Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

said, slightly solemnly: “Hi.” She looked at me with a tired smile and said, “Thank you for
coming.”
In the weeks that followed, Mary did not come out to the dining room for lunch or
dinner. Her son and daughter who lived nearby came at least once a day to sit with her,
and tried to take her out. Mary kindly refused. I continued my caregiving tasks, which
amounted to refreshing her drinking water, taking out her trash, and bringing her some
food from the kitchen. Things for Mary, however, did not look up. She had slipped and
fallen outside on the way to her daughter’s one afternoon. Mary broke her hip, and after
the surgery, she was taken to the CHR. At the CHR, she shared a hospital-like room with
another person. Not more than a few weeks after the surgery, the doctor discovered that
her blood sugar levels were very unstable and fluctuating quite dramatically. While Mary
was at the CHR, her care plan from the fourth floor did not follow her. Caregivers at the
CHR knew nothing about her likes and dislikes, her dietary needs and even her past
medications. She was completely new to them, even though she was living not more than
a few yards away in another section of Tacoma Pastures. Since the CHR had a different
staff and set of regulations, my previous caregiving had no place in CHR. One day, I
ventured up the fourth floor to seek a new thermometer from a fellow caregiver, when I
noticed that there were many papers stuffed under Mary’s door. I took out the universal
room key attached to my beeper-device and entered her room. When I walked in, I
discovered that she had about two weeks worth of newspapers and mail sitting right
next to her dresser by the front door. I took these to her, and made it a habit to deliver
her the paper. But as time passed, I noticed that no matter how late in the morning I
arrived, she was asleep, and all I could hear was the gurgling sound of her buzzing
oxygen concentrator.
Mary eventually moved back to the fourth floor from the CHR. It costs much more to stay
in a SNF like the CHR than it does to stay in the assisted living units or even Memory
Care. Mary was getting weaker, and needed a cane to move about. She was also signed
up to have someone from the physical therapy department take her three times a week
to the gym downstairs to begin her rehab sessions. This service came at an extra cost.
Mary went to a few of these, but soon lost ambition. I spoke to her about trying her best
to rehab and to continue fighting on. She recognized what I was saying, but told me, “I
don’t have the will anymore.” Soon enough, Mary moved out of Tacoma Pastures quietly
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