Alzheimer's Blogging:

So this is how the conversation went yesterday after I got my page on my blackberry for a call on my ambulance to go for a patient who needs help with her foley cath.

Nurse Aid: I am so glad you are here.

Me: What seems to be the problem?

Nurse Aid: This patient you are taking for me is so agitated. She keeps trying to pull out her foley. (pause) She fell and has a hip fx and now she is in bed agitated and I have a lot of patients and I can't spend all my time with her.

Me: Is there a nurse here that can take the foley out for her?

Nurse Aid: No nurses work in the midnight shift.

Me: Does she have dementia or Alzheimer's?

Nurse Aid: Why yes she does. I told her family to put her in a rehab but they wouldn't listen to me. This is not a rehab. She won't take her medication, and she won't listen and she gets so upset with me. She needs different kind of care than what we can do for her, but her family insists that we take care of her. She needs more one on one and we can't deliver that kind of service here.

Me: So you want me to take her to the hospital to take out the foley? Correct?

Nurse Aid: Yes please and tell the staff at the hospital that we can't take care of her and to find a rehab for her.

I found the patient in bed with so many deep purple bruises on her arms and legs I wasn't sure if maybe that was suppose to be the color of her skin. Her legs are separated by a spongy wedge that has a corner in between her legs growing outward toward her feet. It is in a triangle shape. She has the staples at her left hip and the foley which is hanging down so she doesn't have to get up and go to the bathroom. Of course she doesn't understand what is going on.

I wanted to present this for you to read. Please if your loved one with Alzheimer's has fallen and hurt themselves and need special care to heal please check out the faculty carefully. Some are not equipped for such care. This is not right for your loved one to be put someplace that can't deliver what is really needed.

Sincerely,
Marie Fostino
Alzheimer's A Caretakers Journal
Seaboard Press An Imprint of James A Rock Co., Pub.
www.mariefostino.com
www.mariefostino.blogspot.com