So... on Oct. 9th/2014 I get a call late afternoon from Trisha. Trisha is the new person in control of all the short term stays and internal moves of residents, etc. She checks that I'm still bringing my mom in on Friday and I tell her yes.. but she has the take home day wrong. I'm picking her up on Monday, not Tuesday. She asks what time I'm bringing her in and I tell her 11 am
Now.. I'm outside when I get this call and it's so windy I can hardly hear what she's saying so she said something and I honestly thought that she asked me how it went the last time sooooo.... lol I said "I wasn't impressed when I discovered there was no nurse Monday when I picked her up and that she had no meds that morning!".. ooops, seems she didn't know there was no nurse that day. ooops again because that wasn't what she asked even. So she asks me to come see her when I get there at 11 am and I say ok.
Next day @ 11 am I'm there but she isn't. ok, technically she is but it seems she's in her "regular" Friday morning manager's meeting in her office. hmmm she didn't realize this when she said she'd meet me?
I get my mom up to the 2nd floor where she's staying and go to the nurses station to give them her medications and liquid diet only to be told.. no, we no longer take meds like that (in a dosette). For now on we order all the meds from the pharmacy and you will have to pay a dispensing fee!
Really? Well explain to me why I wasn't told anything about this? And I talked to Trisha just late yesterday, nor did I get a letter about this. And if you think I'm paying a dispensing fee you're crazy. So if you don't want to give her the meds like this, then don't give her any meds! Whatever happens in your responsibility. I bring her food, so it's no cost to you. I bring her incontinence products so you don't have to use yours.. I bring all her lotions, etc. and yet I still pay the same fee as everyone else and you now expect me to pay dispensing fee's now?
I left at noon and passed by Trisha's office yet again after calling her a 2nd time. She kept me waiting again. Finally we talk and I tell her exactly what I typed above. She calls Natalia and tells her she needs to see her right away. (btw, Trisha knew nothing of this new medication policy). I met with them for over a 1/2 hour and now I'm seriously late for my appt. There isn't much I hate more than being made to wait way past the time arranged other than being made late to an appt. because you can't keep to your schedule. It will never happen again with this place. That's twice now I was suppose to meet Trisha at a certain time and twice now she was extremely late. End result is this is suppose to be some new policy by the Minister of Long Term Care due to people buying cheap medications online and they can be dangerous. So? I don't give my mom cheap medications, I purchase hers from our pharmacy down the street. Call them to verify that it's a real prescription. It really isn't all that difficult now is it? A two minute call to a pharmacy to read off the prescriptions they have recently filled for you. Voila! I'm told that can take too long! Instead, you want to suck more money out of me. They need to plant a freakin money tree in that bare back yard of theirs so we can go by and pluck it as we enter the facility.
That night I go like I regularly do and guess what? No teeth cleaned, no mat yet on the floor. Again I requested it prior to her arrival (the day before) and with the nurse, and with the p.s.w. and again there is no damn mat in case she falls. And she does fall. I cleaned her teeth and I put her jammies on her. Before I left I scouted for the ONE AND ONLY nurse they have at night (for 50 patients) and she again called the maintenance dept. to get a mat. No one knows where these are or can access them it seems.
Next day (Saturday) I get a call from William the nurse who lets me know my mom fell. She tried to get out of bed again. She doesn't remember she can't walk or thinks she can if.... if she does this, or that.. but no she can't. Someone had finally found a mat and placed it at the foot of her bed and she fell onto that not hurting herself. I thanked William for calling and letting me know.
I get there at noon and YUCK! The damn mat. Here you go:
Yea! it's that same disgusting mat as before but now it's worse if that's at all possible! Look at this thing.. it's even dirtier. Has it been used as the door mat in front of the building? Certainly looks like it. And now it's ripped everywhere which is a TRIPPING/FALLING HAZARD for anyone going near it. This thing is vile and I would love it tested for bacteria.
This is nothing more than "I don't give a shit about the patients and they can do a face plant on this filth for all I care". That's pretty much it and how much they care. Makes me thankful I'm not a staff member's mom. Makes me wonder how they treat their elderly.
It's noon.. and she's not dressed either. And so here I go again. Excuse me but these weekends are suppose to be my weekends to rest. I may as well have her home with me and keep my $109.02. I go to dress her and discover they are using their incontinence products which are literally crap. They are not very absorbent and leak terribly causing distress and humiliation with the clients that have to use them. I bring ours from home which are a great product. I also let them know I have brought her own. I even have a sign about it:
Then I notice her patch! She has a nitro patch, 12 hrs on and 12 hrs off. Why is it on? It should have come off at 9 pm the night before but this is still the same patch that I put on at 9 am Friday and I know this because it has my handwriting on it with the date and time I put it on. So she has had this damn thing on for over 24 hrs! Now... it says 12 hrs on and 12 hrs off in the chart I bring, it says it right on the prescription box that the patches are in and I told them as well. So William thinks he needs to put a new one one. I tell him no, she's already had it on far too long and now leave it off until tomorrow (Sunday) morning.
Listen... this isn't rocket science. 12 hrs on, 12 off and it's dated and timed. I took 3 patches with her. One for Saturday morning, one for Sunday morning and one for Monday morning. I brought 2 home... how the hell does that work? Another weekend when she didn't get her meds. So William can't find anything about it on his computer and he then calls the pharmacy and they tell him the explanation is that they didn't get the 2nd page faxed to them or it didn't come through. 2 pages? There is only one page of her prescription meds and the nitro is on that and William told them it was the 4th item down the list. I was standing right there.
And they think this pharmacy is the answer to medication issues? really? Not f*ckin likely.
That night (Sat.) I go back as I usually do at 7 pm.. She has on a ratty old blue hospital gown! I can't believe it. I brought 2 freshly washed pair of jammies with her so why does she have this piece of crap on? Her jammies are in the wardrobe with her clothing and personal items. I have to pull the thing over her head to get it off because it's knotted so badly at the back it's the only way to do it.
Why does she have this on?
Finally a psw comes in and I ask her. She tells me she could not find any pajamas for my mom. How is that possible? All you have to do is open the wardrobe door and there they are. I told her to never put my mom in one of those old huge things. She was recently in hospital yet again and it brings back bad memories for her (she almost died) and it also confuses her as well. She now doesn't know where the hell she is.
Her teeth were not done... I didn't do them this evening. Since I left at 8 pm I was hoping someone would do them.
Before I left I was talking to the night nurse and I wanted to take home the empty container for my mom's drink so I can refill it and bring a new one the next day with me. She told me to just have someone call her when I'm ready to leave. She is the only nurse there that night. So I get to the nurses station and she isn't there but there is this psw.
I don't know what this woman's name is, I have never seen her with a name badge on but she is the laziest thing I have ever seen and rather stunned at that. Every single time I see this woman she's eating and yup.. tonight is no exception. Last time I saw her she was sitting on her ass in the darkened cafeteria eating. I told her I was looking for my mom's psw and God help my mom but doesn't she say it's her! I tell her that I have left my mom's phone on her bed and it's charging. To please unplug it soon because it can be a fire hazard. She said yes. The next morning I found the damn phone still plugged in.
Anyway, I ask this psw if she can please call the nurse. I tell her that I need the container but it's in the medicine room and only the nurse has a key. She looks at me stunned as usual without stopping chewing and says "Did Manju tell you to say that"? I told her yes! So she gets up off her ass as slowly as possible and starts sauntering around as if she is looking for her. Half a hall here, by the elevators there... half a hall here... geez I may as well do it myself. Finally the nurse popped in from the other side. She gave me the container and I was on my way.
Look at this damn mat. I went and got a facecloth and put some soap on it and rubbed the mat:
Would you like your elderly parent/aunt/uncle/cousin.. whomever to even be near this damn thing? How about to land on it face first?
So... now it's Sunday. I go over at my usual time, noon. William has called a few minutes ago to tell me she tried to get out of bed again and fell again. ugh... onto that disgusting mat. He tells me she is ok. But she is getting some nasty bruises over this weekend. He also lets me know she's running short on her liquid diet and I tell him I'm on my way in a couple of minutes to spend time with her and I have her drink with me.
He tells me he put her in her wheelchair and took her to the nurses station so they can keep an eye on her and that's where I found her when I got there. Thankfully dressed. Decided to take her to the cafeteria for lunch but she was complaining something was stinging her and she was starting to cry. I took her to her room and low and behold I needed to change her and I swear there was no Vaseline on her so she's going to get a damn rash. Oh.. last night I had to change her as well.
I took her back to the cafeteria and set her up at the table and Pearl offered to get her some soup. Thank goodness for Pearl. She's a great psw. It was cream of cauliflower and my mom loved it :-) I managed to get most of it in her before she nodded off at the table. And all of the chocolate icing of the cake Pearl brought her over too. I knew she couldn't eat the cake itself but boy she loved the chocolate icing. I then took her back to her room and let her know I'd be back tonight. William was great again and helped me get her in and out of bed each time I needed to.
Again Sunday night and no one cleaned her teeth. I sent her kit with her as usual. 3 swabs to clean her mouth with, 3 polident tablets, her denture toothbrush, a kidney dish to soak the teeth in and her polident. Monday morning I took that home with us.
So Monday morning comes and I am always there around 10 am to pick her up. I expect her ready to go. I quite honestly don't know why I have ANY expectations in this place.
I show up and her door is almost closed, lights are out, drapes pulled and damned if she isn't sound asleep in her jammies still. Really???????? wtf!
So I wake her up and start. Her freakin pajama pants are pulled down around the top of her thighs? What the hell is with that? Are they too damn lazy to pull up her pants for her? I take care of her personal needs. I have no damn gloves either. I guess now I'm going to have to keep gloves in my backpack since this weekend I've changed her personal needs at least 3 times!
From there I dress her and finally Dolma comes in and asks if I want some help. I told her she's no help and that I'm finished. I asked her why my mom is still in bed like this? She is her psw. She gives me this line "She was in a dead sleep". I tell her then you just wake her up. She needed to be ready to go when I got here. Then she tells me "We are not allowed to wake them up if they are in a deep sleep, it's against policy". ok.. that's about the stupidest thing I've heard in a few days about policies in that place. Then after I do all her personal stuff and dress her and get things ready to go doesn't Dolma inform me that she hasn't even been washed yet and she'll do it now! Now??? Now??? I told her don't worry about it, I've had it and intend to write a letter about all this weekend.
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