My mother was supposed to have surgery to repair her broken leg on March 12, 2014. I met her and one of Bedford's aides, Mark at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital at 5:30 AM.
We were put into a pre-op room around 6 AM by one of their CNA's. He told Mom to get undressed and get on the hospital bed. I told him that we would need help lifting Mom onto the bed because she couldn't put weight on her foot. Then he disappeared.
An RN came in later. She spoke a kind of baby talk to Mom, like people do to little kids. I told her we needed help getting Mom into the bed. She took some vitals and brought that first male CNA back into the room to help. He and Mark got Mom into the bed. The nurse took off Mom's top and put her into a hospital gown. Mark left and said he had to go to work.
Another nurse came to put in an IV. I told him that Mom would be difficult to stick, especially since she had not drunk anything in 12 hours. He tried and ended up getting a bunch of blood but couldn't get the IV in. They used the blood for her blood tests.
The surgeon, Dr Harvin came in and spoke to Mom. Then in came the anesthesiologist. His assistant tried to put an IV into Mom, too.
Dr Harvin came back in later and said that he couldn't operate because Mom's thyroid levels were too low. The anesthesiologist said it would be dangerous to give her anesthesia for a long time with these low levels.
My cell phone couldn't get a signal so I had to use one of the hospital phones to call Bedford's managers. I got to Linda in time and she sent Mark back in. His taxi had not come yet.
Dr Harvin returned and said he would cast Mom in the hospital, in an operating room. They were going to give her some gas so they could get the IV into her.
When she went into the operating room I left for work - around 8:30 AM. The doctor called and said she did fine. He was able to rotate her leg a bit to get the bone back into a better alignment. She is supposed to go see him again in 2 weeks. Mark took her back to Bedford in a wheelchair taxi.
I went over to check on Mom around 4 PM. The cast is huge. It goes over her knee.
This has been a major ordeal for all of us. Mom has to stay in a reclining wheelchair during the day. Bedford is trying to get Medicare to approve an air bed for her to help prevent bedsores.
I have the burden of trying to determine what is best for her since I hold her medical power of attorney.
No comments:
Post a Comment