THIS IS ANOTHER OF MY RANTS SO PLEASE DON'T FEEL YOU NEED TO READ IT.
When I came away from the hospital last night I felt much happier leaving mum there but tonight I could have happily wheeled her out of there and brought her home.
This morning when I rung to see how mum was I was told that she would be having her CT scan at 11.20am and the results would be back by around 5pm. I arrived at the hospital at 2.30pm to find that mum had been taken down for her scan but had been sent back to the ward without it being done. There was a war going on between the ward and the scan department about a cannula the ward had put in mums hand ready for the dye. Scan department said it wouldn't flush ward disagreed. At around 3.30pm a Doctor came and removed the cannula from mums hand and insteadput one in mums foot. We left at 4pm being assured that mum would go for her scan soon.
Mum was quite confused when we arrived this afternoon and her nightie was covered in coffee and food although her face was clean. I couldn't change her nightie because of the cannula in her foot and being afraid it may get knocked out if I attempted to stand her up. On looking through her notes I found that she wasn't eating much, referred to as poor appetite. Mum has been eating really well so I found this hard to believe.
When I got back at 6.30pm tonight mum was still sitting in the chair in the stained nightie. She still had the cannula in her foot and had not been for her scan. I spoke to the staff nurse and she rung the scan dept again. I heard her asking when mum would get her scan and then saying the problem was that if mum didn't get it the family were going to kick off big time!! To be honest the scan was the least of my worries except that they seem to need the results before we can move forward with mums care. To me it is obvious what the results will say, it's back and it's aggressive, it's not rocket science!
I was more concerned with how confused and out of it mum was. I expressed concern and asked for mums blood results. Sodium up to 112 from 110 but potassium low. I explained that mum usually ate a banana every day and that I had told the nurse in the ward and left bananas for mum to have as this is what she was told to do by the doctor and it had worked. Yesterday mums potassium had been fine, the sodium was the only issue. I also expressed concern that mum was not eating according to her notes. The staff nurse said more of the food went on mum than in her! I asked should they not, then, be assisting her when she was eating and she agreed that that was something they needed to start doing. I got a banana and fed it to mum, she ate every bit. I had also taken up a muller rice and she ate every bit of that too. They were making out mum had no appetite and was struggling to eat any food when in actual fact they were just leaving the food infront of her and then taking it away when she had only eaten a little bit. She is so confused that once she had put down the sandwich, to maybe have a drink, she would forget the sandwich was there.
Mum was the worst I've seen her tonight. I had her admitted so that she could get proper care and they could stabilise her sodium level. I have had to fight to get the correct doseage of her sodium meds and she is so much more confused than she was when she went in on Tuesday. The deterioration has been rapid. She is on a limited fluid intake and her output has also to be measured. I had a look at the chart today and found that yesterday some intake had been recorded but no output and today there was nothing on the chart at all.
All I want to do is to get her through this weekend when I don't have Christine around, or the family support at the hospice, and then get her into the hospice as quickly as possible. I feel like staging a sit in on the ward as I feel that's the only way I can make sure she is cared for and monitored properly. The fact that I can't visit until 2.30pm tomorrow afternoon is driving me mad. I even found myself thinking tonight what if........? What if she continues to deteriorate over the next two days? What if she doesn't make it to the hospice? What if she is even more confused tomorrow and doesn't know who I am? I said something to her tonight and she told me Caroline had told her the same thing! I am scared I'm going to lose her because of negligence after she has fought so hard against this b*****d disease! To see her like that tonight was devastating. The only thing I would say is that she doesn't seem distressed. If I go in tomorrow and find her with that dirty nightie on I will let rip!
I have now emailed PALS twice to ask for a their assistance in making a formal complaint against the MAU. I have had no response. Tomorrow I will try to speak to someone at the hospital as I noticed a PALS desk at reception on the way in tonight.
Another stressful day - what an understatement!!
