Tuesday, November 15, 2011

November 2011 Hospitalization Update

Yesterday I wrote a post about all the things that were happening during this attempt to get my mother the inpatient care she needs.  Today thankfully things started moving and she was placed in the Gero Psyche ward at Norfolk General.  It's been a long day, but I was so glad to leave her in the capable hands of this hospital.

From start to finish it took 56 hours to have my mother admitted for treatment.  And I thought the previous times were bad at 24 hours.

I am still very irritated about how the whole thing played out.  I never ever thought I would say this in a million years, but I can't believe how much better the City of Chesapeake is at handling these things that the City of Norfolk.  As the Norfolk police officer said "You're not in Kansas anymore."  Chesapeake seems efficient and streamlined.  Things may be slower than you'd like, but everyone seems to know what's going on.  Norfolk was a what I would call a hot mess.  No one seemed to know what was really going on or how it should go.

Exhausted from Sunday and Monday's events I fell asleep last night and slept for 13 hours.  I headed up to the hospital to spend some time with my mom so she knew we weren't abandoning her.  She was receiving psychiatric care in the ER so at least she wasn't floating.  But she was pretty angry the doctor put her on a medication she didn't like, Zyprexa.  It is the only one that has ever worked for her.  The ones she has been on are really hard on the elderly brain so it was either give her Zyprexa and have her be mad or stick with drugs that slowly make it harder and harder for her to function.

I was informed about noon that she was being placed in the Gero Psyche ward.  It was after 8pm before she finally got there.  In the end she needed to be on Temporary Detainment Order and the Norfolk Police Department had to escort her up the elevator to the ward she is staying in.  I have no idea why they have to do it that way. It wasn't that way in Chesapeake, but whatever.

The sad thing is that because of all the uproar with the Norfolk Community Services Board (they paid an employee for years who didn't show up for work because they never bothered to officially fire her) the people who know how to do their jobs have left.  Funding has been pulled so that other organizations are not available to help.  I've been told that soon the people we worked with this week will all lose their jobs due to budget cuts.  Although they were of little help this time and caused a lot of confusion and aggravation I don't believe cutting more funds and getting rid of more people are going to improve an already impossible situation.

People need to wake up and realize that we can't keep going full speed into a brick wall.  Something has to give.  We either need to raise taxes or just never get sick.  I don't think the latter is a possibility.  There's no money and people need help.

I watched a homeless man in the hospital desperate to keep his leftover chicken safe so that when he was released he'd have something to eat.  This is America!  What does that say about us if we let things like that happen?  The sad part is he will get some help, maybe lots of help, but soon he'll be living on a park bench again not knowing where his next meal will come from.

When I walked my mom to her room the nurse gave me all the instructions for the ward.  Then she asked if our family had a "safe word" we like to use.  Yes my mind went there.  The first word that popped into my head was a type of animal.  My brother said I clearly wasn't up on my secret agent code words.  I've been ordered to brush up on my viewing of "Top Secret."  I'll have to make time for that tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment