CRANK BED

"....and this is supposed to be one of the best nursing homes in the country? Five stars and everything. And this old bed is what they do?" the doctor said rather aghast, as he looked at the old fashioned hospital bed with the crank on it. A crank nearly underneath the bed, you wind around so to lift up the head and shoulders of the patient, so he can eat and drink. 

"I had to really work them yesterday to get him into this one" I told him, "the one he had before was broken and it wouldn't go up or down at all, this apparently was the best they could come up with."

At another nearby nursing home I interviewed this morning with the idea of moving Paul, and in response to my telling them about Paul's bed they said "Wow, they don't even have a modern hospital bed to put him in?"

It was a tough weekend waiting for a work day so I could talk to Paul's regular Kaiser doctor and looking into a new nursing home and calling the Ombudsman (state advocate for nursing home issues). 

Lucky me that the Kaiser doctor came into the nursing home today. They aren't in there all that often. So I pounced on him and had him look at the chart from the hospital, where the doctor had promised me he'd make special requests for measuring the liquid in and out, and rehabilitation. But apparently no where on there was a request to be sure to get Paul a bed so he can sit up and eat and drink. Right now he is too weak, due to a week in bed at a hospital, to sit himself up. 

I think it's time to move him. I've had it with the home not brushing and caring for Paul's teeth and so he lost all the front ones, and then letting him become lethally dehydrated and now not measuring his fluids or getting him a proper bed. It's time to go somewhere else me thinks. 

I'm taking everything about 10 minutes at a time right now, so we'll see how it all comes out in the wash. I feel like a right ol' crank myself.