D
Something happened to John last night that scares me. He was trying to sleep last night, but kept waking up because of the onslaught of roaches and mice all around his room. There were no roaches or mice in his room. He had to work that out in his head. He had to remember he has never seen a roach or a mouse there. And then he went back to sleep to be woken again by the same thing. When he woke up, he saw them, but then had to work out he wasn't seeing them. He was delirious again, but this time he has had enough reality in the last couple of months to realize his mind was slipping.
When he was in the hospital for those two nights, the nurses usually came into his room to administer his antibiotics. He came in during the afternoon, but the hospital didn't contact the nutritionist's office until after 5, when the nutritionist left for the day. So they simply skipped giving him two of his feedings. To go along with that, they also decided he could have no ice or water either. And then at midnight he had to fast for the endoscopy the next day too, so there was no reason to feed him. His procedure happened at 3 PM, so they decided he shouldn't have any feedings all that day and no ice or water either, because right after being knocked out for the procedure the food or water might cause vomiting. 1.5 days with no feedings or liquids. And then on the last day, they started the day telling him I was denying him his feedbag until I saw his doctor. (That was a lie.) His doctor finally approved feeding him again at 2 PM that day.
That was 50 hours with the only contact being people coming in and out of his room to give him medications and to tell him what would happen next, including no food or water.
Add to that, he was left on a tube to eliminate waste for so long, he can't tell when he has to poop anymore, or if he has gone on his bed. (The hospital refuses to give him adult diapers, and also refuses to get there in time to help him with a bedpan, so he also simply gives up trying to catch it.
Isn't that somewhere between solitary confinement and against the Geneva convention? The first thing the nurses complained about when he returned was they returned him without ever cleaning him up after going in his sheets. (Thankfully, he's been constipated for a week, but he told no one that for fear they'd fix it.)
They call these hospital-induced delirium. In this case, their ineptness caused him to go back to that phase briefly.
One of the first things he told me this morning was his nurse caught that he had a nose bleed again. "Caught." What he didn't catch was John is vomitting again. To John, going back to that hospital is very much like getting put in solitary confinement and he did nothing wrong to deserve the sentence.
This is what is different now, and it's not a good thing. Rehab can't fix what's wrong with him. The hospital punishes him for coming back.
I've gone over everyone's head today and emailed the Director of Veterans Affairs to ask for a reprieve on John's sentence for not eating. I didn't tell all that's going wrong, because if anyone asks John, he will feel like he's being punished for not speaking up. He likes his nurses in the rehab, and also doesn't want to get them in trouble. My purpose is to get him back to eating after 134 days of not eating, so, if he is sent to the hospital again, at least I can feed him when they don't think it's all that important that he eats at all.
He won't even let me put water in his ice when nurses are around because some nurses think he's not allowed to have water. I keep telling everyone he's been allowed to have ice and water since January 15th. (The post was on his door for weeks when he was in the hospital but out of the ICU, so I pointed to it often at nurses there.) The nurses at the rehab know he drinks water. What else is he drinking if he waits for the ice to melt? They also see me walking down the hall with a cup of ice water, but he thinks they don't know.
Pray he has no more bouts of delirium, no more need to go back to that hellhole, and that the director does something good with my email.
When he was in the hospital for those two nights, the nurses usually came into his room to administer his antibiotics. He came in during the afternoon, but the hospital didn't contact the nutritionist's office until after 5, when the nutritionist left for the day. So they simply skipped giving him two of his feedings. To go along with that, they also decided he could have no ice or water either. And then at midnight he had to fast for the endoscopy the next day too, so there was no reason to feed him. His procedure happened at 3 PM, so they decided he shouldn't have any feedings all that day and no ice or water either, because right after being knocked out for the procedure the food or water might cause vomiting. 1.5 days with no feedings or liquids. And then on the last day, they started the day telling him I was denying him his feedbag until I saw his doctor. (That was a lie.) His doctor finally approved feeding him again at 2 PM that day.
That was 50 hours with the only contact being people coming in and out of his room to give him medications and to tell him what would happen next, including no food or water.
Add to that, he was left on a tube to eliminate waste for so long, he can't tell when he has to poop anymore, or if he has gone on his bed. (The hospital refuses to give him adult diapers, and also refuses to get there in time to help him with a bedpan, so he also simply gives up trying to catch it.
Isn't that somewhere between solitary confinement and against the Geneva convention? The first thing the nurses complained about when he returned was they returned him without ever cleaning him up after going in his sheets. (Thankfully, he's been constipated for a week, but he told no one that for fear they'd fix it.)
They call these hospital-induced delirium. In this case, their ineptness caused him to go back to that phase briefly.
One of the first things he told me this morning was his nurse caught that he had a nose bleed again. "Caught." What he didn't catch was John is vomitting again. To John, going back to that hospital is very much like getting put in solitary confinement and he did nothing wrong to deserve the sentence.
This is what is different now, and it's not a good thing. Rehab can't fix what's wrong with him. The hospital punishes him for coming back.
I've gone over everyone's head today and emailed the Director of Veterans Affairs to ask for a reprieve on John's sentence for not eating. I didn't tell all that's going wrong, because if anyone asks John, he will feel like he's being punished for not speaking up. He likes his nurses in the rehab, and also doesn't want to get them in trouble. My purpose is to get him back to eating after 134 days of not eating, so, if he is sent to the hospital again, at least I can feed him when they don't think it's all that important that he eats at all.
He won't even let me put water in his ice when nurses are around because some nurses think he's not allowed to have water. I keep telling everyone he's been allowed to have ice and water since January 15th. (The post was on his door for weeks when he was in the hospital but out of the ICU, so I pointed to it often at nurses there.) The nurses at the rehab know he drinks water. What else is he drinking if he waits for the ice to melt? They also see me walking down the hall with a cup of ice water, but he thinks they don't know.
Pray he has no more bouts of delirium, no more need to go back to that hellhole, and that the director does something good with my email.
