TUESDAY’S THANK YOU (08/5/14)
Today’s thank you goes out to the staff at the ManorCare Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility in Carmichael, Ca. Mom has been staying there since April 3rd for the rehab of a broken femur. Now, of course not everything goes one hundred percent the way it should or not everyone connects with everyone else all the time, but for the majority of the time she has been recovering she has connected almost everyone. The staff is amazing with the residents they are in charged to care for and many go above and beyond to ensure their stay is a comfortable one. I’m not saying this batch of grapes doesn’t have a sour one (or two) hanging from their vein but for the majority they have all been wonderful. When mom first went into ManorCare she was feeling no pain, this is when we found out that morphine and mom get along “REALLY GOOD,” way to good. The orthopedic surgeon put her on morphine and tramadol for pain resulting from the femur surgery and mom had a pastor take her to a church where a kids choir was singing very angelic, she even warned my younger brother that aliens were coming to take him away, they told her so. One elaborate hallucination was when the sprinkler system outside her room turned on she swore it was a helicopter landing, at the same time she thought she heard a couple of nurses talking about a friend of one of them was being brought in by helicopter for medical care. When the nurse came into mom’s room to take vitals, mom asked her how her friend was doing. The nurse looked at her and asked her what she was talking about and when mom explained you could imagine the nurses reaction. Now that story is running the halls of ManorCare and everyone is getting a chuckle out of it. From penguins standing guard at her door and by the way it’s not the first time she’s seen them to helicopters and aliens as well as nurses that only want to knock out their patients so they don’t have to work. Oh, I haven’t mentioned that one? Again this all happened when mom was enjoying the side effects of her morphine. For some reason mom singled out one nurse who at that time was working the night shift. Mom’s delusions had this nurse going around at night during the medication run and she was adding a sleeping pill to the residents regime for the sole purpose of being able to do nothing until the morning medication run where things would appear normal. She would also keep food and drink from them to keep them from soiling themselves and if they did would not clean them until the very last part of her shift. The problem with mom’s story is that the nurse in question never existed. There was no nurse with the name mom mentioned or even the roommate mom supposedly had at the time, they were all a figment of her morphine induced haze.
To the nurses and aides for the speed you all run at, for all of the assistance you provide, briefs you change, for all the food trays and medicine you deliver, and for all of the support you give to family members the family members when at times we can be just a frustrating as some of your patients, to the physical and occupational therapists, for the miles a day you travel on the stationary bike to nowhere, for handling the moans and groans heard daily with such grace and to all of you for being damn patient with the patients (and mom) and letting things said in pain just roll off your back like water on a raincoat, you all are #1 in my book. To date mom has been in ManorCare Assisted Rehabilitation for three knee surgeries and for this current femur break totaling over four months of stays if we didn’t feel as if she would be getting the care we wanted for her, we would not have came for a fourth visit. If for any reason mom would need care again we know where we’ll be taking her. So, this “Thank You” for everything goes out to the entire staff at ManorCare Assisted Rehabilitation Center in Carmichael, California.
Kreisler (Richard)
PickYourPain@att,net
PickYourPain.org
iCareTalk.net 