You Think She May Come and See Me Today?

Typically people with a dementing illness have delusional episodes in their everyday life. As the disease progresses the brain becomes more and more damaged. Not only becoming cognitively impaired, but also progressively physically impaired. One characteristic of the disease taking hold is swallowing becomes increasingly difficult. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

You Think She May Come and See Me Today?

This was one of many reasons Mr. Colon ended up being hospitalized. Not only did he stop eating, he was also a dialysis patient. Three times a week he was in the hospital for treatment. A big commitment for whoever took care of him. Especially since his wife can't drive and just finished breast cancer treatment including a mastectomy. I am talking about a couple that has been married for forty-five years.

One morning that I entered his room and said "Good Morning Peter. How are you this morning?"

He looked at me and answered in Spanish. He acted like he knew me and started talking.

He told me all about his wife and how she was everything to him. She is my friend, my sister, my mother. She is my world, she is all I have. I need to take care of her and she needs me. I don't want to leave her alone.

Weeks go by and his wife comes with her friend around lunch time every day. Her friend, who had recently become a widow, flew from Puerto Rico to help her because she does not drive and could not get to the hospital to see her husband.

After placement of a peg tube, the plan was to send him home. However, at this point his wife was unable to take care of him. So he was going to be placed in a nursing home.

This created an even bigger dilemma.

His wife was going to be unable to visit him because her friend was going back home and she would have no one to drive. I remember this woman hugged me with tears on her face, telling me "please do not to send him out the hospital."

She knew he was going to die soon wanted to be near him. I Immediately, called the social worker and explained to her the situation. She explained to me that because his insurance .... The only option was to place him in a facility far away.

The social worker said she would call other facilities and thought they had very good chance of transferring him to a closer facility once a bed had come available.

We communicated this to his wife.

To say the least, she was not very happy but had no choice. The next day he needed dialysis and was not doing well. His condition was to the point that we were unable to be transfer him to the nursing home.

This bought us time to look for a facility closer to home so his wife could visit. By the time my patients health improved the social worker was able to find a facility close enough for his wife to visit.

I was pleased to have recently received a phone call from my patients wife informing me that he was still improving and she was able to continue seeing him everyday.

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gladyscruz

About gladyscruz

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

It has been said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In this scenerio, galadyscruz, you were a master link.

You provided the necessary care for your patient. Then you sought out the social worker in order to gain information on the discharge plan. After gaining the information, you were there to support the patient and family in a difficult transition.

It's a true show of appreciation when a patient or family member contacts their previous caregiver with updates. In this case, you were also blessed with a good status report.

GOOD job!

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Excellent patient advocate!!! Thank you.

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