Am I Being Fair to Mum

I still remember my last communication with my mum - Monday, 26 September.  When I saw a missed call from my mum's mobile number on my mobile phone, I panicked.  All these years, my mum never called me on my mobile especially when I am at work.  So I immediately called my mum and spoke to Marie, my helper.

Mum is very sick and this time when I asked her if she wants to go to the hospital, she said ok.  Usually she wouldn't want to go.  I took urgent leave and left my office slightly after noon.  Called the private ambulance service when I was near home and they arrived about half an hour later.  I accompanied mum to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.  Never in my wildest dream did I think that was the last time I communicated with her.

Throughout the time she was in the A&E, she was administered with oxygen to help her breathe better.  This makes it difficult for her to speak.  So I told her to just relax and not think about anything else.

She was eventually allocated a bed in the ward close to dinner time.  When her regular cardiologist came to check on her in the ward, he told us ie me, my sister and my husband the severity of my mum's condition.  Her vital organs ie lungs, heart and kidneys are failing.  Her lungs only had a tiny space of air and the rest of her lungs were filled with water.  If she was to be transferred to the ICU, there will be tubes to be inserted into her throat and chest to remove the water and of course she would feel some pain and discomfort.  

The cardiologist also told us that the ICU stay was for them to help the machine take over from her while her body recovers and her body will eventually need to function without the machine.   He also stressed that there is no guarantee that mum would be out of the ICU after all this, alive.  Mum had told my sister and I previously that her last hospital stay where she had tubes inserted into her to pump out the water was rather painful.

Then another doctor came and she also reiterated my mum's condition and even showed us the x-rays taken when she was discharged on 8 September and again the one taken upon admission.  The x-ray taken at A&E showed that water had filled her most of her lungs!  No wonder she looks so plump though soft!

I remembered that she complained of severe pain several times in the night and on ocassions I gave her painkillers just to ease the pain for her.  Sometimes she groaned in pain and on ocassions she will ask for medication even though she had already been given.  Up to now, I still feel that I didnt give my mum a chance to really decide that she didnt want to prolong her life.

Looking back, I now realised that there was really no medication that was administered to my mum during her stay in the hospital other than medication to calm her and I suppose to slowly let her go.  I am very disappointed with myself! 

Visit to Tan Tock Seng Hospital

My mum had a fall recently and this morning she complained of pain.  She also complained that it was very painful for her to walk. My nephew who stays with her brought her to the hospital. X-rays were taken and the x-rays showed that she had dislocated her hip.

Naturally all my siblings went to visit her in the hospital today.  The hospital has a new visitor tracking system in place.  All visitors had to register with their identification cards.  This is not an issue as generally everyone has to have their identification papers with them at all times.  But the process was rather troublesome, I would say.

Previously there can be several visitors for one patient and no one would really stop you.  Even after the visiting hours.  Now this is no longer possible apparently.  In a way it is good so it can reduce the ratio of patient to visitors.  The process needs to be tweaked a little or some sort of awareness be made known to the general public.   

First I put my IC on the scanner and the machine captured my IC number.  Next I had to key in the ward number, bed number and patient's surname.  How difficult could these be?  Anyway, this is where I got really annoyed.  The system kept showing the first 4 digits of my IC.  So I hit the backspace button to enter the ward no.  The system then brought me back to the regisration screen!!

Then one of the counter staff who was assisting the other registrants stopped by to assist.  When she encountered the same problem, she realised that my IC was still on the scanner. She told me that I need to remove my IC as the machine is scanning my IC and that is why my IC number is shown on the ward number.  Anyway, there was no indication to remove my IC after the machine had scanned it!

My next grouse was that the system had asked for Patient's Surname.  So when I keyed my mum's surname, the system indicated error.  Apparently it was not the surname that was required.  Rather it was her first name!  So frustrating!!

I told my sisters that in future if we need to come to visit her in Tan Tock Seng, then only one person goes to the ward and bring her down so that more people can meet her at the cafeteria!  Less stress for everyone especially me!!!  Urgh!!