Mom Update & A Rant

Sorry for the lack of posts, but we have been pretty busy with stuff  trying to get ready for Mom to come home - or not. She has now been stuck in the hospital since DECEMBER 2nd - is it no wonder she is going bonkers stir crazy?  We've spent the last couple of days rearranging the house so that Mom will now be in what was our guest bedroom.  We've found out in the last few months that it is much warmer and sunnier in that room than the one that Mom initially chose on the opposite side of the house.  I'm hoping she'll like the change (I did ask her about it before I did it, but you never know.)

Now for the rant:  I really am not bashing the medical profession again - as a whole, but I sure do wish this bunch of clowns here would get their act together. First they told us we would be bringing her home - you know, about a month ago? Then they say, nope - we are going to put her in a skilled nursing facility for a few weeks - 7 miles even further away for a total of 42 miles from our house one way. Well hmmmm, let's change that. Now we are going to send her home and have home health care come out to the house. Sounds great to me! Nope, let's hold off & we'll let you know. 

Fast forward to this week:  Monday, Jan 11th - we have a bed lined up for her at the nursing facility. Tuesday - well, why don't we just send her home with you tomorrow instead. OK. Wednesday - well, the nurses gave her a certain medication so she can't go anywhere today. Thursday TODAY - I am sitting here in her room trying to figure out if I am really taking her home like the discharge nurse who called me today says OR if it is like the nurses here in the room told Mom this morning and THEY ARE SENDING HER TO THE SKILLED NURSING FACILITY but NOT TODAY????

Please forgive my screaming in caps, but WTH? Can you feel my frustration? No one here writes anything down or fills anyone else in on what is happening. Who knows what they do at shift change? It's sure not briefing the oncoming shift about the patients.  The nurse in charge of Mom two days ago told me she likes this assignment because she only has two patients to care for. Whippy skippy! You have twelve hours to care for TWO whole patients and YOU CAN'T WRITE ANTHING ON THE CHART FOR THE NEXT SHIFT or fill in your relief??

Sorry again, but I don't want to wake up Mom - who knows if she will be travelling home with me or going 7 miles to the east to the facility or staying here or how about being moved from one private room to a different private room at 11:30 AT NIGHT?  I am so not happy right now.  And to top it off, I am trying to type this on my phone because I don't have anything to keep me busy while we she's asleep and we're waiting to hear which ring of the CIRCUS here she'll be starring in next...

If you stayed with me for the entire rant, thank you so much for listening.  If you didn't, can't blame ya for leaving.  I probably would too.

Stimulus, Influence, Drive

My post about my 2010 Intentions ended with the synonyms of the word MOTIVATION - stimulus, influence, and drive. I have been thinking quite a bit about what motivates people lately. In observing the nurses and nursing assistants taking care of Mom in the hospital, I got to wondering what their reasons or motivations were to enter the nursing field.

Since she has 2 nurses and 3 nurses' aides each 24 hour period, there are quite a few different people and personalities in the mix. Being the nosy person that I am, I started talking to many of them and flat out asked them what made them choose this type of work. The answers were very interesting:

• Money


• Helping people


• Training to be a doctor, furthering education


• To be useful


• Social


• To find a husband!

Money and helping people were definitely the top answers. Most of these people are really wonderful and caring. They have a gift and offer much of themselves to the patients. They go the extra miles to make sure the patient is taken care of and has everything they could need. I would gladly take many of these lovely people into my family. But then....

Some have no business being within 50 yards of people in need of tending. They are surly acting and prone to rough handling of the patients. (I complained btw, about a nurse's aide AND a so-called doctor). And yes, one actually answered that she was looking for a husband.

I would say I'm shocked, but I worked in law enforcement for many years and dealt with a few emergency room personnel (and some in my department) that were there for that purpose. They were not in the career field to care for the ill and injured or uphold the law. So sorry if this offends anyone but it's my observations, my experience, and frankly - my blog. And I wasn't surprised that this was an answer to my question, I was just amazed that she said it out loud - to a family member of one of her patients!

I didn't write this post to bash on nurses and aides. I am very grateful to the mostly fine & fabulous people that have been caring for Mom these past weeks (and weeks). I was just in a pondering mood and thought I'd explore a little about motivation including my own.

Money is NOT a major motivator for me. It never has been. When we first got together, Mr. MoonCat had a hard time believing that I really meant it when I said that I didn't care if he was rich. My attitude is that as long as we have what we NEED and we can make all or most of our ends meet, we're fine. Money DOES NOT equal Happiness.

I dated a couple of guys who were all about the almighty dollar. One was already a millionaire and the other one will inherit many, many more dollars than that. They are/were both miserable human beings. They were unhappy with themselves, with the people they were surrounded by, and with their STUFF. No amount of money could BUY what they were looking for. They had both grown up spoiled and had no idea what it meant to fend for themselves. They didn't get the true value of working for what you have or for knowing who or what is truly important to you. Money or lots of things DOES NOT equal Happiness.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to win the lottery and I sure as heck wouldn' t turn it down. I could ease a lot of financial stress for many of my loved ones. I could pay off ours & my family's bills as well as set up the niece & nephews' college funds. But I still wouldn't be driving a $100,000 car and I would still choose to live in the house we're in - we're HAPPY here. I would still grow my own veggies and try to can them - whole other story to come. (The decluttering kick I have been on falls into this line of thinking in that STUFF is just STUFF. If we don't NEED it, why get it?)

I know a lot of people say they wouldn't change if they won the lotto, but I think it would be inevitable to a point. But I really can't imagine what I would BUY? Maybe a horse trailer of my own since I always use Dad's? That is something we are planning on getting in the near future anyway, so it's not some big "Whoo Hoo, I'm a MILLIONAIRE, Look at me & my money" thing. It's a real life object/tool that we have a NEED for and to be honest, will probably buy used anyway - millionaire or not!

I'm glad to say that the hubby now gets that I really don't want a lot of the trappings that some people feel they can't survive without. It sounds corny, but as long as we have each other, our family/friends (furry and otherwise), and our health -we're good!

I would have to say that some of the things that DO motivate me are the well-being of my loved ones, for me to be allowed to be creative, to be acknowledged (thank you lovely blog readers - you really do hear me!), to make a positive difference in someone else's life, and to do what I can to make our world a better place. -and that concludes my acceptance speech for my Mrs. SuperDuperAmerica award...... Just kidding, I don't mean it to sound like one of those sickly-sweet diatribes. But I think these really are some of the things that make me tick.

So what drives you?