Overcoming the System

With a lot of effort, I got PG back to her home at the assisted living facility. A week ago Friday I talked to the physical therapist (PT) and occupational therapist (OT) at the rehab where PG was recouperating...I wanted to know if they thought she was improving. The PT said that it would take months for PG to get better, but then I explained that how she's doing now physically and mentally is exactly what she was doing before she injured herself. Then, the PT said that if that was the case, then she'll probably never walk again. So, I said--I'm aware of that possibility, so can she go back to assisted living and continue PT and OT with a home health company? And they agreed that would be ok. I hurried and contacted the nurse at the assisted living and told her the plan. Monday the assisted living nurse contacted the rehab social worker for the discharge paper work, med record, etc and he said he'd fax it, and that PG could be discharged on Tuesday after seeing their house doctor. I contacted the social worker to find out the time the doc would see PG, and found out that the visit would be somewhere around noon. So I asked SSIL to be with PG so that she wouldn't say something outrageous to the doc and blow the discharge. Thank goodness, SSIL was there, because 3 hours went by and no doc. He called me to say that he asked the nurse where the doc was and was told he'd already left and she didn't even know that PG was suppose to be seen or discharged!!!! Then, I called the social worker and the nurse apparently had asked him what was going on before I could call (which was only a matter of minutes). He was apoligizing and saying that he called the doc to come back and discharge PG and he'd taken care of the paperwork and she could still leave that day. By this time, SSIL had already headed for home, and I called him and asked him to go back and calm PG down (cuz I knew she would be stressed out--SSIL should have never left), and that I'd be right there to take her home. When I got there, I had a nice surprise because my son was there also, so we loaded up all PG's stuff and all the aides and nurses said good-bye to PG and we got her back to her apartment----finally.

Except, things never seem to be easy or go smoothly, the assisted living nurse calls me the next day and says that the rehab social worker never sent the med record and PG was not getting her meds. I'm sick of this idiot! So, to work around him, I contact her neurologist's office and ask them to send new prescriptions so that the assisted living pharmacy can get her meds going again. They say that the physician's assistant will take care of it. Two days later, the assisted living med tech tells me again that they haven't received her meds yet from the neurologist. Is everybody incompetent or am I expecting too much for people to do what they say they're going to do?????? So, I don't work on Fridays and I left the house at 9 am on a mission to get some prescriptions from someone! I'm about to head to the neurologist's office and then it occured to me that the small family practice office down the street (where I've taken PG to get x-rayed) has a copy of her meds and they're nice and would probably write her prescriptions for me. (I was so mad at the neurologist's office that I also thought it would be good them too for me not to go to their office:o) Thankfully, the little office down the street did write the scripts for me. That office is so convenient and unfortunately it's closing because the parent company that owns that clinic doesn't think it's bringing in enough customers to make it worth while. So I'll have to find PG another new primary care doctor (she's had a couple)...

So, I got the med thing settled and I figure that I'll go visit PG. I walk in her room and say "HI" and she asks if SSIL is with me! At least she's reliable:)