Another crazy, mixed up Saturday morning

This place can be crazy every other weekend. It's strange that it wasn't like that over Labor Day weekend. I will never understand how the fates allowed things to work on that holiday weekend after I arrived. Someone here must've taken pity on me and said, "Get that lady ready for the day whatever you do".

On the next weekend, I found out how things go when things go wrong here. I have learned that some weekends are better than others. Sometimes it depends on which nurses are the weekend supervisors. It also depends on whether there is a weekend manager, and who that manager is. I had no idea what to expect.

Last weekend my routine was kind of forgotten. They just did not have enough help. The office folks (management staff) help with things from Monday through Friday. That means on the weekend they're not here to help. One of them may work weekends, but that is to be weekend manager.

Last weekend I was in bed until after 9 AM. I soiled the diaper because no one got me up to the bathroom. I wondered what would happen this weekend.

One night shift nurse does not really stick to a schedule. He did well the first few days but since then things have gone downhill. I realize I live on the Rehab Unit and this population constantly changes. Most new residents are fresh from the hospital, and need quite a bit of care. It's not like it is on the long-term here unit – where the residents remain pretty much the same.

This place is just busier than my previous facility. There, residents had behaviors and they took a lot of medication. Then, they slept a lot during the day. But many times, some of them were up most of the night many times causing trouble for the few available staff.

This morning my medicine schedule was changed. I told the night shift nurse how I thought it could be done. But he says meds are not given before 6 AM. Now, he should know that I know compliance with the law allows nurses to give meds one hour before the scheduled time, and one hour after. That would mean the nurse could give me my 6 AM meds between 5 AM and 7 AM. He should realize I know the rules by now. He's been giving me lots of pushback. So I tend to think he's somewhere besides passing medicine when I need my meds. A couple of times when he's brought my meds, he has wreaked of smoke. I think he's been outside smoking. Some nurses at a previous facility did the same. But, they told me they were busy.

So, my meds were given on a different schedule than what was done before. My suppositories were given late. There were not enough aides on the floor to get me up in a timely manner. They got me up before 8 AM. I ended up being left in the bathroom until 9:15 a.m. I thought everybody in the world had forgotten I existed.

In a facility this large, and this busy, it's possible to be forgotten. It's happened to me many times since I moved to my first nursing home over twenty-one years ago.

The aides here are trying very hard to get used to my routine. Perhaps management needs to be filled in as to the progress which is been made.