Monday, May 21, 2012

Beyond exhausted/and traumatized again

Last Tuesday Michael was finally transferred out of the hospital and into rehab. He is at a location called Heath South. I think Michael and I had mixed feelings of leaving the hospital but he and I knew it was time and we were both ready to go on to the next step. The ambulance came to get Michael and I followed the ambulance over to Heath South. When we got there, no one acknowledged us, as in said Hello, Nothing, not even a glance. I was standing there waiting and hoping and I think so were the ambulance guys, to get just a hello. The ambulance guys took their paperwork to do the hand off and handed it to a nurse sitting behind the desk, she looked at us and said, you don't see me, I am a figment of your imagination, I'm not on clock yet, no, let me get another nurse for you, or, let me find out what room you are staying in, NOTHING!! That irritated the ambulance guys even more than it did me. They rolled Michael down to his room and put him on his bed and helped us for a minute and left us in this teeny room on a bed with holes and stains all over the sheets. Then an annoying lady comes in doesn't tell me who she is NOTHING!! She just comes in and starts talking about Michael's doctor who is a BRAIN INJURY SPECIALIST!! In my head I am thinking, WHAT! So I ask her if she knows what happened to Michael, she says oh yes. And then says, Why don't you tell me? So I tell her and she then proceeds to talk about his brain injury and his anoxic attack. WHAT!! I finally just break down and start crying, shaking, and ready to fall over, telling her that I don't like it here, I don't feel comfortable leaving my husband here, etc. etc. (you get the picture). She comes over to me and says, let me get my manager, she specializes in dealing with things like this, (Things like WHAT!) She brings back this fat lady with big hair who says to me right when she walks in, Mrs. McIntire come out and talk to me in the hall please, And I tell her No what I have to say to you I can say in front of my husband. Then she says, No Mrs Mcintire come out in the hall with me right now. So I go out in the hall and she corners me against the wall and starts asking me, so what is the problem? I tell her about not getting a very nice welcome, and then she says, well, what kind of a welcome do you want? Then she keeps talking about Michaels brain injury. I tell her to stop talking about his brain and saying he has an injury. Then all of a sudden a savior lady walks up and says, Mrs. McIntire? please come with me. Thank you lady who I don't know, saving me from fat stinky breath lady. This nice little lady (who turns out to be Michael's night nurse) takes me into a new room and asks me about MIchael and to tell her his story. I tell her about it and then she explains to me what an anoxic attack is. It is when someone goes into cardiac arrest, (which Michael did twice) and when their brain comes back it goes directly to the central nervous system and is slow coming out to the outer extremities. That finally made sense to me. After I spoke with her she gave me a little bit more of a reassurance that MIchael would be somewhat ok in this facility who doesn't know how to give good customer service. I was still paranoid and worried the next day especially because when I was leaving a patient lady starts screaming. I later find out that they put Michael on the brain injury ward, WHAT THE! The next day everyone who does evaluations on MIchael are so surprised at how mentally with it he is. On paper (in his chart) to them he shouldn't be so with it. I continue to see the blessings of the gift of life Heavenly Father has blessed Michael with. Every day gets better with Michael. Right now he has lost a lot of his muscles. They are slowly coming back, and he is making a huge effort to get them to come back too! I'm so proud of what he has accomplished in the 6 days he has been at rehab. We still have our up days and down days (to be expected with trauma) but we are so anxious for him to get home and continue his road to recovery.

2 comments:

Mimi Collett said...

I think you handled that situation way better than I would have. I am really glad that the night nurse was finally there and willing to explain everything. Although some of it (like the new terms) seem like the hospital should have mentioned them instead of you being in the dark about what part of rehab he was going into.

I hope the experience at the rehab has gotten better since that initial one.

And if that lady wasn't clocked in yet, then she definitely should not have already been sitting at the desk. Goodness.

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