And it Continues...

I'm still working on the complaint to the facility my mother was hospitalized at in June.  Turns out the VDH doesn't take complaints on Psyche facilities.  It goes through the Human Rights Committee local to the hospital.  The way they work it is: they take my complaint, forward it to the facility, the facility investigates itself (and I expect will find no fault in themselves) and then I have to file an appeal.  No facility should be allowed to investigate itself.  That's just ridiculous.  And to top it off they forwarded my complaint to the very person at the facility who lied to me when I called.

Thankfully I found that out this morning when I called for the email address to send the more complete complaint I wrote up for the VDH.  I was told that the complaint would then have to go to a higher up official at the facility.  Sad thing is that the guy who was part of the problem is on the Human Rights Committee Board.  Now I know this complaint will go no where. But I have to go through proper channels before I can sue them.

The guy in question called for more information this morning and when I informed him he was part of my complaint he had the audacity to laugh at me.  That and his condescending tone tells me he isn't taking this seriously and figures I'll just go away.

It is now my personal mission to make sure he loses his job and is living out of a cardboard box.

My mom, meanwhile, is still suffering the effects of her stay.  She isn't delusional, but is horribly depressed.  Her mood is flat and she lays in bed all day.  She only gets out of bed for meals.  She didn't even show interest in the chocolate my brother brought her the week before.  Chocolate never lasted more than an hour in her hands before. I really wish there was a way to just take her off all her meds and have her somewhere she can't hurt herself or others.

It's pure fantasy and just manages to make myself more depressed.

Now if Only I Could Predict the Lotto...

Remember my post last month?  The one where I said if things don't change mom will be back in the hospital in two months?  I wrote that blog post on March 21st.  Today is April 18th.  I guess I was off by a month.  I've been frantically trying to get her house ready for sale so I could devote the time she needed from me for a hospital stay, since I predicted it happening sometime in May.  So, this will probably slow things down a bit, but here's hoping other family members pick up the slack enough that I won't fall too far behind.

My mom's delusions have become a bit more vivid recently.  She has a new imaginary friend, Will, that I introduced you to last time.  She's been shaking less, but I was really thinking things were staying the same.  She started having a Psyche Nurse visit her a few weeks ago.  I was hoping this would be what would help keep her out of the hospital.  Clearly that was false hope.

Today I got a call from the Psyche Nurse who had been called in to evaluate her today by the facility (I'm not sure why they called her since they should have called me first, but whatever.  It's not like I'm her Guardian.  Oh wait.  I am.).  When the nurse was on the phone she told me about mom's most recent delusion and it's become a bit more....elaborate.  Now Will is Satan and mom's being attacked by him.  The poor nurse sounded very shaken up by the whole experience.  I hope she doesn't end up with PTSD over the situation.  I mentioned that I was expecting a hospitalization soon if things didn't improve and she indicated to me that we are at that point.  The doctor could do med changes, but since she doesn't have anyone that can watch her closely (her ALS does not provide this service) then that could do more harm than good.

So I contacted her doctor who agreed hospitalization was the best choice at the moment.  Tomorrow morning I'll take her back to Norfolk General and pray there's a Gero Psyche bed available.  Since there are only 6 in the entire Hampton Roads Area (Wikipedia lists the area as having 1.6 million people so only 6 people over the age of 50 can have any kind of mental issue at any given time.  Good luck with that HR), there isn't much chance of a bed being open.   I'm worried we'll be in the ER till Monday.

So if you are a praying person please pray for health, skill and a slow day in the ER.   I'll take chants, vibes, quirky memes or anything else that could possibly help.

Oh and if anyone knows any politician at all please smack him or her over the head and tell them to get to work!  Or send me his/her personal cell number.  I'll put my mom on the phone.