whitewriter | Disabled people... can be so needy and annoying.

Today I had a lady who was T1DM since she was 5 years old.

Now she is in her 60s and has all the sequelae of diabetes

legally blind, below knee amputations for ongoing non healing ulcers.

Multiple DKA presentations.

a medical Hx as long as your arm.

Night staff are tired and worn.

They said she coughs after trying to drink the water from mouth care.

She continually asks for her phone but there's no bags in the room.

She's aware of location and situation but not date

Looking for her shampoo and conditioner.

The night staff phoned her brother and left a message.

He came, bringing the shampoo and conditioner but legit get this - someone had swapped out the conditioner for water.

It was so odd.

Some care planners popped in to see her. Her new ones. She (my pt) accuses her old care workers of stealing multiple things in her house -including - and get this, the conditioner from the bottle.

It does seem strange. Why would there be an almost half bottle of normal shampoo, and a bottle of conditioner half full?

I sip tested her myself and was confident she could swallow. 2 cups of water later I tried ordering her a diet.

I intended as per her request for a vegetarian diet no eggs, no change to fluids

Instead somehow, I got: full fluid vegetarian no eggs diet. Which meant, ice cream, vegetarian broth and a cup of orange juice.

Out of that all she wanted was the juice. BGL 4.4 so I wasn't fussed. What bothered me more was that the ICU docs just pulled out the NGT before she'd even had her first meal.

She was okay with a sandwich pack. But knew that the cheese sandwiches come with butter on the bread.

Which I then watched 5 minutes of her painstakingly trying to (and she's legally blind mind you so whilst she has vision its not very good) scrape the butter off, I promptly tried to do it for her. Probably got about 50% of it off but I told her 90% because white lies are all I have.

I phoned the diet office.

I got the answering machine and was like. how do I order: a vegetarian diet with no milk or eggs but she does have cheese.

I left out the diabetic diet bit cause it's just too hard. In here, it means - equal carbs in every meal. So if its 3 serves per meal you could get a small juice and 2 breads, or 1 fruit and 1 bread and 1 juice.

Anyhow. When I try to order her diet I just get a nightmare of trying to pick something in-between vegan and vegetarian- but brown bread not white, and no butter - but cheese -

I'm about to phone the diet office again. There isn't a salad and fruit diet. But I've ordered a no hot food or fluids diet, egg free, milk free.

Earlier I washed her hair with the shampoo but now I'm slightly worried due to the lack of conditioner that it'll end up as the tangled mat I had initially untangled this morning.

Please send her to the ward ASAP.

But there, I said it. Nothing makes you appreciate your own freedoms and being able to go home, and do your own thing, on your own terms - than taking care of someone disabled and needy, 1:1, for 12 hours straight.