It's been awhile....

I haven't posted in awhile but I've been busy. My grandma is home from the hospital, but needs lots of help, so my mom and I are taking turns spending the night at her house to help out. That stay in the hospital really did her in. She definitely needed it, she was really sick when she went in, and we couldn't have turned her around without the dialysis and such, but she got such lousy care that she is weaker now than she was.
Definitely if you have a family member in the hospital, make sure someone is there everyday. All throughout the day if possible. We compiled a list of 26 things that the nursing staff neglected to do. Big things like failing to do a head-to-toe assessment (every patient is supposed to get a full assessment by a RN each shift), to little things like just getting her out of bed. Or failing to give her a bath. One nurse even came in at 3 am, woke her up and handed her a wash cloth and told her to wash up because she (the nurse) didn't want to do it in the morning. They also came in and left medications at the bedside, the nurse brought them in in a little cup, sat them on a table and told her you need to take these, then left the room. Most patients have no idea how things go while in the hospital. And I know as a nurse we like that, that way they will just do what we want them to do, it's easier for us. And we like our patients to keep quiet, most nurses are lazy. Especially the nurses on the floor (nurses who don't work in a specialized unit like the ER, ICU, L&D, etc), their biggest concern is does the patient walk, and if not, do they have a catheter in. In other words, am I gonna have to go get off my butt and get this person out of bed to go to the bathroom. Their other concern is what is the diet order. Not what am I going to do to help this person get better. It's really sad.
Anyway, she's home now and getting better. She's getting physical therapy and is getting a little stronger. It's just gonna be a long road to get her back to where she was before the surgery.