Why do I feel bad?
I ask this question, for several reasons. First and foremost, I feel as though I am balancing on a tight rope between the world of the patient and the world of health care workers. After our lessons learned at the hospital, I feel more forceful and adamant to get the best possible care for my father. Yet I am trying to keep my self from stepping on the toes of the health care professionals.
The social worker assigned to my father is difficult to get a hold of. I don't know her office hours, but it seems like I leave a message and then begin the waiting game. She could be the best social worker in the world, but I don't know that. Mainly because I can never seem to get a hold of her.
I speak to her on the phone and she mentions that they may release dad after just 2 weeks in rehab. BUT they want him to go to a nursing home.
We're not thrilled with that. Dad wants to go home. We want dad to go home.
We push. She tells us that she'll know more after meeting with the doctor, the speech therapist, the physical therapist and the occupational therapist on Thursday.
We're a little rattled. We won't have time to get him the home help he needs in that little time.
She would like to meet with us if possible. Timing is everything and it doesn't seem to be working in our favor. We ask if she could meet us on Sunday. Since my sisters are coming from Virginia and I can't afford to take any more time off work. She agrees.
So we all meet at the rehab center and wait. We're not sure where her office is. None of the doors in the 'social work' hallway have her name on it. It is now after 1pm, the designated meeting time. Nothing. We're pretty much the only ones around.... hanging out.... in the social work hallway.
A woman arrives, is let into an office by the security guard.
We wait a bit more. No one addresses us. Finally, we all peer into the open door and Sue says "Donna?"
It is Donna. Ummm, really? And yet three random women are waiting in the hallway on a Sunday afternoon and you don't think to ask if they are your 1:00 appointment with three women for a Sunday afternoon? Really?
Is anyone else hearing this?
We file in and it becomes increasingly clear that she is not prepared for this meeting. Wow. We are as prepared as we can be, in a situation that we have never been in and are blindly going along hoping for guidance and direction from those who should know what needs done and how to go about doing it.
Yeah, that doesn't happen. The best Donna can give us is that "they" are concerned for his safety and feel he should not go home.
This doesn't sit well with us. Mainly because we know it won't sit well with dad.
Donna hands us a few pages on available assistance for home health / help. It's for Luzerne County. I ask, "Is there a different list for Carbon County? Or does it matter?"
Donna replies that it does matter. I tell her he lives in Carbon County. She then says we'll need different pages. She doesn't make a move to get them for us. Nor does she respond when I ask if she wants the pages she just gave us back.
I want to know why they are concerned for his safety. What is the standard for safe? Is there a number scale the the "pain scale" commonly used in physicians offices? Like, in order to be considered safe you have to be at a level '7' and dad is only at a level 4? She doesn't answer. I ask again. She avoids answering again.
I'm getting irate.
If it were a cartoon, you would be able to see the blood rising in my face like a thermometer.
I try to remain calm. Yet, I still feel bad that I'm pushing so much.
Needless to really say, but we don't get very far.
The only positive we get out of the meeting is that we get dad moved to a different section of the rehab facility. He is being moved to 'elder care'. We hope this will give him a bit more freedom to move around and help him get the 'ok' to go home right from the rehab center. Correction: We PRAY that this is the move we need.
Plus it buys us a week or two more to get our stuff in order and make his transition home easier on our schedules.
We're getting the hang of this whole deal. Plus, we find out that once dad is moved to the Senior Care section, he'll get a new social worker....
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