I visited one more rehab center/nursing home today - the almost all African-American-run Miracle Hill center in Frenchtown - very friendly staff though modest-size rehab department (depicted above top). Soon after leaving there, I got the call from Mom, saying that beds had opened up in the rehab clinic affiliated with the hospital Mom was in, just down the hill (physical therapy there depicted above bottom) - ironically, after I'd visited seven clinics - at the first one I'd visited, with another member of our church there - just down the hall from Mom, it turns out. We accepted this one, all the more so because insurance news from yet another high-end rehab center (Centre Point) had not been great earlier this morning.
By the time I had bought my last TMH lunch and brought it up to Mom's room at 12:45 p.m., the transport folks were said to almost be there. I took my last look around, bid adieu to day staff there, and Tea and her supervisor helped prepare Mom (a new physical therapist showed up at 1 p.m. but we sent her away - turns out Mom might have time to do something). And then three transport folks came and wisked Mom away. (I'm hoping to write thank you notes to hospital staff - all the more so because Mom may be back in a year or so to get another knee done.)
By the time I had gotten all of Mom's stuff into the car and gotten out of the parking garage and down the street, Mom had already gotten to the rehab clinic, gotten into a room, and talked briefly with a (new for her) physical therapist. Although they toyed with moving here, she's stuck on the window side of a room that - although it's bigger than her single-person hospital room (and therefore the bathroom and hallway are even farther away), there's not that much privacy - just a curtain (especially embarrassing when Mom is still using the bedside commode - as she does several times a day - though I noticed this slowed down when she does not have that saline solution IV in her like she did yesterday and when she didn't like the iced tea with dinner) - and there isn't much place to put her stuff -as her official closet and dresser are really on the inside person's side.
I did talk a little with Mom's roommate and her family - turns out this was the patient that Dr. Fahey operated on next - after Mom - a week ago Wednesday - hip replacement - and I had talked briefly with her daughter Stephanie in the waiting room - and - and I never noticed this - also the patient who occupied a hospital room, right next to Mom's. Like Mom, this patient experienced some challenges in the hospital, which is one reason why she just getting out of the hospital (plus the lack of space at the rehab too, I suppose).
Although, as I noted in an earlier blog, like at the hospital - most of the staff is white (except for techs/orderlies), Mom did start out with an African American nurse and Mom's roommate and her family are African-American (so it's not a rehab clinic with only white patients). (Mom also reminded me that the night weekend "charge nurse" back TMH - "Mo" or Mohammed - was apparently a Middle Eastern American man - playing with the ethnic and gender segregation I described in "Divided health care.))
This new nurse sat at a computer and went through all kinds of information. Then, Mom's occupational therapist asked her about some of her goals at home and at work (everyone is surprised Mom still works - although she can look even more frail than usual in that hospital bed - though she did perk up some this afternoon - even though it had been a very long day and she didn't much care for dinner/couldn't eat it - they're sending a dietician tomorrow) - which include for her strengthening her thighs and being able to get up and in and out of her car and the kitchen table more easily. Like Centre Point, they do have an OT lab with some fake rooms - and they even want Mom to do her own laundry (!?) - partly as treatment. (Somewhat surprising - the OT was a white man.) Then Mom's physical therapist, Patricia, was a German-speaking Columbian American: Patricia. Like everyone else, even as Mom tired, she spent a lot of time patiently talking with Mom, as Mom and I both asked questions (including about her and her family). She kept talking as she set up Mom in the machine that more and more is moving her knee up and down (she snuck in setting the machine at a 55 degree angle - but Mom felt the pain and complained and Patricia backed it down to 50 degrees (Patricia's hospital counterpart, Carol, on Monday - you'll recall - complained when she measured Mom's bending/range of motion at 65 degrees - when the goal was to leave the hospital at 90 degrees - and remember that Mom missed her hospital morning PT. Mom had started out at more like 45 degrees. Eventually, the knee stiffens and scar tissue forms and then the physical therapists have to really push to get the knee to bend more (ouch!) and recovery takes longer and more work and may end up being more incomplete.
Finally, one of two of Mom's physician's assistant - just finishing up a program out of the medical school in Gainesville stopped by - and we talked with her a lot also. Mom repeated some of her goals and some of the challenges she has faced: arthritis, bad back, weak thighs, a second bad knee, getting out of chairs, etc.
I'm not sure the rehab food is as good as the hospital food, and none of it was as soft as what she had been getting. So they promised to send a dietician, and Mom spent a decent amount of time agonizing over Wednesday's menu.
Largely because of the size crush, I went through/over with Mom every thing I had brought into the room for her, and we plan for me to drop at least 1/4 of it - clothes, books, paperwork - to our down-the-street church friend Ruth, who will bring it to Mom if Mom needs it.
I've also been working on Penny to come sooner than the lasty day or two of Mom's rehab. Trying to figure out how Penny could be here longer - both a week or two after Mom gets home and maybe longer while Mom is still in rehab - where it's going to be a shock for Mom not to have me around to talk with or me to help out some, make requests of staff, soothe staffs overburdened feelings, etc. - I got ahold of two copies of a summer camp special section in a March "Tallahassee Democrat" and sent one to Penny (maybe Jacob could be in camp for their first week here).
By the time I had bought my last TMH lunch and brought it up to Mom's room at 12:45 p.m., the transport folks were said to almost be there. I took my last look around, bid adieu to day staff there, and Tea and her supervisor helped prepare Mom (a new physical therapist showed up at 1 p.m. but we sent her away - turns out Mom might have time to do something). And then three transport folks came and wisked Mom away. (I'm hoping to write thank you notes to hospital staff - all the more so because Mom may be back in a year or so to get another knee done.)
By the time I had gotten all of Mom's stuff into the car and gotten out of the parking garage and down the street, Mom had already gotten to the rehab clinic, gotten into a room, and talked briefly with a (new for her) physical therapist. Although they toyed with moving here, she's stuck on the window side of a room that - although it's bigger than her single-person hospital room (and therefore the bathroom and hallway are even farther away), there's not that much privacy - just a curtain (especially embarrassing when Mom is still using the bedside commode - as she does several times a day - though I noticed this slowed down when she does not have that saline solution IV in her like she did yesterday and when she didn't like the iced tea with dinner) - and there isn't much place to put her stuff -as her official closet and dresser are really on the inside person's side.
I did talk a little with Mom's roommate and her family - turns out this was the patient that Dr. Fahey operated on next - after Mom - a week ago Wednesday - hip replacement - and I had talked briefly with her daughter Stephanie in the waiting room - and - and I never noticed this - also the patient who occupied a hospital room, right next to Mom's. Like Mom, this patient experienced some challenges in the hospital, which is one reason why she just getting out of the hospital (plus the lack of space at the rehab too, I suppose).
Although, as I noted in an earlier blog, like at the hospital - most of the staff is white (except for techs/orderlies), Mom did start out with an African American nurse and Mom's roommate and her family are African-American (so it's not a rehab clinic with only white patients). (Mom also reminded me that the night weekend "charge nurse" back TMH - "Mo" or Mohammed - was apparently a Middle Eastern American man - playing with the ethnic and gender segregation I described in "Divided health care.))
This new nurse sat at a computer and went through all kinds of information. Then, Mom's occupational therapist asked her about some of her goals at home and at work (everyone is surprised Mom still works - although she can look even more frail than usual in that hospital bed - though she did perk up some this afternoon - even though it had been a very long day and she didn't much care for dinner/couldn't eat it - they're sending a dietician tomorrow) - which include for her strengthening her thighs and being able to get up and in and out of her car and the kitchen table more easily. Like Centre Point, they do have an OT lab with some fake rooms - and they even want Mom to do her own laundry (!?) - partly as treatment. (Somewhat surprising - the OT was a white man.) Then Mom's physical therapist, Patricia, was a German-speaking Columbian American: Patricia. Like everyone else, even as Mom tired, she spent a lot of time patiently talking with Mom, as Mom and I both asked questions (including about her and her family). She kept talking as she set up Mom in the machine that more and more is moving her knee up and down (she snuck in setting the machine at a 55 degree angle - but Mom felt the pain and complained and Patricia backed it down to 50 degrees (Patricia's hospital counterpart, Carol, on Monday - you'll recall - complained when she measured Mom's bending/range of motion at 65 degrees - when the goal was to leave the hospital at 90 degrees - and remember that Mom missed her hospital morning PT. Mom had started out at more like 45 degrees. Eventually, the knee stiffens and scar tissue forms and then the physical therapists have to really push to get the knee to bend more (ouch!) and recovery takes longer and more work and may end up being more incomplete.
Finally, one of two of Mom's physician's assistant - just finishing up a program out of the medical school in Gainesville stopped by - and we talked with her a lot also. Mom repeated some of her goals and some of the challenges she has faced: arthritis, bad back, weak thighs, a second bad knee, getting out of chairs, etc.
I'm not sure the rehab food is as good as the hospital food, and none of it was as soft as what she had been getting. So they promised to send a dietician, and Mom spent a decent amount of time agonizing over Wednesday's menu.
Largely because of the size crush, I went through/over with Mom every thing I had brought into the room for her, and we plan for me to drop at least 1/4 of it - clothes, books, paperwork - to our down-the-street church friend Ruth, who will bring it to Mom if Mom needs it.
I've also been working on Penny to come sooner than the lasty day or two of Mom's rehab. Trying to figure out how Penny could be here longer - both a week or two after Mom gets home and maybe longer while Mom is still in rehab - where it's going to be a shock for Mom not to have me around to talk with or me to help out some, make requests of staff, soothe staffs overburdened feelings, etc. - I got ahold of two copies of a summer camp special section in a March "Tallahassee Democrat" and sent one to Penny (maybe Jacob could be in camp for their first week here).
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