(no subject)
So my step-aunt Louise is on a respirator and a feeding tube in intensive care, with MRSA pneumonia. They are not honestly sure what happened at the very beginning of all this; it all started when she fell through a sliding-glass door last week (and was, amazingly, not cut to ribbons; how, I'm not sure, but thank god for small miracles). She started hallucinating when they brought her to the hospital, so, thinking maybe she'd injured her head or neck in the fall, they put a neck brace on her. One night when she was eating, she aspirated food directly into her lungs because of the angle the neck brace put her in, and pretty much that lead to this situation. She can't breathe adequately on her own and she hasn't been able to since then.
And all of that is just scary and upsetting to begin with, but add on that she's 83 and weighs 90 pounds and yeah, the outlook isn't good. But practically no one except Mom and Wayne, who flew in from Hawaii and are supposed to be going back Monday, are actually coming to see her and talk with the doctors and figure out what's going on. Her husband and son are dead, and the two people who are legally responsible for her have not even been in to see her. So people keep calling Mom and Wayne for updates, and they are there every day dealing with this. And Mom has spent a LOT of time in hospitals being the primary point of contact, and it's just...I honestly don't know how to explain it if you haven't dealt with it before, but it's really rough. They're not dealing with it well. I may be going out there to help out (she's in Ventura, California), but I won't know for a couple days.
I'm just saddened that no one in her family seems to care that much. I mean, on some level I'm sure they do, but very few people are actually trying to be there for her and would rather just get the infodump from my family than actually deal with the situation. Her medical caregivers, apparently called 'hospitalists' there (what the christ), evidently don't have great bedside manners and are not showing a lot of compassion. Which, you know, I get on some level because it has to be a hard job. But in this situation, feeling like they're treating the symptoms and not the patient just compounds it. And her actual doctor has seen her very little, so that's great.
Blahhh. No idea what's going to happen. I hate this feeling.
Needless to say, I didn't cook London broil tonight.
And all of that is just scary and upsetting to begin with, but add on that she's 83 and weighs 90 pounds and yeah, the outlook isn't good. But practically no one except Mom and Wayne, who flew in from Hawaii and are supposed to be going back Monday, are actually coming to see her and talk with the doctors and figure out what's going on. Her husband and son are dead, and the two people who are legally responsible for her have not even been in to see her. So people keep calling Mom and Wayne for updates, and they are there every day dealing with this. And Mom has spent a LOT of time in hospitals being the primary point of contact, and it's just...I honestly don't know how to explain it if you haven't dealt with it before, but it's really rough. They're not dealing with it well. I may be going out there to help out (she's in Ventura, California), but I won't know for a couple days.
I'm just saddened that no one in her family seems to care that much. I mean, on some level I'm sure they do, but very few people are actually trying to be there for her and would rather just get the infodump from my family than actually deal with the situation. Her medical caregivers, apparently called 'hospitalists' there (what the christ), evidently don't have great bedside manners and are not showing a lot of compassion. Which, you know, I get on some level because it has to be a hard job. But in this situation, feeling like they're treating the symptoms and not the patient just compounds it. And her actual doctor has seen her very little, so that's great.
Blahhh. No idea what's going to happen. I hate this feeling.
Needless to say, I didn't cook London broil tonight.