Everyone needs an advocate.
Changes in health care over the years now require you to be proactive, not reactive!
In other words, nurses and aides have so many patients that they are often over-extended. I personally had a nurse chart that I’d received an IV medication when I knew that I hadn’t. It was only my persistence and ability to cite the day’s activities and what and when I’d received previous medications that day which caused the next nurse to go looking to see if I was right. The medicine was found in the drawer of the nurses’ roll-around computer cart. I told the staff that I never wanted to see the first nurse again! I never did. Had I not been so aware of my prescribed treatment and what had been give, the nurse would have believed the chart and I would have missed an important, scheduled, medication.
My husband and I world as a team. Especially when one of us has a doctor’s appointment or is in the hospital.
When my husband goes into the hospital, I move in with him. I, or someone in the family, is constantly in the hospital room with him. If we have to leave for a few minutes, we tell the nurse who is at the nursing station that we have stepped out and then tell them when we return.
You see, I know him better than anyone else and I know when he need something to drink or needs to cough. No words are spoken, I just know by the sounds he’s making or the way he looks. We have found that many of the nurses and aides really appreciate not only the physical assistance, but also the suggestions/information on how things are done to help him. Many times they don’t know exactly what to do not because of unwillingness, but because they rarely come in contact with someone who has my husband’s problems.
I’ve only been kicked out of his room once and it will NEVER happen again! ICU apparently has rules that say a family member cannot stay with someone 24/7. In the future, I will ensure that the doctors inform the ICU personnel that I am to be allowed with him at all times!
My reason? Because they can’t be at his side constantly.
During the couple of hours that I was not allowed in ICU, my husband had to cough. This sounds like something really simple, right? Wrong! As someone who has quadriplegia, he doesn’t have the diaphragm muscles to cough himself and must be coughed by someone else. They weren’t there to help him and because he can’t use his hands, he couldn’t right the bell for the nurse.
If he’s asleep or groggy from medication, I can ask the nurse/doctor what their doing and why.
I can tell him how he reacted to a medicine and we can discuss it with the doctor.
No, it’s not fun. The TV shows are limited and lousy. The food is not the best. The sleeper couch is a torture contraction designed to ensure that you neither sleep well or want to stay in your loved one’s room.
BUT …
If my enduring these things keeps someone I love safe, then I will do it every day for months!
Remember, you cannot pay someone enough money to take care of a family member as well as you can or will. To them it’s a job. To you it’s love.
You have to watch what is happening to you and to those you love! And just as importantly, you have to learn to speak up! Remember. Your, and their, health is at stake!
You have to be or have an advocate.
Keep moving ….
handimouse 