'Adventures' in La-La Land....

Today's hospital visit was an adventure in frustration.... traffic jams, got in fifteen minutes later than I promised, and there he was in a wheelchair out in the hall.

'Peter, what are you doing, slinking about?'

'What are you talking about? I was just in the room talking to a psychiatrist for an hour.'

'Really... what did she want?'

'She wanted to know why I'm sad. And the staff is worried about me.'

Uh-huh.

'Well, let's get you a coffee, because... I brought you two muffins.'

Panic.

'I can't leave the ward without telling them. They caught me yesterday, and couldn't find me at first.'

'Ummm, what do you mean, they 'caught' you? Listen, let's get you that coffee, and you can tell me about it.'

Seemingly, he took off on his own in the wheelchair yesterday, but he doesn't remember doing that, except he landed in the cellar level of the 1st Med station. And they panicked when he went missing. He DOES remember being down there, and confused. 'There were so many doors, and I couldn't find the elevator, only the stairs, and I couldn't get up them in the wheelchair.'

This is true... the cellar level is a bloody labyrinth, lots of treatment rooms, and even confusing to me. Have accompanied him to mri's and x-rays a few times, and landed at the exit I didn't want. So I can imagine, if it is true, it must have been even more confusing to him. Luckily, someone found him and got him back upstairs.

It probably happened. He was fairly clear for a while while I visited. And the nurses were keeping a hawk-eye out on him like they haven't been the past week. And it dove-tails nicely with him muttering that he was gonna run away from there yesterday.

Oh weia... I'm just glad he didn't press E for the ground floor, and barrel out of the building in his Johnny and Depends. It's cold out there beginning in the evening.

I made him PROMISE not to do that again, and to take his meds, and painted 'pretty pictures' of him being 'home' in Gamlitz again.

So, ok. I have something to criticise here. A nursing home doesn't have the experts to give certain kinds of care. It would bust their operating costs, and wouldn't be affordable. Which makes sense. What DOES bother me is shunting a patient back and forth between different hospitals, when they do NOT have the people who can treat them, especially when the patient is going into dementia. It is disorienting, and exacerbates the condition in their mind, even though it is necessary to provide the best care possible. It's a conundrum.

Since March, Peter has had three stationary stays in two different hospitals. And it confuses him even more. I wish I knew a solution... like maybe experts who come in if needed, and do what the doctors in the nursing homes can't, but don't rip them out of a space where they feel 'at home' which is hard enough to acheive??? And only shunt them over for short examinations on machines the facility doesn't have, and bring them back 'home'. It would probably cost the state much less in the long run.... I think there should be a middle ground. Something more holistic.

But what do I know? I only sometimes see bad results of what is meant to be first class care, and sure, that is an extreme example, but... we have a saying.... 'good intentions sometimes end in bad results.'

Nothing is perfect, in other words. Today he said he just wants to go home. To Gamlitz. That was a good sign...

As to the care in LKH here... those people are very conscientious and kind, and patient. I've seen other places there where you have impatient nasty staff, believe me. Exceptions to the rule.

Going in, I ran into Joanna. She is the cousin of my former last boss, and went through the very same thing with her husband. Didn't want to put him in a nursing home and basically went through a living hell, and would pour out all her frustration and sorrow, and sometimes the very funny things, but we listened. My boss was cold-heartedly pragmatic, and said 'Put him in a home, it will destroy you, otherwise.' At the time, I thought that was cold-hearted. Now I understand.

Joanna's husband has been no longer among us for a couple of years now.

She was very cordial, and nice, and we spent a couple of minutes in the lobby before I went up. I didn't get 'into' what was then... But she is obviously doing well. And good for her.

So now it is my turn. Am glad I really listened back then.