Seeing red !

I am fuming tonight after seeing mum this afternoon. For one thing her leg dressing had been left off and her leg was bleeding down the back. I asked a nurse about it and was told 'oh they've left the dressing off because her ulcer is getting better'. She hasn't got an ulcer and I took photos of it. A dressing was then produced to be put on.

I then asked about her warfarin as I'd overheard a nurse yesterday say that mum hadn't been prescribed warfarin. This same nurse told me that the diabetic nurse had decided to stop mum's warfarin because her INR reading was normal.

When I got home I rang mum's GP and had a good long chat with him who told me what to ask at the hospital so armed with all the information and the permission to say I'd consulted her GP on the matter I phoned them back and asked for mum's Primary Nurse.

I was going to be fobbed off until I mentioned having spoken to the GP whereupon she went for the medical notes.

She told me her name and that she was the one looking after mum and that the person I'd spoken to earlier today was just a student nurse. She told me that mum was taking warfarin but that each day it has to be freshly prescribed by a doctor and they would get it prescribed again for today. Hmmm, I'm not so sure about this and will be checking with mum's GP on Monday as to whether this would be usual. Seems a complete waste of time to have to seek out a doctor to prescribe the same medication afresh every day.

I told her what mum's INR reading should be and she snottily said "yes I know how warfarin works"..... the thing is I wasn't telling her how it works I was telling her where her doctor has set her level for her treatment.

I mentioned the dressing not being done and she said it had been left off while she took a look at it and mum must have knocked it to make it bleed.
Excuses, excuses.

I care for mum 24/7 and have done since 2004 so I know that for the past several months only her leg has bled due to thin skin at the back of her leg. I have all the medical notes at the house completed by each district nurse who comes in twice a week to change the dressing. They have shown me the changes. It doesn't bleed because it's been knocked. It bleeds because the dressing is left off it.

So I am very definitely seeing red today !