Saturday was another long day, especially for me.
Mom's hearing is getting progressively worse and we just don't have the thousands of dollars necessary for hearing aids. Her listening device, a small receiver with headphones, hasn’t been working well for awhile, but, of course, it’s nearly 10 years old. So Saturday morning, I headed out for Radio Shack, just 4 blocks from the hospital, to get a new one before going to the hospital. Just as I arrived at the store, mom called to say the doctor had come by and was releasing her to go to rehab.
Now, this was unexpected. On Friday, her primary doctor was concerned about a rash that appeared just above her bandages. He was sending another doctor to see her on Saturday (see Part 8). I mistakenly assumed, from the need to see this new doctor and the blood transfusion she'd had, that she wouldn’t go to rehab until Sunday. I wasn’t ready. After purchasing the listening device, I rushed back home and packed her suitcase, clothes for physical therapy, nightgowns and robe, her player and books for the blind, etc. While there, I called the rehab admissions person to update them. There were no beds open at the moment, but she checked and said it looked like one woman was checking out at noon and a bed might ready sometime in the afternoon.
So now, I make a second trip to town to go to the hospital at 10 AM. We talked to the hospital case manager and explained about the bed situation at the rehab facility. Now, we’d had to do a lot of mental juggling to make the final decision of which rehab we were going to use (see Part 3) and we didn’t want to have to take a different one after all that. The case manager made the calls for us and finally learned that the bed would be available at 3 PM
Rather than spend 5 hours at the hospital, while mom did physical therapy and had lunch, I decided that I would go home…again. I took a number of things with me to the car to reduce the burden when she checked out. I left mom with the arriving physical therapist ready to get her up with the walker again. At home, I took care of some of the chores of daily living, took the dogs out, did some cleaning and washed clothes, and even set up a casserole to pop in the oven when I finally returned later in the day.
At 3 PM, I was back with mom at the hospital. The nurses were right on top of things. All her paperwork was done, the case manager had faxed her reports and records to the rehab and had a package of papers for us to take with us for Admissions. They even had her room number written on the package.
Since mom could take a few steps, she could transfer into our car and back into a wheelchair at rehab. If your patient is restricted to a wheelchair or even a stretcher, your hospital case manager will have information about alternate methods of transport to meet your needs.
The room turned out to be a perfect location with a view of the main entrance and the street beyond. It was a beautiful fall day and several patients were outside enjoying the lawn with their visitors.
Mom was worn out from the transfer but was soon talking to the other occupant of the room, Gloria, who is just a year older than mom. By the time I had her clothes hung up and her things put away in the dresser, they seemed as if they had know each other for many years.
Fortunately for mom, the PT at the hospital and the effort of getting in and out of the car was considered enough for the day and the rehab center nurse told her she had a "vacation" until Monday morning. By that time, I think we both needed one.
In the next post, I'll talk about her first days at rehab. They weren't as rosy as we'd hoped.
Suggestion 1: Get your suitcase packed early, keep it in the car, and be ready days ahead of when you think you’re going to need it, just in case.
Suggestion 2: Keep in touch with your rehab center admissions manager. As soon as you decide on your rehab, call the admissions office and let them know you have selected them. They will have a number of questions about the patient, what hospital they will be in, the date of the surgery, the estimated date for transfer, etc. so they can be sure to hold a room for you.
Kathy F
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