Sunday, January 25...When Mama's Not Happy, Nobody's Happy!

The management team at Cane Island will have a surprise waiting for them tomorrow morning ... the wrath of Mom! Dad's first 36 hours there have been far from perfect; actually, we'd only give them a "1" on a scale from 1 to 5. I don't know if we were just soo spoiled at KRH, or Cane Island is just terrible. On Friday, we were told that he would have a therapy evaluation on Saturday afternoon, so Mom arrived at noon on Saturday to make sure she didn't miss it. She found Dad in the dining room, and it took him about 15 minutes to get a tray. She noticed when the aide put it in front of Dad, it had the wrong room number on it, so she brought it to their attention. They took it back, and brought another one, and this time when the lid was lifted, it was 3 SCOOPS of food. So once again, she summoned the aide, and asked why he was getting pureed food, and she said, "I guess because he has a swallowing problem." Mom assured her he did not, and told her that they served him regular food for dinner last night, so the aide walked away again, and this time brought him a tray with his name on it, and regular food. From that point on, for nearly 6 hours, Dad did not see any staff members. No one ever came in to check to see if he was okay, no one came to bring him dinner, and most importantly, no therapist ever showed up to evaluate Dad. Mom complained to his evening nurse, and she apologized but said they were running on a short staff ... great news! We arrived this morning, and nothing was any better. We found out that Dad did not get a shower last night as was promised, and he didn't eat breakfast this morning because he didn't go to the dining room ... the staff apparently didn't realize that he couldn't get out of bed by himself!! Mom, Dave & I decided to pack Dad up and bring him home for the afternoon. If he is just going to sit there and be ignored, he may as well be home with us. So, Grandma met us at the house and brought some homemade spaghetti sauce she had in the freezer. We fixed an italian lunch, the dogs took turns laying on the couch by dad, and then Dave got Dad up and let him stretch his legs. He also went out and checked his garden, which is surprisingly still doing okay after being virtually ignored by Mom. We will be heading back to Cane Island soon though, Terri & Paul, are driving down from Willis this evening to visit with Dad. Dad also had some very special visitors on Saturday. He "girlfriends" from Klare Plumbing came to see him along with Karen's son, Derek. They came bearing a gift of seafood gumbo from Babin's ... Mom said she and Dad shared it for dinner, and it was yummy. Dad said your visit sure brightened his day!!