I am the official “owner” and operator of one little old lady, once again. She came back yesterday afternoon after HOURS of John and me waiting around at the hospital. They were trying to discharge 7 patients at once and it was, I’m assuming, a complex process. Or so they would have me believe.
At one point she looked at me and said, “Krissa… What would happen to us if we just went ahead and left?”
Don’t think I wasn’t already thinking about doing it.
Right about that time they finally got her all fixed up with wheels to the car and we made a break for it exited the premises.
You have never met anyone as bitchy as she has become since she got home. Well, actually, that’s not entirely true. It started before she got home. While she was still in there she commenced to tell me how I should be changing her diaper differently and I need to do it like the nurses do it there and every time she asked me to raise her up in bed she tried to die when I actually moved her. Keep in mind that I laid the bed out completely flat and grabbed the hospital chux and slid her upward as slowly as I could. She is no longer the light weight she used to be and I can’t just suspend animation anymore. She seems to think everything should be in slow mo and I can’t just stop midway between the wheelchair and bed while holding her. Or move any slower than I already am. I certainly am gentle and I don’t just toss her around.
Before she came home I received a call from a lady in charge of her case at the hospital and she said, “Ms. Lopez, it says here on her chart that you are interested in a hospital bed for her at home.”
Noooo… I’m not interested in one…
“Oh, well they must have just stuck this note in the wrong file.”
My wheels were turning at this point and I was remembering the two times she asked me if we needed one while she was in there. I just shrugged and said, no, I didn’t see why, but she insisted it would be easier for ME if we had one. Translation: She is pitiful and wants all the hospital equipment she can get around her.
We have been through this before. Years ago when she was on hospice. It was an enormous monstrosity that left very little room to move in her bedroom. Well, comparatively.
Here is her room with a twin bed. That bizarre looking thing with all the thousands of photos stuck on with ten pounds of scotch tape is her rolling cart of tricks. It’s on wheels so I can move it out of the way to change her and get her in and out and what not. It has shelves inside with all her accoutrements.
It’s an ancient, cheap, laminate, microwave cart. And if something ever happened to it… well, we would all perish, I am sure.
The hospital bed we had ate up the walls when “sliding” the head of the bed up and down. And since she sleeps in a fairly upright position the only thing we would need it to do is sit up some. I can accomplish this with pillows. AND a comfortable mattress, not a hospital one.
Bottom line, we’re getting another damn hospital bed delivered here this afternoon.
