Not Quite Dejá Vu
My dad is back in the hospital to have a few tests that can't be done at the rehab facility. It was odd to walk back in yesterday and head to a completely different unit on a completely different floor. My finger almost reflexively pushed "4" on the elevator panel, and when someone else got off on that floor, I nearly followed and made the right-left-right-right-left-right to my dad's old room.
The new room is more of a tent at a campsite—one curtained-off area surrounded by three other curtained-off areas. Not a lot of creature comforts, not a lot of privacy.
Transfers between hospitals are really exhausting for a patient—there's a lot of waiting at the first hospital, and then a lot of activity once the ambulance arrives and the trip begins, and then a lot of waiting at the second hospital. In between all of the hand-offs, it turned out that my dad hadn't been given any food or medication all day, and still hadn't by the time my mom and I were kicked out at 8PM. Eventually, the right people placed the right orders, and things started to happen later that night, but it was still a pretty grueling day for my folks. (My mom hadn't eaten all day, either, until I arrived with a container of soup at around 7PM.)
It was a little bit grueling for me, too, and I was only there for the last hour. I had planned to go before my 3PM class, but the transfer took so long that it eventually became clear that going there first would be relatively pointless.
If my dad had gone back to the ICU, at least we would have known the drill, not to mention all of the staff, and it would have been easy to settle back into the ICU routine. But in this new unit, we didn't know anyone. And more importantly, nobody knew my dad. Given his incredibly complicated recent medical history, and his fairly complex not-so-recent medical history, there is a lot of explaining to do anytime a new doctor or nurse or aide or technician arrives on the scene. So there was a lot of explaining yesterday, all of it by my mom. I do not think there was a single person in New York City more in need of a bubble bath yesterday than my mom.
With any luck, the tests he needs will be done today, and we will know fairly soon what the game plan will be. Because once the weekend arrives, which will happen at about 4PM today, pretty much nothing will happen again before Monday. And my family?
We don't camp.
The new room is more of a tent at a campsite—one curtained-off area surrounded by three other curtained-off areas. Not a lot of creature comforts, not a lot of privacy.
Transfers between hospitals are really exhausting for a patient—there's a lot of waiting at the first hospital, and then a lot of activity once the ambulance arrives and the trip begins, and then a lot of waiting at the second hospital. In between all of the hand-offs, it turned out that my dad hadn't been given any food or medication all day, and still hadn't by the time my mom and I were kicked out at 8PM. Eventually, the right people placed the right orders, and things started to happen later that night, but it was still a pretty grueling day for my folks. (My mom hadn't eaten all day, either, until I arrived with a container of soup at around 7PM.)
It was a little bit grueling for me, too, and I was only there for the last hour. I had planned to go before my 3PM class, but the transfer took so long that it eventually became clear that going there first would be relatively pointless.
If my dad had gone back to the ICU, at least we would have known the drill, not to mention all of the staff, and it would have been easy to settle back into the ICU routine. But in this new unit, we didn't know anyone. And more importantly, nobody knew my dad. Given his incredibly complicated recent medical history, and his fairly complex not-so-recent medical history, there is a lot of explaining to do anytime a new doctor or nurse or aide or technician arrives on the scene. So there was a lot of explaining yesterday, all of it by my mom. I do not think there was a single person in New York City more in need of a bubble bath yesterday than my mom.
With any luck, the tests he needs will be done today, and we will know fairly soon what the game plan will be. Because once the weekend arrives, which will happen at about 4PM today, pretty much nothing will happen again before Monday. And my family?
We don't camp.
posted by Jody Rosen Knower at 5:43 AM
1 Comments:
Jody,
I'm sorry to hear your Dad (and Mom and You!) is having to go through such stress again with a new hospital!
I hope he can get what he needs before 4pm!
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