Bubbe Update................... .............. More Nursing Home Drama

02-26-2013 at 10:21 PM 

The last few visits to the nursing home have been much of the same as it has been in the last few weeks. My grandmother is now on complete "bed rest" which means that she will remain in her bed for the rest of her life. We elected to put her on bed rest based on the fact that the majority of the time her eyes are closed and she feels disturbed when she is touched and moved from her bed to her chair. She barely eats and wants to sleep even while in her chair. Our goal is to keep her as comfortable as possible.

In the meantime there is no lack of "entertainment" in the halls of the 100 wing of the nursing home. Her move from the "psych ward" by my definition, the high risk wing by their definition was somewhat a lateral move. The people in the psych ward including the Cabbage Patch Lady, Santa, and the lady with the baby certainly acted as if they had earned their status in this wing and the people in the 100 wing although different in demeanor have similarly earned status that do not require them to be locked up. For example in the 100 wing there are two people that on separate occasions wheel themselves up and down the hallways and sometimes into my grandmothers' room. The old bald man has a very raspy and loud voice and when he raises his voice he comes across as very mean especially when he tells people what to do. He sits with the same lady at meal times and the same argument ensues daily. It's always about the center piece on their table. They act like an old married couple. The old lady who wheels up and down the hallways often gets mad at the staff and blurts out, "what the fuck! what the fuck! what the fuck!" and "That's bullshit! That's bullshit! That's bullshit!" all as she wheels herself down the hallway nobody paying attention to her, well, except for me obviously since I have quoted her here. :-)

Another lady who is apparently unable to speak communicates solely by making this sound, "bah, bah, bah bah, bah" loudly. Another lady lets out blood curdling screams as if she is being tortured with high voltage electric shocks although I am not sure you could actually scream under those circumstances. A better example may be that of giving birth to a ten pound baby without any sedation or epidural. When I hear her screams I cringe.

I don't know how they do it but I credit the staff that work in this environment day in and day out. As far as Bubbe is concerned we will continue to lover her and take care of her. Today when I went to see her I walked over to her bed, put my hand on her shoulder, bent down to kiss her and told her I was there. I asked her if she was alright and she cried out "no!" I asked her in a very tender tone, "what's the matter?" She replied in a weepy way, "I don't feel good." I assured her that I and my mother were there and we would take care of her. We are there everyday to comfort her and give her whatever she needs. We learned that more than half of the people on this wing do not receive any visitors.

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