A Day That Will Live in Infamy

Mom has been readmitted to the hospital, with pneumonia.  I don't think it is a life threatening case, because she was quite belligerent in the emergency room--alert does not seem the right word to describe it, since Mom was a little bit out of the loop.  For starters, she told me that the ER nurse and aides had forcibly raped her.  Not true:  they had changed her soiled adult diaper and cleaned her, which was probably akin to rape in her mind.  She was, and is, a proud and prudish lady.  Having been bathed and changed by aides, I know it can be distressing.

Ginny seems to handle her better than I do.  Her advice is don't argue, or try to bring her back to reality.  Just listen, and ask questions, such as ' where is the whorehouse on 82nd Street?" or 'what color is the mouse on the mauve carpet".  I'm afraid I've been startled, and laughed at some of her more flamboyant remarks.  Never again.

Off to the bank in about an hour, then down to the hospital.  I will not permit these young residents to talk down to me or brush off my concerns.  I'm really annoyed at the attending physician at the rehab center, who brushed away my questions about Mom's labored, loud breathing with 'she has COPD; of course her breathing is rapid".  Damn it Lady, I am just as educated as you are, and I live with your patient.  Being a patient myself, I give a good medical history, and you are going to listen to me whether you like it or not.

As for the table of residents yesterday at lunch, I wanted to throw shoes at them.  They were talking shop about how much money they made, and yet, they hated their jobs.  Why didn't a rich, elderly patient ever leave them money in their will?  Probably because you treated them like a piece of meat, and their family as though they were mentally diseased or defective.  Don't sit there and whine about how much you hate patients when a patient's relative could be at the next table.  Just grow up.