Second Verse, Same As The First

It's getting to be that when the doctors caring for Dad hear hoofbeats, they start looking for zebras instead of horses. One thing after another keeps impeding progress, and some of the issues are almost as rare as the one he came in with. He spent some time in rehab a few weeks ago, but then his liver stopped functioning properly, so we're back in the hospital again. With any luck, he'll be back to rehab by the end of this week, and then we cross our fingers, hoping nothing else will go wrong.

We've encountered all sorts of medical personnell in our nine-ish weeks here, some considerably better than others. When we occasionally have to call the not-so-good ones on something, we tend to get the same type of response from them: they quote their c.v. to us. This is intensely irritating, because it doesn't mean what they think it means. Telling me you have a nursing license just means you went to school and passed the tests. Dad did that with his driver's license ages ago... does that mean he should be behind the wheel? Absolutely not. The fact that you're leaning on your license instead of proving your knowledge and experience through your actions tells me you don't really understand the customer service aspect of your job (and, in the case of some of the staff we've encountered, there's some serious negligence and unprofessionalism that needs to be addressed).

The best nurses and doctors have been the ones who respect the fact that we, as caregivers, know more about this particular patient than the staff does, and allow us to voice concerns or provide assistance (ie. care for our father) without throwing rules and regulations in our way and making us feel like we don't know anything about caring for Dad.

I'm trying to do some knitting while in the hospital, and I have a handspun scarf coming along, but the time passes so much faster when I'm online that I tend to play with the computer more than the yarn. Being in the hospital, especially when the not-so-good staff is around, is a massive trigger for some of my less active psych issues, so I'm leaning on whichever coping skills work, without much thought about which would be the most productive outside of keeping me calm.

Oh, and while I'm getting y'all up to date on life stuff, I got engaged last month. *squee!!* Now I just have to wait for life to settle down a bit so I can start working on the dress. Any day now.