Troubles

Today was all about May.  At her adult family home they've been weaning her off the antipsychotic medication she has been taking before starting her on the new one.  That was not the plan I had been given by the nurse, who said she would be starting May on the new medication and then gradually weaning her off the old.  The result of this constant decrease in her medication is that the psychotic features have become more pronounced, and last night she had an episode during which she threatened other residents.  The police were called and she was taken to Swedish Hospital emergency room.  

I learned all this in a phone call from the social worker assigned to May's case, and we agreed that May needed to go inpatient in order to get the meds straightened out.  But May was refusing to go voluntarily and she was refusing medication because the voices were telling her it would stop her heart.  

So Lex and I went up there to settle May down and get her to be more cooperative.  It's always so hard to see her in that degree of stress.  Fortunately she trusts me and knows that I wouldn't let the staff do anything to harm her, so she agreed to take some medication.  Just having us there relaxed her enough to keep relatively calm throughout the afternoon.  But finding a bed for her in an inpatient geropsychiatric unit is proving difficult - there are so few hospitals with those units and they don't always have openings.  The social worker has sent Mays information to two hospitals, one of which she's been in before, but there's no word yet on when or whether they will have a bed.

Meanwhile she's on a gurney in the hallway of the ER and apparently that's where she'll stay until a spot is found for her.  It's very far from ideal - aside from the lack of privacy, there is simply nothing to distract her from the awfulness.  It was very hard to leave her there, and she became distressed again when we got up to go, but we had no options.  I'm hoping a bed will be found for her tomorrow.  Doug will go up to visit her in the morning and if she's still there in the afternoon I'll go too.

The blip photo is of some of the plants scattered around the hospital parking lot.  It has lovely landscaping.