Strained

"The quality of mercy is not strained," or so says Shakespeare in "The Merchant of Venice."  What is strained is the quality of healthcare.

This is not a rant against "Obamacare" or political diatribe. I have no use for any of that bs.  This is just me being frustrated by the whole system/situation. Not knowing what to do, I'm turning to writing.  Because I'm just frustrated, angry and all pent up with emotion that I don't know what to do.

Nutshell version (for those of you who have not been following along):  My dad got a serious infection in his right leg.  He ended up in the ICU at our local hospital for nearly two weeks.  There were complications as a result of the infection.  Eventually his health started to improve so he was moved from the hospital to a "care facility" (euphemism for nursing home in my book...sorry, it’s just how I feel).  He still has the infection and is still getting treated with IV antibiotics.

I'm not there more than an hour a day so I don't know enough.  In this crazy world someone should probably be documenting every little thing because it's probably the only way to get anything accomplished.  I wish I could be that person.  I wish there WAS such a person.   I know he gets the IV in the afternoon and that while that's going on he can't go to physical therapy.  I know his leg is still swollen, red and wrapped in gauze.  I know that he's been working hard in physical therapy trying to walk with a walker.  And I know that today when he tried physical therapy they noticed that his leg was hot.

In my UNMEDICAL opinion, which is just based on my seeing him this evening and seeing whatever is oozing from his leg puddling on the floor, I think he's taken a step back again.  I think a doctor should see him.  Unfortunately the doctor is off today.  And the on call doctor (who happens to be the doctor's brother and BOTH physicians live less than 2 miles away from the care facility) is not coming today/tonight.  I PRAY that someone will look at it tomorrow.  I PRAY that he will not have to go back to the hospital (although that MIGHT be for the best...maybe it's time for additional or new antibiotics...after all he's been on antibiotics for nearly 20 days now, perhaps it's time to reevaluate the situation.)  I WISH the infectious disease doctor would come and see him.  My mother called him this morning...and there were no results.  The nurse at the care facility called this afternoon and that's how we found out he's not coming.

Is this the end of the world?  No.  But when something is wrong with someone you love, you want action.  You don't want to leave messages.  You want someone to DO something.  

On the other hand, you DON"T want to be a pain in the... or piss anyone off.  Because that COULD affect the quality of care.  So it's a fine line in making your voice heard and not being a nag.  You don't want to cross that line, but you DO want to be heard.  You do want action.

I have no answers, no solutions.  Right now I am just a ball of pent up frustration. I am stressed and strained.
I know that tomorrow is a new day.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.  A day of action.  A day of moving forward instead of back.  I know it won't be a day of no stress or strain, but hopefully it will be one with less.

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