Rehab adventure

Mom was moved to rehab - and it was everything we feared and more! It was not a pleasant experience. Right off the bat, Mom was coughing (as usual) and the male nurse literally shoved about 14 inches of suction tubing in her lungs. It not only made her choke, but it was extremely painful. (In maximum situations, the most tubing to be used is 8 inches, but 4 inches usually does the trick.) Then, they would not feed her or administer any pain medication until they had entered all of the information into the computer. That took hours. THEN, the orders received from the doctor were from several days before, and her treatment had changed since then. If we hadn't been there to challenge the orders, it would have been disasterous. Mom was afraid to be left there alone, so Donna and I took shifts and stayed the night with her (By law, Frances can only be on active duty so many hours a day). Fortunately, things calmed down, staff changed shifts, and it wasn't a horrible night. On the upside, Mom is stronger (probably out of self-preservation!) and was able to walk to the restroom several times during the night without assistance. Frances (her home caregiver) and I discussed what it would take to care for Mom at home and Frances believes she could give Mom much better care than she is currently receiving. Now that Mom is in rehab, the doctor does not come around regularly, so we've put in a request to expedite her to home. They still want to have the physical therapist, the respitory therapist, the speach therapist, and the occupational therapist evaluate her before the doctor will give any orders. So, it sounds like I'll be spending the night with Mom again tonight. I'm sure once we can get the necessary equipment at the house, we will have her home in no time.