March 24, 2012

My grandmother had surgery yesterday to remove a button sized tumor from her bladder. The procedure took just about half an hour and everything came out the way they were hoping. The doctor explained everything to me and even brought me pictures so I could understand what he was talking about. Once my grandmother was in recovery, I was able to go back and visit her. For anyone who doesn’t know my grandma, she LOVES to talk. My grandma had obviously been talking about me before I visited her because all of her nurses knew I was a CNA and would then explain everything to me in detail and pretty much let me observe their every move. I learned a lot about what needs to be documented on the computer and how to do that, very confusing to say the least. I also learned a lot about medications and what to give in certain situations, especially when patients are coming out of being under an anesthetic. To say the least at the hospital I learned a lot more than I expected.

When I brought her home, it was challenging to get her settled and get her as comfortable as possible. The nurses at the hospital had showed me how to change the catheter and take care of it, which was a review from what I learned in my CNA classes. So my first task was to change the catheter to a larger bag and make sure it was comfortable for her. I found that when I’m the only caregiver, my role switches from being her granddaughter to being her CNA. I woke up multiple times throughout the night to help her get comfortable and to take care of anything else she needed. As of right now, I’m running on about seven hours of sleep since Thursday. I’m find it a lot harder to care for a “patient” in a home environment compared to a nursing home/professional environment just because it is more relaxed, especially since I’m in my own grandmother’s house. I was a little disappointed that I was not able to start my night shifts at Littleton Hospital last night, but I have learned quite a lot just caring for my grandma and she has needed my help. I’m hoping to get some rest today and start at the hospital tonight. (I apologize if this post is a little choppy, my mind is SUPER tired. But I hope I have conveyed most of what the past few days have looked like for me.)