Morning everyone,
JM, I really feel for you hun, but I do think you are being too hard on yourself
Its as Red says, your name on here is very appropriate because you are juggling so much at the moment. I'm glad the sale is going through on the house, and have fingers and toes crossed that once its done, it will create a little bit of breathing space for you and take off some of the pressure xxxxx
I took on board the comments about mobility and asked OH what has been said about it in terms of was it covered when her discharge was discussed. And no, it wasn't. I've made it clear that has to be looked at. But whether it is or it isn't sorted properly, Lemony's advice about refusing to lift or physically help will be followed to the letter.
Yep - I agree that its the section 2 coming to an end that has a part in this. The ward has - from what I have been told - a large number of patients who are waiting for EMI Nursing placements to be found, and who have been there for a long time. One trainee nurse who has been training both here and in the adjoining county, told me that in one small area where she worked, there were over 60 dementia patients waiting for permenant placements in EMI Nursing homes - and approximately only 10 such beds allocated for that need in homes in the whole of the county involved. You can see why there is such pressure to discharge. I half expected the discharge to take place just as the section was up, and was prepared for that, until she got the chest infection - I assumed that would change things, as obviously the 8 days on medical cut into the time they told us it would take for the assessment and treatment to take place. I think its thrown the hospital for a loop and that they have quite possibly got someone else booked for that bed and that they are under pressure to make it available. That's pretty much what happened with Mil, remember - bed not available on the agreed date due to a discharge not taking place when it was expected.
Everything is again up in the air here, however. Yesterday morning, I ignored several calls from a 'withheld' number, but answered one that displayed a local number, assuming it was one of daughters mates ringing. Nope - hospital. Mil had run out of clean clothes. Told them I would pass the message on to OH, explained again that I was recovering from a medical procedure, and that OH would be dealing solely with them over the weekend to give me chance to get better, but that he was now in work for the next 3 days. I felt extremely guilty - in the midst of all this, I can't forget that none of this is Mil's fault - but stuck to my guns and simply passed the info onto OH.
Later that day, another call again from a local number, and again I fell for it - perhaps just as well, as it was to tell me that they had taken bloods from Mil (though come to think of it, they never said why?) and that the results again showed 'markers' indicating an infection. She was being transferred over to A&E again, for medical assessment and treatment. Oddly out of context, the nurse speaking also informed me that staff from DC had been in to 'assess' Mil and had said that they currently have a spare bed there - I should have followed that up straight away, but it was 'slipped in' amidst the news that Mil was poorly again, and I didn't
Anyway, I asked was it her chest? A UTI? They didn't know - just there were 'strong markers' in the bloood results. This was at about 5pm. I asked them to keep me informed.
Meanwhile, I was a lot better as the day had gone on - not completely pain free but it certainly improved and I had decided that I would be OK to pick up oldest from train station (she has come down for the weekend) at 7-ish. As the hospital is just a tiny detour, I asked son to come with me, stopped at the hospital and sent him in to drop off a bag of clean clothes - no way was I walking through the door and getting dragged or pressured into anything, I felt that this was a good solution to the laundry issue at least because the Guilt Monster had been playing hell with me over her not having clean clothes. Son said that they told him Mil was still waiting for transport over to the main part of the hospital and the A&E department.
No news at all last night, so first thing this morning, we rang them. Mil has spent the night in A&E, she is on a drip, they are waiting for a bed and no - they still don't know what the infection is.
Quite what all this means, I don't know - if she is ill enough to warrent another stay of several days on a medical ward, then the section will expire on Tuesday and that puts them in a quandary. She may be too ill to ask to leave - which is what happened when she had the chest infection, she didn't ask once whilst she was on the medical ward - in which case they may just keep her there for a few days and she will come home then (maybe even by Monday, I guess?) - but if she does ask to go, what are they going to do? Can they apply another section2? Or will it have to be DOL's or section 3? Its also occured to me that if the EMH ward were under pressure to admit another patient, then this infection is very handy for them, and it could be something incredibly minor with the idea being that they have 'passed the buck' to medical. However, if there is a problem, what are they going to do when the section runs out and they are under no obligation to provide the one to one care from a member of their own staff, which is policy while she is under the section? Take away the one to one, and even if Mil is too poorly to run true to form, I still think that medical would struggle with dealing with a dementia patient and there may well be strong objections from them. I am sure as hell not going in and sitting with her all day.
This throws up so many 'what if's' , just no idea what will happen now, at all.
