Feeling invisible

After waiting 45 minutes to see the podiatrist, I went back to my room. But there were no aides around to assist me to get set up at my desktop computer. I asked one (not mine) and she was too busy.

Foiled, I decided to head down to afternoon snack to see what was going on. I was hot and thirsty and wanted a drink. I thought maybe I could quickly get icewater or dietetic Kool-Aid from one of the activity aides.

When I got to the dining room, I pulled in the door and sat there. I thought maybe I was supposed to go to a table. But the only ones were far away and I would have to sit there where no one could see me. There were no floor aides in the dining room helping with snacks either.

One of the activity aides asked me what I wanted. I told her I wanted Kool-Aid or ice water. I also said I might be interested in the free snack if I liked it and if there was someone to feed me. But I knew I would have to wait my turn and realized I'd be last.

When it was my turn, there were only five minutes left of snacktime. The activity aide gave me a drink of Kool-Aid.. She said the free snack was cheese puffs. Then, she said she could not give them to me because my aide was not there to feed them to me. Then, my aide floated through the dining room and disappeared.

I drank most of the Kool-Aid. I gave up on the snack for several reasons: it wasn't my favorite and there was no one to help me eat it. I also suggested that they might want to have a free snack without cheese in it.

Then I went back up on the hallway to see what was going on. I did not see an aide anywhere. But I saw the director of nursing and told her that I got a drink but no snack because I was late and no one was there to feed me. She asked who my aide was and I told her.

I guess I will never know why that happened. Maybe because I never go they did not know what to do about me.

I do wonder why no one called the nurses station so that my aide could be paged to the dining room to help me.