More Hospital Stuff

I went by and checked on Donny today. When I walked into his room it reeked. It was so bad I was gagging. Apparently, the enema worked really well. It looked like they were set up to bathe him, so I waited for the nurse to come in. After about 5 minutes I decided that looks could be deceiving, and maybe I should make sure that his nurse knew there was a problem. The only hitch in this plan was that I had no idea who his nurse was.

So I stood in his doorway hoping to catch a nurse running by and ask for the nurse who's name was on his dry erase board. After a couple of minutes the charge nurse noticed me and came over to see if I needed something. I explained the situation to her and let her know that I just wanted to be sure that his nurse knew. She found the nurse and told her.

About 30 minutes later his nurse came in to check on him. By this time I was needing to leave since I had just stopped in between doctor's appointments. I talked to her for a minute and then she said that she was going to be bathing him now. She walked out of the room and I stood there and waited about 5 more minutes. I finally tracked her down in the hallway to ask a couple more questions that I had thought of. To be fair, she wasn't goofing off. I firmly believe that she was busy that whole time.

The problem I'm having is this. My husband had to lay in his own filth for AT LEAST a half hour. It may have been longer, but that's how long I witnessed it for. Now, I realize that you only want to change him once, and I know that you're busy, but what about him? Would you like to be put in restraints, sedated, and then left to lie in your own filth for a half hour? There has to be some sort of middle ground here. Wouldn't putting him on a bag be more humane?

I truly do understand the nurse's position here, but I want to cry at what I see Donny going through. I know he'll remember this, he always remembers what happened after the fact. And I know he was awake, because he looked at me. In fact, he gave me the most pitiful look ever, and there was nothing that I could do for him. For the next 6 months it's going to be next to impossible to get him to go to the hospital, no matter how bad he needs it, this will affect him that much. Isn't there some way we could improve this situation?