Joyce's KP Adventure mikepasini.com headlines
Joyce Returns Home
27 September 2024
I got a call yesterday morning from Purple, Joyce's case manager, who told me they were sending her home at 11:30. Joyce herself called to let me know a few minutes later. But shortly after 11:30 she called again to tell me it wouldn't be until 1:30.
Joyce does arrive around 2 p.m. in a gurney via private transport with three support people.
One of them has a walker for her. The other two transform the gurney into a chair that can lift itself up the stairs. Should have gotten one of those instead of the walker, I tell them.
The two guys on the gurney get her to her favorite chair and leave. So I don't know if she can walk around or manage stairs. But she's home.
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I SIT AND CHAT with her a while and help her cancel an appointment with Jennifer the RN at the Wound Care Center tomorrow but it's a struggle. We try the KP app on her phone but she has to call. They give her the direct number to reschedule but her pen isn't working. I type it on my phone and text it to her but she doesn't understand what happened.
When I walk into the bedroom, I see a bottle of pills on the bed. Joyce doesn't know what they are and thinks they're old. But they were prescribed today. It's actually nitrofurantoin, an antibiotic to treat a bladder infection.vI leave her pills on the dining table so she can take one with dinner.
I also take her release papers to the front room. She'd just left them on the hope chest, forgetting them like the pills.
The papers mention the wrong home health company but it turns out to be a mistake. 21st Century's PT Zainab calls at dinner time, leaving a message I find later for a 10:15 appointment tomorrow. I confirm.
Just as I was cutting the green onions to go in the salad, Joyce comes out of the bathroom holding the bandages from her wound, trying to throw them in the kitchen garbage. No! Put them with the other medical waste. But she's confused and has no idea what I'm talking about. I have to take them and put them in the medical waste garbage so they end up in the black bin not the recycle bin.
But I also have to change her dressing now. The wound is completely exposed. So I do that instead of dinner.
And then we can eat. And she can take her pill.