Hospitals--ICK!

First off, I will be glad to report that I can be a morning person if I HAVE to be. I'm sure most of you who know me are laughing your pants off however, I have pictures to prove that I did see the sun come up yesterday morning!! Mishap after mishap I was unable to leave Wilson Monday as planned so the next plan was to get up and be in Monahans before my mom left for the hospital so she could see her adorable granddaughter before leaving. This meant me leaving before 4:30 am. I WAS SUCCESSFUL!!! Isabella and I both hit the sack a little after 11. The alarm sounded at 4 am and thank goodness I had packed the car the night before. I got up, got dressed, put the sippy cups in the diaper bad, grabbed the kiddo and embarked on our early morning trip, pulling out of the driveway at 4:22. As I was putting Isabella in the car she awoke so I started up her Barney video thinking it would only be minutes before she would be out again. Minutes after minutes and hours after hours passed, Barney video, every lullaby I know sung at least twice and Barney for the second time and we arrived at my parents front door and the kiddo was still awake!! Much excited to see Grammie and PaPa, she was then whisked away to spend the day with Sherrie and Alan reported that he could tell she DEFINITELY had a BLAST! (Thank you so much for watching her, I hope she wasn't too much trouble!!)
As most of you know my mom had surgery yesterday morning to have a Parotid Tumor removed. The surgery was very successful. Dr. Cepero said the tumor was larger than he had anticipated but Praise God for the good news that the tumor was benign. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers, they all were much appreciated and cherished.
But although most of you may not believe I can be a morning person and I'm glad my mom is doing well this really isn't the whole of my post! Have you ever been in a hospital and noticed the ickyness? I mean aren't these places suppose to sterile, clean and healthy. Although I'd like to agree, i must disagree with this. Also, I would hope that the staff that is caring for your health would be smart people, however, I think these particular days at MCH they told a portion of their staff to leave their brains at the door. As I was lagging behind a bit, due to dropping Isabella off, I missed some of the experiences, however, I walked in on the pre-op questions. You know the what religion are you, do you smoke, have you ever, do you or your family have this or that...THOSE questions! Speaking of THOSE questions...I have a novel idea, let's get a database, and share with the world, ask them once and poof everyone has them. If there is a change, we can swear on the girl/boy scout honor that we will inform our health care professional of each individual change! Here we encountered Ms I must ask every question to the T and Ms she looks healthy so just check no to all of those questions and yes she has anxiety she's having surgery!! Next is the medication list...ok, so if you take 20 pills a day (aka - my grandmother) then I understand bring a specific list or your bottles but come on...if you take 3 medications and have been taking them for years I'm pretty sure you have become quite acquainted with the bottles! However, despite this fact the following conversation takes place:
Nurse: What medications do you take?
Mom: Med A, B & C
Nurse: C there isn't a drug by that name, it's not in my computer or in my book, are you sure that's right?
Mom: Yes, you can call the pharmacy if you must
Nurse: Well is there someone at home that can read the bottle or bring it up here?
Mom: No, I live 30 miles away and it will say exactly what and how I just spelled it for you.
Gina: Give me a moment, I'll look it up on my I-phone.
(SERIOUSLY, it has come to the patients friend looking a drug up on an I-phone and telling the nurse what the drug consists of and anything she might ever want to know about it INCLUDING it's ORIGIN date which was probably before this girl was born!!!)
Nurse: Now how long have you been taking these medications?
Mom: Years -- more than I can remember
Nurse: Years? Like 10, 15?
Umm, YES YEARS did you not hear that she just told you more than I can remember and if it was 10 or 15, what the hell does that matter??? Write something down and move on!
Nurse: SO why are you having your Thyroid out?
Mom: I'm NOT!! Parathyroid in the future but not today!
Nurse: Oh, then why are you here?
Hell because she thought it would be fun to walk in the hospital, admit herself and decide to have surgery, you have the orders why don't you take a look before opening your mouth!! Brains left at the front door I tell ya!!
FINALLY we advance past Ms I left my brain at the door and Ms get her butt to surgery and we end up at Pre-Op, waiting & waiting & waiting. My mom decided she needed to go to the bathroom but didn't know if she could...I told her to go, if it wasn't ok, they'd tell her. We checked, the coast was clear and she hauled off the the bathroom but caught just short of EXITING the door! "Where are your shoe covers?" *She was barefoot* to which my mom responded that she didn't have any! Stay here till I get you some the Nurse responded. Really why?? She had already walked to, entered and exited the bathroom shoeless, how was this going to save her the 10 feet she had left to get back to her curtained partition. She got in mild 1st grade trouble for darting to the bathroom and not having shoe covers but how this is her fault I'm not quite sure, we were stuck in a pre-op curtain and left, no call button, no instructions NOTHING!!! She gets shoe covers and finally they come to prep her for surgery, talk talk talk, questions, questions, questions (this is where the world wide database comes in handy), IV finally in and more waiting. They decide they need more tubing in her IV so they insert more, now the IV won't flow, so here comes the nurse taking it apart, asking Gina and I to hold parts of it (no gloves and she has no clue if I have clean hands or not). The nurse ungloved herself, in the middle of the process of trying to unclog the IV, she takes a barrette down out of her hair and replaces it. Then doesn't skip a beat continuing with her job. That's sanitary? Seriously? I'm sorry but next time please try to keep your hair gel, hair spray or whatever you might put in your hair out of my family member IV line!! This all happened PRE-SURGERY!! The funniest brainless wonder from today came in to check on her and I told him the potty chair needed to emptied. He said ok and went about his business. I then again told him that it needed to be emptied and he said ok, that's fine, we are getting rid of it anyways. Let me remind you I specifically said twice "THE POTTY CHAIR NEEDS TO BE EMPTIED". Now wouldn't you think that means there is pee in the toilet? Anyways, he comes in and hoists the chair up to carry it out, I notice a little bit of the urine spilling out but say nothing thinking he will notice...he sits it down and I think he's going to empty it, NOPE, he picks it up again and stings urine all the way out of the room. After exiting the room I hear a splash in the hallway. I can't help but burst out laughing because I know this poor guy has spilled my mom's urine all over the hallway and probably all over himself. Sorry guy...you were warned!! TWICE!!! *HERE'S YOUR SIGN". Needless to say I think he went home to change because it was an hour or so before we saw him on the floor again! There were countless other occurrences but I hate to bore you...let's just say that the stay was less than up to par and still today certain staff members were required to leave their brain at the door. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the facility as a whole or the staff as a whole because I have very good friends that work over there...just different floors, different jobs and we also did encounter a few that knew what was going on, but it's those that don't and show it that make your stay memorable or should I say "entertaining/frustrating/annoying" or just plain ICK!!