20 October 2024
Well, I was minding my own business taking a shower yesterday morning the palliative care team called both phones and left messages. So when I got to the hospital to visit Joyce, I called them back and they visited us.
Jennifer and Paul were very nice and also helpful and spent half an hour with us to discuss all sorts of things from advance directives to long-term care.
But we also discussed Joyce's care at the hospital and the problems with her mobility and pain level. They said they'd get a physical therapist to visit her by today and emphasized to her the importance of doing what they say when they're there or they won't continue to come.
She hasn't been out of bed since last Wednesday, not even to sit up, and I have pointed out unless she can walk she can't get up or down the stairs, go to the bathroom, get to bed, get out of bed or anything at the house. So it is unsafe for her to return home.
I mentioned the discharge offer of two nursing facility beds in Sacramento and Gilroy and I told Jennifer why I wanted a San Francisco facility so I can get there every day because SNFs are all understaffed and quality of care varies by shift. That was my experience with my mother.
In addition, Joyce has a daily wound care dressing to be addressed. And she has appointments in San Francisco with her surgeon and the memory clinic so being located 70 to 100 miles away and having to return to the city during morning rush hour is not a plan.
Jennifer told me Joyce was lucky to have an advocate because often a local bed is found the minute you decline a distant one. So hang in there, it's a reasonable request.
I left shortly after they did and while I was waiting for the bus, I got a call from Kaiser. It was the Ming, who works in discharge.
She offered the two distant beds again, and I explained the problem yet again, but she insisted I agree to one. I refused. My understanding, after talking to palliative care, was that Joyce would remain in the hospital until a local bed was found because that was the only safe thing to do.
But that wasn't Ming's understanding. She kept insisting on asking what the plan was if there was no bed and even after the SNF, and I finally told her there was no plan, my bus was coming, apologized and hung up.