God has blessed me through this whole adventure of being in a resident of a care center at 62 years of age, because of the need to have both knees replaced. I mean total knee replacements. Yowzers!!!!!!!! An adventure to say the least.
God is good. I did not get to go home on May 30th, when my medicare ended. I'm in need of a total knee replacement on both knees. The left knee is much worst than the right knee and now I am not able to walk on my own anymore. I'm learning how to walk with a walker now. So, it was assesed that I'm not able to go home until I get the left knee replaced and go through physical therapy successfully.
I'm in this facility under medicaid. I'm getting a little stronger daily. I started to change this blog to "How to survive in a care center". Man, there are a lot of things to learn being in a care center. My physical therapy ended when the medicare ended on May 30th and I was to start restorative therapy the next week.Where as I had 30-45 minutes daily physical therapy under medicare, now I have 15 minutes a day with restorative therapy at 4pm daily. I don't know about you but, at 4 pm, I don't want to do much of anything physical. Plus the RT lady was working by herself. I'm not a little dainty lady but a thick chick (as the kids say)....lol.Well, they decided to have me work out on the omnicycle but, I wanted the focus changed to my walking daily instead. But, they are concentrating on me just standing. She had me standing daily. I was counting up to 300, so to me that means that I'm steady on my feet. duh... Well, to make a long story short, I had to fight with them for a whole month. I even bought my own mini bicycle to get more exercise.
Finally, I told the head of restorative that I was getting ready to send a email to the administrator and also to the social services director expressing my frustration with the process. She was still trying to explain to me, why they were not walking me. I explained to her that on May 30th, I was walking 70 steps with my walker. and now almost a month later, I have walked no steps, except transferring from my bed to the wheelchair. No bueno, No good!!! To say the least I was very upset. So she sends in the one person, who helped me during the past 30 days, to talk to me. We talked and agreed that I would be walked the next morning. So the next morning comes and all 6 of the restorative assistants are in my room to see if I can indeed walk or even transfer from bed to wheelchair. They then tell me that I will be transferring from the bed to the wheelchair 5 time today and that's it.Boy, I started screaming that I was going to walk today with or without them and if I fall, well so what, but, I'm walking today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So then they say that the Therapy Doctors assistant had not released me to walk yet. I told them that it was she, who was making me walk. So they go and find her and she tells them that I was already walking (sigh)!! So then they had me transfer from bed to wheelchair and then from wheelchair to bed and back again. Then they took me outside walking. I walked 30 steps or equal to 60 physical therapy steps. That was friday June 27th. They took away my Hoyer lift sling, so that I was forced to transfer by walking. Well, here comes Friday afternoon and there is no gait belt large enough to fit me, so they can't allow me to get up and transfer from wheelchair to the bed. I called restorative and told them of my problem, which was one of the reasons that I constantly had the sling put behind me in the wheelchair.Problems with the afternoon staff who were afraid me making the transfer from wheelchair to bed, all because they had never seen me do it. I had been asking them for my own gait belt, to alleviate this problem but, no they never got one for me. well, this day, they found me a brand new gait belt. How about that!!!! So we made the transfer smoothly.
We made arrangements to walk me on Saturday June 28th. So on June 28th, I walked 60 steps. Then on Monday June 30th. they did not serve me my breakfast until 9:30 instead of 8:15, so when they came to walk me, I was not quite ready. They were mad. I got ready in 15 minutes, so I was 15 minutes late for my walk. Then it was discovered then one of the RT assistants had prepared my breakfast tray for me and the CNA told her that my tray had my name on it but, there was no food on it. Then they all understood that I was not lying. I walked 80 steps that morning. Yipee. Tuesday July 1st,they came and told me that they would be walking me at 10am only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This is Wednesday and I waited this morning until 10:45 am and no one came to walk me. But, I was able to compete30 minutes of exercise, which was great. I had the CNA call RT and they came and said that they had a seminar this morning, which is why I was not walked.They will come and walk me tomorrow.
I said all of this to tell others that they have to fight for their life and services owed to them, which are being paid by Medicare or Medicaid. I didn't walk for 27 days but, I bet they billed the state for 27 days. Days which to me they are not entitled to be paid, because they really dd nothing for me. Yes, I did not participate some days to just standing or being put on the Omnicycle. But, I feel they should not be paid those days.Ijs...................
Here's another example of fighting for what you need in the Care Center.. The only kind of dressing the center serves for salads are ranch and french, which I later found out was fat-free. Man, all of the patients are trying to get well, so we need more vinegrette type dressings instead of those heavy rich dressings. So, I asked for a vinaigrette dressing for weeks and was made promises, which were not filled. There were two people asking for the vinaigrette to no avail. Last week we a resident concern meeting was held, which the administrator attended and we asked her for the vinaigrette and I specifically asked for a raspberry vinaigrette and lo and behold two days later, I had the raspberry vinaigrette delivered to me. The dietitian also told me that he had more bottles for me, when I finished that one.Today a lady at the table asked me if she could put some on her salad. To tell the true, I didn't want to share but, I knew that was not right. I only hesitated for a second but, that was one second too long.You have to share to be blessed. So, you see we much we must fight for what we need.
In the meeting, which I mentioned earlier, I also asked for a lock on my closet, since we have resident across the hall who wanders into other peoples room and shops. and less than a week later, I had a lock put on my closet with a key!!
I still have to lose 34 pounds before I can receive my total knee replacement. I already lost 9.1 pounds. yipee!
I know that I have favor from God with people but, if you don't think anyone likes you still fight. Relatives fight, fight, fight for your loved ones needs in their care center. I find that when relatives come to visit patients, the staff responds more quickly to their needs, especially when a relative requests something. Ask for whatever you needs, all they can do is say no, but sometimes you might get a yes! yowzers!!!!
In my next post I will give instructions on how I make great low cost protein smoothies in my room at the care center.
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