It's the age old saying; You don't appreciate it until it is gone. Well, we didn't appreciate Burwood until it was gone!
Even though we weren't in the 'official rehabilitation program' at Burwood Spinal Unit, the Burwood daily routine was still better than the PN Hospital. Every patient was up, showered and in their chair by 9am daily... with shoes and socks on!
Dee feels like he is the expert teaching the nurses how to manage a spinal patient having to ask for every little thing - shower or wash, to go toilet, getting rolled, empty his catheter bag, etc. It seems all they do is administer his medications.
He started back in Palmy in Ward 26... asking to be transferred back to Star 2 (they seem to be a bit better with his needs in Star 2) Palmy Hospital staff have started talking about options of Dee going into palliative care - initially this was raised from the Christchurch doctors. They feel that there is not much more to be done here in terms of treatment.
As soon as he has returned to PN Hospital; his catheter has started leaking again, and he is having accidents. We have not had any of this since leaving PN Hospital weeks ago!
Dee has not had a shower for the entire 9 days he has been back in the PN Hospital (I edited this on Sunday 13 March... the day he finally had his first shower since being back in PN!) This would NEVER have happened at Burwood! (He has washed daily). In Burwood EVERYONE was up and showered daily by about 9am. You were not allowed to stay in bed all day. In Palmy, it seems that is all you do! If you were lucky, at Burwood, you got to spend the morning in bed on the weekend to recover from your rehab! At the time, it felt like punishment. Now we can really see the value in it!
We miss the consistency, skill and learning that Burwood provided.
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