Helplessness......

Babygirl got her port installed yesterday.  She was on the schedule for morning, but bumped back to afternoon, so....no food or drink for, you guessed it, 15 hours, with, again, no IV fluid.  After the port was placed, she was transported directly to dialysis, where they gave her water at least.  She did not return to her room until about 6.  Dinner, as we know, arrives at 7:30. Thankfully, the nurses gave her something when she returned from dialysis.

I called the floor again at lunchtime to ask why I hadn't gotten an update in the morning as promised.  They, of course, had no explanation, but assured me that someone would call. I told them that I really didn't want to bother them unnecessarily, so how long should I wait to expect the call?  About 2 hours.

Three hours later, my phone lit up with a Rochester area code, and I found myself talking with yet another social worker. She was calling to confirm what schedule would be best for outpatient dialysis: MWF at 5:45 AM, or TThSat at 3 PM? Well.

God bless the social workers.  I unloaded ALL of my frustrations on her.  Picking a schedule for after discharge is great, but HOW THE HELL LONG IS SHE IN QUARANTINE?? Why haven't the doctors given me an update since Saturday morning? Why, when asked, did they not call last night? This morning? This afternoon?  WHY can no one talk to me sensibly about why Babygirl's kidney is going without water for what feels like days at a time?

You have to give this woman credit.  She called with the solution to a problem we didn't need solved at the moment and then had to work on ME. 

She agreed that communication should be better. She put in a page to the covering provider and put some urgency on it. She gave me the number of patient relations so I could file a complaint if I felt it was warranted.  She told me to call her in an hour if I didn't have a return call from the provider.

Mind you, I was working remotely at the time. The call came in between patient visits, but definitely impacted my schedule some. 

The nurse practitioner on duty called me shortly after I hung up with the social worker. She wasn't a "listener." Basically, at this point, my concerns about Babygirl's discomfort and the risk to the kidney for the last 5 days didn't concern her because Babygirl was "on her way down" to have the port installed, and then she would get dialysis. 

I asked her about Babygirl's quarantine. She. Had. No. Answer.  

I pointed out that we cannot reasonably solve the problem of when to schedule Babygirl's outpatient dialysis if we have no idea how long she will be an INPATIENT. Who do I need to ask to get an answer to what should be a matter of protocol, 2 years into this pandemic?

She said she would ask the Infectious Disease specialist to put that information in their next note. I've been asking this question for 5 days already, and you can't make a call and get back to me? Oh, okay. Not like I need to let my office know what actual days I'll be working next week. Or the next. I have quite literally been told by various people: 5 days, 7 days, 10 days, 14 days, and 20 days. I'm pretty sure we can cross off 5 days, since we are on day 5 while I'm chatting with her. 

Babygirl's roommate is a transplant patient who contracted Covid the same day that Babygirl did. She's told Babygirl that she's on a 10 day quarantine. So who knows, really.

My brother and sister-in-law have been sending me entertaining music (This Is Sh*t, for example) and memes. They've been doing the same for Babygirl. As my sister-in-law succinctly put it, "I've never felt so helpless in my life. We do what we can."

I couldn't agree more.

DeeDee

PS Keep annoying her with fun stuff. She doesn't have the energy to reply to everybody but she is entertained.