Aug 27 - Hurley ICU

I just returned from a family trip to the western edge of Wisconsin to visit my husband's extended family. All-in-all, we spent about 28 hours travelling between last Thursday and today, Monday. You should have seen how happy Carter, our 10 month old, was to be sat in the living room floor -- he was amazed that it still existed!

I will visit Mom tomorrow morning for the first time since last Wednesday. I hear that she's on an upswing. I am taking the vacation to CO that was scheduled for the 4th of July but that I rescheduled because that was at Mom's low point. I wasn't sure if she'd make it while I was away so I rescheduled.

While I was away this weekend, Hurley called and asked my permission to give Mom a heart catheter - I still don't know why. First of all, when they left a message, they didn't explain why she needed it and second of all, she didn't need one. History: Dad was thinking on his feet and asked that his heart doc give a second opinion. Dad's doc said that you should never do this procedure when someone has pneumonia like Mom and that she doesn't need one anyway!

That's it, I'm moving her back to Henry Ford. It will be extremely inconvenient for everyone and I apologize for that . I just don't like Hurley. Do you know that I've left over a dozen messages for docs or nurses to call me back and I have not received one call? NEVER! Yet, they find the time to call me 3 times in a 12 hour period to hassle me to give my permission to give Mom a procedure that she doesn't need.

My rant: I am frustrated because Mom and Dad both want me to help make medical decisions for her -- something for which I am very proud. The problem is that I am an extremely uniformed person. Typically, I show up earlier than normal visiting hours because of my work schedule but the nurses have usually just switched shifts. More often than not, Mom has a nurse that has never been with her before (how many nurses does Hurley have, anyway? You'd think that I'd start doubling up with a nurse that has actually been with her before.) So, they can't tell me 1. what's wrong with her or 2. if she's better or worse.

Another thing that gripes me is the fact that no one considers her history. I understand that they have to closely monitor the hear and now but if they would just see how fragile she is, they wouldn't push her so hard to get off the vent.