ever seen or heard tell of, weighing in at 10.5 lbs. The biggest and best I always give to Denise's mom and dad, especially her dad since he is confined to a wheel chair and cannot raise them anymore. The look on his face is enough to make this year's heat and aggravation of the dry and wet season worth it. We took them some other stuff like Tomatoes and pears. Mom wanted some Nitro, which the doctors failed to prescribe. I'm of sure if she needs it after a successful stress, but I think it makes her more at ease knowing she has it, so I gave her mine. I forget to carry it most of the time anyway, plus it's mom. It did ease her off that night and her BP is still high, but no A Fib, I think thats what Denise said it was. Heart out of rhythm, like mine did the first few days after the heart attack. Misty and the kids came in to see her. I miss them.
So that brings us to today. Yesterday I picked about a bushel of pears and this morning I thought I'd surprise Denise by peeling, coring, and cooking one. Had the recipe and it was simple. It was like saute in a pan with butter and some Cinnamon, poached I think it was called. It ended up being more perched than poached, lol. I remembered the great taste when Granny would cook them... that wasn't it, lol. I think Denise ate what she did to save my feelings, but her taste buds got the best of her. She had that look, I probably did too, of a mule eatin' briars. I watched what appeared to be a smile as she took the first bite, didn't take until my bite it wasn't a smile, more like a snarl. Me and Megan tried to make Ketchup and made some great Grilling Sauce, except we don't know what all we used. I can grill, make cookies, and pizza good and that is about the extent of it. I'll probably try that again as soon as our taste buds heal. :) It's all good, except when I cook it.
They ended up sticking her on the eighth floor, the cancer floor where you go when you have people extremely sick. At this point I'd like to thank UT, you all done a great job when I was there, and I saw just how excellent the care was now. Annie spent the night with mom and we came home and caught about 3 hours sleep at best. I was quite surprised and impressed with Annie. Her devotion and knowledge, especially being a new nurse. Charts were not filled out, orders not sent, they even took her BP by placing the cuff upside down and taking temperatures by sticking the thermometer in her mouth as she swallowed iced tea. To beat it all, the other RN lied like a dog, which didn't last too long as Denise and Annie both caught and confronted her and the other RN. Funny how they'd change their summation then go right to the next lie. We finally got her transferred to the cardiac floor after the main RN on the oncology floor stated they were a cancer floor, not a heart floor and they weren't prepared and didn't know how to care for a patient with heart issues. That lead me to say, wanna know a secret, you not only suck at heart care, but you suck with cancer care too. The Cardiac nurse told mom that if she had went to UT she would have been home in 24 hours or less, we're now working on day three. They were day and night on that floor difference. The nurse's station actually looked like a nurse's station. No charts strung out and it didn't look like prat girls gone wild. They actually were watching the monitors, organized, and working. Covenant Health Care has a long ways to go, and that includes doctors there too. Might want to curb those advertising dollars for quality, I expect better care for my animals.
It's taken until now to get back on track from all the excitement and lack of sleep, Denise is still wiped. Despite all of that, the week has been good overall. I pulled the biggest Banana Melon out of the garden I've ever seen or heard tell of, weighing in at 10.5 lbs. The biggest and best I always give to Denise's mom and dad, especially her dad since he is confined to a wheel chair and cannot raise them anymore. The look on his face is enough to make this year's heat and aggravation of the dry and wet season worth it. We took them some other stuff like Tomatoes and pears. Mom wanted some Nitro, which the doctors failed to prescribe. I'm of sure if she needs it after a successful stress, but I think it makes her more at ease knowing she has it, so I gave her mine. I forget to carry it most of the time anyway, plus it's mom. It did ease her off that night and her BP is still high, but no A Fib, I think thats what Denise said it was. Heart out of rhythm, like mine did the first few days after the heart attack. Misty and the kids came in to see her. I miss them.
So that brings us to today. Yesterday I picked about a bushel of pears and this morning I thought I'd surprise Denise by peeling, coring, and cooking one. Had the recipe and it was simple. It was like saute in a pan with butter and some Cinnamon, poached I think it was called. It ended up being more perched than poached, lol. I remembered the great taste when Granny would cook them... that wasn't it, lol. I think Denise ate what she did to save my feelings, but her taste buds got the best of her. She had that look, I probably did too, of a mule eatin' briars. I watched what appeared to be a smile as she took the first bite, didn't take until my bite it wasn't a smile, more like a snarl. Me and Megan tried to make Ketchup and made some great Grilling Sauce, except we don't know what all we used. I can grill, make cookies, and pizza good and that is about the extent of it. I'll probably try that again as soon as our taste buds heal. :) It's all good, except when I cook it.
7 comments:
Hi Anthony,
I will be praying for your mom, and happy she is getting better care with better RNs. Thank goodness for Megan & Denise. My thoughts are with you and your family.
Sincerely,
Christina
Thank you Christina. She is doing good so far, the meds are slowly working. She went back to work the very next day.
Well that was crazy. Wow. I had trouble following parts though. What did the nurses lie about exactly? And what did you confront them with?
Either way, I'm just happy it worked out well. Go Annie! (And Denise!)
Rest up and congrats on the garden riches! :)
The 1st RN lost mom's paper work, didn't document anything she did, which wasn't much. Didn't send the orders down since they couldn't find them. Had no clue what meds mom was on so she made them up as she went along. The 2nd Rn came in and lied about mom's test orders being sent, her being checked, documents, meds, diagnosis, food sent and not sent. She seemed to be covering for the 1st one. They came in together. The lab and nurses from the lab told on them. To my knowledge they never found her paper work, pieces of it, but that was all. When she was transferred to the 2nd floor, cardiac they still didn't have her documents so they made new ones, including her allergies.
With each lie on meds, condition, symptoms, monitoring and care requirements Annie and Denise would catch her. The average person wouldn't have known what they were saying, but having 2 nurses there, they knew what was being said and corrected them. They would admit they were wrong when confronted, then move to the next topic. The knew the words but not the application to them. Denise would give those looks and correct them sometimes, Annie didn't let up. She corrected them every time.
I got lost in the medical jargon but I do know what a patient feels, both from the Cardiac and Cancer side. I remember some of the care I got in both cases, and they didn't do good at either, actually I saw no care. I confronted them when they didn't do things in the protocol like I got each time. Eventually I told the 2nd one, while she and the 1st were together and said they weren't trained for cardiac, "Wanna know a secret. You suck at both." I think it's Covenant Healthcare's training and system itself. I know a lot of good people who left when they bought out MHHS. They hire CNAs and RNs only I'm told, despite the fact LPNs were far more knowledgeable than their RNs. The CNA mom had even took her BP with the cuff upside down, so did the 1st RN. They brought her food when she wasn't allowed and when she was required to eat they didn't. Denise spoke up on that one. The test required she eat between the 1st part and 2nd part of the test. The CNA gave up and brought her 1/2 a sandwich. After the test, they brought 6 trays in about 30 minutes. They screwed up enough that it would take a book to list it all down, those are just the highlights, lol. I knew Annie had to know her stuff to get her license, I just didn't know how much. I also didn't understand the doctors there. I think they could have cared less. We even saw a man pulling a cart with paperwork on it down the hall leaving a trail of patient's records in the floor. He'd stop and pick them up, tossing the loose papers on the top in a pile. The nursing station when we left was littered with records laying around and it looked more like a tornado had come through. They were all standing around having fun talking to each other, cell phones, looked more like a party. The 2nd floor was more professional. No loose papers laying around, people watching the monitors, and actually working.
Oh I almost forgot. We met a lady in the elevator, her husband was stage 4 cancer. He was suppose to be in and out in 24 hours and it had been 2 weeks. He complained that something was sticking him when he laid in the bed. They didn't say anything or check, just said it was his cancer and gave more pain meds.
The lady said he got up and looked at his back. She and him looked the bed over, pulled the sheet off and out fell a piece of a needle left she assumes from the last patient that was there, but they don't know where it come from. It was left in the bed.
She said it didn't look like he would get to come home, it set up an infection. Her mom was on the cardiac floor from a heart attack. She said the care she was getting was OK, but nothing great. She said she has a meeting with the Administrator. She has to stay mostly with her husband, but checks on her mom too.
Wow.... Those are some pretty scary stories, honestly. Makes me uncomfortable for those of us that don't know medical jargon or procedures as well as Denise or Annie.
Thanks for the clarification!
They tried to talk over my and mom's heads... pretty well done it too. They weren't smart enough though to do that with Denise and Annie. I wonder just how many people don't have someone in their family though and gets drowned in their lingo. It doesn't seem to be about care, just bottom net dollars. Hire cheap, obedient workers and cut corners.
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