(no subject)
LIfe is a whirlwind...but I wanted to take time to document all of this.
We have grown to a household of 5 girls and one boy, plus two parents. Ages 21, 18 (boy), 12, 19 mon, 17 mon, and a child age 16 chronologically but 5 mentally.
Whew.
A call came in Thursday evening to take the 16 year old girl, who was dealing with issues of diabetes and "that syndrome that keeps kids small". I was told she was the size of a 5 year old. I asked about her cognitive abilities - was she cognitively at a 16 year old level? No one knew. I said I was not diabetes training, but was assured if she was placed a nurse would come in the morning.
Said yes for what was described as a 'temporary, emergency placement' which usually to me means a couple of days at the most until a relative is identified or the child is moved to a more permanent situation. Was told I would receive a call back if she was coming.
Received a call at 11 pm - she's not coming, platelet count is too low, she will be hospitalized.
Received a call at 11:10 pm - she is coming, low count is part of chronic condition. Assured nurse will come to give her insulin in the morning.
She arrives at my home at 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. Sweet kid, functioning at about a 5 year old level. Short, but most definitely not the size (or physical development) of a 5 year old.
A.M. arrives. No nurse. I was asked to bring her to school, which I did. God bless the nurse/teacher/case worker at the school. All three took a great deal of time to explain the child's condition and medical concerns. They were most reassuring.
2 pm - receive a call from the agency nurse - she is freaking out because a diabetic child was placed in my home without me being trained, and I become very concerned.
2:15 pm - pick up child from her school. Speak again with school nurse, who is again very reassuring.
3 pm - make many many calls to find out what happened to having a nurse come first thing in the am to give child her insulin. She is now 25 hours without.
5 pm - Home health agency nurse finally arrives. Proceeds to give me her life story for about an hour, goes through the paperwork the school gave me for about an hour. Finally looks at medicines. Decides steriods need to be thrown out because the dosage I was told to give does not match what it states on the bottle. Despite the fact that I had contacted the prescribing dr just to be sure the dosage I was told was correct. It absolutely was - apparently to treat her low platelet condition, the steriods are constantly being adjusted.
Then nurse attempts to use this little pen-like device that will prick the child's finger to get a drop a blood to do blood sugar testing. She fumbles around, makes many unsuccessful attempts to prick child's finger, finally gives up and decides the 'tool' is broken. By now, the child is very very upset, due to anticipation of the finger prick which is again and again not happening. Then nurse picks up the insulin pen (a neat little device for dispensing the insulin) and shows me that the insulin pen reads "0" and therefore is empty.
Agency case worker arrives. Nurse proceeds to tell her that the steriods needs to be thrown out because dosage does not match prescription, that the finger prick device is brokes, and that the insulin pen "could have been tampered with and could contain poison"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Case worker assures her that this was an emergency placement, that the family had not opportunity to tamper with the insulin pen, and no motivation to do so as they love this child. Plus, the pen appears to be a somewhat self-contained, sealed device, not easily tampered with.
But nurse is insistent and calls all the local pharmacies in the most abrasive manner to insist that all these things must be replaced instantly. God bless my local pharmacists who, despite her abrasive manner, get the doc to re-new the prescriptions.
She then leaves to pick up the medications at a pharmacy 3 minutes from my house after they call to say they have the medications ready. She is gone for one hour!!!!!!! She returns and decides to give the child only 2 of the steroid pills instead of 2 1/2 called for in the prescription. And she states she will not give the insulin as it is too late!!!!! Case worker insists child be given the insulin, and we both state that child has just finished eating slice of pizza so empty stomach is not something we are dealing with.
Only good think with new packages of meds - they come with directions. So I review them all and when nurse comes back Saturday AM, I am ready and demonstrate my ability to use the devices.
btw - the finger pricking device was not broken - it requires two steps to load the small needle, then to shoot it out into the fingertip - nurse didn't bother to slow down and read the directions. Insulin pen returns to 0 setting after each use and you just turn a dial to re-load the correct dosage of insulin. It was not empty!!!!! And doctor says this type of steriod is constantly in need of adjusting of dosage and should never be thrown out!!! If one has questions about dosage - call the doctor (just as I did).
Sunday was quiet.
Today - full of phone calls, dr visits, etc. Plus I get a call from visiting nurse service that they are authorized to come out twice a day to see the child, plus give insulin shots. Ok. They will come today at 6 pm. Well, it is now 11:05 pm, and they never showed up. I did give her the medications myself.
Sigh.
Actually, she is a sweet little girl, who seems much younger than her 16 years. She is pleasant most of the time, cooperative, and has a cute sense of humor. She is dealing with loads of problems, but seems to accept the fact that she is here for now.
But, whew, life is a whirlwind.
We have grown to a household of 5 girls and one boy, plus two parents. Ages 21, 18 (boy), 12, 19 mon, 17 mon, and a child age 16 chronologically but 5 mentally.
Whew.
A call came in Thursday evening to take the 16 year old girl, who was dealing with issues of diabetes and "that syndrome that keeps kids small". I was told she was the size of a 5 year old. I asked about her cognitive abilities - was she cognitively at a 16 year old level? No one knew. I said I was not diabetes training, but was assured if she was placed a nurse would come in the morning.
Said yes for what was described as a 'temporary, emergency placement' which usually to me means a couple of days at the most until a relative is identified or the child is moved to a more permanent situation. Was told I would receive a call back if she was coming.
Received a call at 11 pm - she's not coming, platelet count is too low, she will be hospitalized.
Received a call at 11:10 pm - she is coming, low count is part of chronic condition. Assured nurse will come to give her insulin in the morning.
She arrives at my home at 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. Sweet kid, functioning at about a 5 year old level. Short, but most definitely not the size (or physical development) of a 5 year old.
A.M. arrives. No nurse. I was asked to bring her to school, which I did. God bless the nurse/teacher/case worker at the school. All three took a great deal of time to explain the child's condition and medical concerns. They were most reassuring.
2 pm - receive a call from the agency nurse - she is freaking out because a diabetic child was placed in my home without me being trained, and I become very concerned.
2:15 pm - pick up child from her school. Speak again with school nurse, who is again very reassuring.
3 pm - make many many calls to find out what happened to having a nurse come first thing in the am to give child her insulin. She is now 25 hours without.
5 pm - Home health agency nurse finally arrives. Proceeds to give me her life story for about an hour, goes through the paperwork the school gave me for about an hour. Finally looks at medicines. Decides steriods need to be thrown out because the dosage I was told to give does not match what it states on the bottle. Despite the fact that I had contacted the prescribing dr just to be sure the dosage I was told was correct. It absolutely was - apparently to treat her low platelet condition, the steriods are constantly being adjusted.
Then nurse attempts to use this little pen-like device that will prick the child's finger to get a drop a blood to do blood sugar testing. She fumbles around, makes many unsuccessful attempts to prick child's finger, finally gives up and decides the 'tool' is broken. By now, the child is very very upset, due to anticipation of the finger prick which is again and again not happening. Then nurse picks up the insulin pen (a neat little device for dispensing the insulin) and shows me that the insulin pen reads "0" and therefore is empty.
Agency case worker arrives. Nurse proceeds to tell her that the steriods needs to be thrown out because dosage does not match prescription, that the finger prick device is brokes, and that the insulin pen "could have been tampered with and could contain poison"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Case worker assures her that this was an emergency placement, that the family had not opportunity to tamper with the insulin pen, and no motivation to do so as they love this child. Plus, the pen appears to be a somewhat self-contained, sealed device, not easily tampered with.
But nurse is insistent and calls all the local pharmacies in the most abrasive manner to insist that all these things must be replaced instantly. God bless my local pharmacists who, despite her abrasive manner, get the doc to re-new the prescriptions.
She then leaves to pick up the medications at a pharmacy 3 minutes from my house after they call to say they have the medications ready. She is gone for one hour!!!!!!! She returns and decides to give the child only 2 of the steroid pills instead of 2 1/2 called for in the prescription. And she states she will not give the insulin as it is too late!!!!! Case worker insists child be given the insulin, and we both state that child has just finished eating slice of pizza so empty stomach is not something we are dealing with.
Only good think with new packages of meds - they come with directions. So I review them all and when nurse comes back Saturday AM, I am ready and demonstrate my ability to use the devices.
btw - the finger pricking device was not broken - it requires two steps to load the small needle, then to shoot it out into the fingertip - nurse didn't bother to slow down and read the directions. Insulin pen returns to 0 setting after each use and you just turn a dial to re-load the correct dosage of insulin. It was not empty!!!!! And doctor says this type of steriod is constantly in need of adjusting of dosage and should never be thrown out!!! If one has questions about dosage - call the doctor (just as I did).
Sunday was quiet.
Today - full of phone calls, dr visits, etc. Plus I get a call from visiting nurse service that they are authorized to come out twice a day to see the child, plus give insulin shots. Ok. They will come today at 6 pm. Well, it is now 11:05 pm, and they never showed up. I did give her the medications myself.
Sigh.
Actually, she is a sweet little girl, who seems much younger than her 16 years. She is pleasant most of the time, cooperative, and has a cute sense of humor. She is dealing with loads of problems, but seems to accept the fact that she is here for now.
But, whew, life is a whirlwind.