My Grandma is the most awesome person. She’s not Grandma like at all. She swears like a sailor. She eats candy like a madwoman, she drives a minivan with grateful dead stickers on the window, and she was the person that made me have a life long appreciation for Pink Floyd. My Grandma kicks other grandma’s asses! haha. Well, she did.. until everything started.
She fell down a step on a deck at my wedding in 2004 and broke her knee. Healing took forever and it never actually healed right, she walked alright, but it was never the same. Then in 2008 she fell at her house and broke a different part of her knee. This time healing took longer, she ended up in a (physical) rehabilitation home, and she couldnt walk without a walker at all once that one healed. She was doing alright adjusting to life in a walker/ wheelchair/ electric scooter (awesome!) when she slipped and fell again and broke her hip last week. They did surgery as soon as they could get her blood count good enough.. and less than one week later (today) discharged her to a rehab home again. The thought of this has kept me up all night long. My grandma has good insurance, she has Kaiser through my grandpa’s retirement.. she’s got the best coverage they have… and yet she has fallen thru the cracks entirely, and its obscene. The place is disgusting, it wreaks of death and everywhere you look you want to turn away because the people are literally dying right there before your eyes with no one there to care about it. The workers walk around like they dont notice it at all, or are just totally used to it. She;s sharing a room with a very old woman with a terrible case of shingles. When my aunt called earlier, the nurse said they had been waiting all morning for auntorization to open my grandmothers pain medication, meaning my Grandma is post surgery with zero pain meds half the day. Her room has no television, no phone, no chairs for any one to sit in, were they to come visit a poor soul there. Its visibly dirty everywhere. She was in this same home before, and it was during the summer, but there was no air conditioning so the patients were required to provide their own fans. These people can’t leave and it’s heartbreaking to see how many of them don’t have any family that comes to visit them or make sure they are being properly cared for. Sirens are constant there are people soul’s painfully slip away out of this horrible cube or bricks and death. The last time she was there she also had major issues with no one coming to help her use the restroom (she cant get up by herself..and they dont give them their walkers) for hours after she requested help. They didn’t feed her on time, even though she’s diabetic, which makes it extremely important, and they didn’t bring her water until hours after she asked for a drink. Its the saddest place, and my poor Grandma is so sad and depressed there with nothing to do and no way to talk to anyone. I cant believe places like this are allowed to exist.
I’ve been doing some research and am encouraging my aunt, to inform my grandma that, as far as I can see, she has every right to discharge herself from this place and at least come home. That’s all she wants. My Aunt will be there full time to take care of her..and she’s not doing any better there or in the hospital where she laid in a bed unattended for over four hours. If she’s going to die, I dont want her to die because she’s so sad she’s stuck there… and if she IS going to die, she’s not going to do it there goddamn it. Thats the last place she or anyone would want to spend their final days.
I know this was a very long post/ rant… but I’m appalled by the way we throw our elders away in this society. I’m pissed about the way our already fucked healthcare system operates, and I’m sure it’s only going to get worse with the reform. I’m sick to my stomach thinking about the fact that someone pays big money for this insurance, that abandons her.. like she doesnt count. Like someone, somewhere decides, “well, shes someones loved one, but not mine.. so fuck it.. send her here”. I want to scream at people. I want to break her out of there. I just cant believe the injustice of there places and everyones overpretentous willingness to simply not notice them. “Old folks homes..what old folks homes.. hey look! its a starbucks!” Basically. Fuck, I hope she does okay and makes it long enough for us to get her home. I was doing so good today too, feeling well rested and happy.. now I’m so angry and frustrated. My mind feels like industrial music.
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