Christine phoned me at 8.50am this morning to say an ambulance would collect mum within the next 4 hours and she would be admitted to the medical assessment ward. At 12.50pm I received a phonecall from the ambulance service to say they were running a wee bit late but would get to us sometime soon. At 2.30ish they arrived and mum was taken to hospital. By 3pm she was in her room and her bloods had been done.
Christine met us as we arrived and apologised profusely for the time it had taken to get the ambulance. She had been up to the ward 5 or 6 times during the day and had gone mad saying that mum was on a four hour. I thank God that she is based at the hospital as I know she will look out for mum and chase everything up until she gets things sorted.
After mums bloods were taken the nurse said the doc would be along shortly. All seemed to be going well but that was the last we saw anyone until around 6pm when a very nice young student doctor asked mum if she would mind her asking some questions before the consultant came. Mum is really confused and was giving all sorts of answers that were totally inaccurate. The poor girl was completely confused as according to mum there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. Fortunately I was able to intervene and set the record straight.
At around 7.15pm the doc arrived and proceeded to do all the neurological tests the student had done before telling us mums sodium was VERY low. When mums bloods were done when we came back from holiday her sodium count was 129, the GP ordered another blood test 4 weeks later and found the count was 121. He came to see mum, informed her of this and promptly left. Christine, on the other hand, got straight onto Dr Mehta, mums oncologist, and arranged scans plus meds to deal with the low sodium. Mum started the meds on Friday so I was very shocked to find out that today her sodium count was 110, hence the VERY low comment from the doc at the hospital!
The Doc went on to inform us that he would be starting mum on some meds for the low sodium. I informed him she was already taking these. He should have known that as it was on her notes written up by the student. He said they would limit her fluid intake to 1 litre a day and I told him we had already done that. So the upshot was he said he would increase the meds and limit fluid intake to three quarters of a litre per day. I asked about the scan Dr Mehta had asked for and pointed out that Christine had said mum would have the scan right away if she was admitted. His answer was that he would deal with the low sodium and leave the scan to Dr Mehta. If mum was kept in she may be able to have the scan done whilst she's there but if she goes home she will have to come back as an outpatient. I decided not to pursue this as I know Christine will sort it tomorrow. The doc left telling us mums named nurse would be in to explain things shortly. At 7.55pm mums named nurse arrived, introduced herself and said she was going off duty at 8pm! She said the nurse taking over would come and see us when she had got the notes off the doc. Needless to say no nurse arrived, I went to ask and someone went to look for her. At 8.30pm there was still no sign of the nurse and I was told they couldn't find her!
Eventually mums nurse did turn up. During the time I had been waiting I had had to struggle to get mum to the loo. I then got her into her nightie as she was so tired and I put her to bed. I left the hospital at around 9.30pm. The nurse assured me they would look after mum and make sure she got all her night time meds. She says mum will remain in the assessment ward until a bed can be found on a ward. I phoned the hospital at around 10.30pm and was told mum had had all her meds and was quite settled. The woman who had taken my cal,l and gone off in search of mums nurse, apologised for taking so long saying she hadn't been able to find mums nurse. I said I understood as I had had a similar problem earlier! I'm really not happy at having to leave her there. She has a lovely room on her own which is ensuite but I'm worried if she needs the loo she'll shout on me instead of using the button and no one will hear. She is so confused and I'm not even sure she'll remember she's in hospital. No one saw her out of bed so they maybe don't appreciate that she really can't stand up or walk although I did tell them.
I'm probably worrying unnecessarily. I know I've done the right thing by taking her in there. They will be able to see how bad she is and, hopefully, get her stabilised so that she can come home.
