Wednesday, March 2

Week one of hospital....

We've been in a full week tonight. Far out its been really shit. Not just cause she's been quite sick, but I've had to battle with stupid bloody nurses the whole bloody time. Let me just go through some of the issues, describing them as nurse 1, nurse 2 and nurse 3 to be polite - I can come up with some other names which are far more appropriate, but I'm not sure that they are Hitler followers or female dogs which have not been neutered.
Day 1 - nurse 1 - *told my mother in law off for sitting on an unmade bed cause she might dirty it (great introduction) *told my mum (who was acting as Holly's primary carer at the time) that she could not use the toilet next to Holly's room and that she needed to go down the hall to the visitors toilet. *Told us that she was going to get the scales for Holly and that we'd have to sit her up in them - totally insensitive, didn't even ask if Holly was capable of sitting.
Day 2 - nurse 1 - decided totally autonomously that she wouldn't feed Holly the second half of her lunch, she'd just give her an early dinner instead. I think this is the one I'm most angry about. How dare she decide what Holly will or won't eat. She is in hospital for a UTI, to increase her fluids and gain weight. It is NOT her decision to make that Holly doesn't need to be fed. Then when I questioned, I was told that the dietitian had told her it was OK - I went nuts, asked for them to ring the dietitian cause I know that is not the case. Between 8:30am and 6pm Holly was given 130mls of milk. Holly's regime at the moment is to have 130, half hour break, then another 130mls. So she had her 6pm 130, so her second should have been around 7pm in theory. They didn't come back in to Holly until 8:30 with the second half of her meal. So then it also became that between 12:30 and 8:30 she'd only had 130mls. Complete incompetence.
- nurse 2 - Holly's feed has to be thickened, I'd had a discussion with one of the doctors earlier on about how much thickener is to go in the bottle. It was decided that one scoop of thickener was to go into each 130mls of milk. nurse 2 came in at 8:30 at night shaking up the bottle saying that she'd put 1/4 tsp of thickener in the milk. To cut a very very long storey short, I had a stand up argument with her about how much thickener was to be in the bottle and it did not matter how many time I tried to explain to her that I had spoken to the doctor and that is what the doctor said, she just was not going to back down. In the end, I ended up so upset about her not getting any food at all that I just cracked it, told her to put it down the tube and ring the doctors. Turns out I was right - funny that isn't it???!!!
Day 3 - nurse 3 - arguing with me about whether or not Holly needed her dummy. To quote her "Get that animal thing out of here". I really don't need your personal views imposed on me. She spoke about whether Holly needed one, and if she did then perhaps we shouldn't get that shaped on. Holly's speech path recommends that Holly has a dummy, in fact she recommends that brand and that shape. I'm so sick of people trying to project their personal opinion and what suits and able bodied person on Holly.
Hadn't had too much trouble since then...
We are now at day 7 - nurse one - She is such a bovine - Anyway, I think she genuinely has been trying to make conversation today. But it just hasn't suited her, she's been trying to be nice and it just hasn't worked all day. So in Holly's room there are two beds and two trundle beds/chair things that are provided for parents to stay the night. Because Holly has now been classified as a gastro patient, we've got the room to ourselves. nurse 1 came in to me this afternoon and said that she'd like to take the trundle beds/chair things out because we've got a bed for the overnight carer to stay and we don't need the trundles. I said to her that I'd prefer if we could keep one if possible because we need a chair for us to be able to hold Holly in. She said there were some other arm chair she might be able to bring in instead. I said, well I'd prefer to keep the one that's there if possible because its the best at supporting Holly. So a few hours later, all the other bedrooms are vacant, Holly was litterally the only person admitted on the ward. Clearly that meant nurse 1 had some time on her hands and she thought she'd move some beds around. She came in with this armchair that was a glorified dining chair. I explained to her that the chair wasn't going to be suitable for us to be able to support Holly and she went at it from there. Saying bull's feaces about how we've got two in the room and we don't need two - I said, I know we don't need two, I'm not asking for both to be kept, I'm asking that we keep one because its most suitable for us to be able to nurse Holly. Then she said, I'm just trying to save someone having to come in at 2am to come and collect it if they need it. Well why not let us use it until 2am cause Holly might need it in the mean time??? There are 3 other bedrooms available, all with trundle beds in them surely if someone else comes into the ward, they'd put them in a room with a trundle bed in it??? The likelyhood of them actually needing the trundle bed we are using is slim to none. Far out I'm frustrated. Its been such a crap week and I really didn't need this tonight. I'm pretty sure that this is the straw that has broken the proverbial back. I'm over it. I'm going to ring the patient relation person in the morning and see about making a complaint.....