It seems that the sadness just continues

Yesterday I received a call from the doctor at Mom's nursing home.  That is never good news!  They were considering sending her out to the ER again, but wanted to first speak with me about "it all."  The hospitalization of 2 weeks ago gave us a diagnosis with a very poor prognosis.  BUT . . . the hospital didn't share any of this information with the medical staff at the nursing home.  So - I spent the day (from 10 AM to 4 PM) speaking back and forth with first the "privacy officer" at the hospital and then the head of their medical records department.  Both apologized profusely to me - yeah right!!! - like they really meant it so much it took numerous phone calls over 6 hours to get the reports to the doctor.  We followed their "procedures, yet," no one was listening.  The best part is that the doctor had actually requested this information back on Friday afternoon and the girl in medical records simply took the request marked ASAP and put it in a pile to deal with on Monday since she was about to go home for the weekend.  It took the Privacy Officer investigating to get part of the request handled at 10:15 AM.  One has to wonder what kind of incompetency exists in this hospital.  Guess that is what the book written many years ago entitled "The Peter Principle" really meant about the heights of incompetency. Anyway, the complete file finally arrived at 4 PM.  The doctor, and the PA came into Mom's room about 20 minutes later.  They explained to her how weak her heart has gotten and that there really isn't anything more that can be done medically for her.  However - to cover all bases they did say that maybe kidney dialysis would help her severe kidney failure, but that the weakness of her heart wouldn't allow much good of even that.  So she was given the choice of being sent to the hospital for "intervention" when she has these bouts of pain or to simply stay in bed and accept the medication for pain to keep her comfortable.  Mom chose the latter. So - we are now in Mom's last days.  Don't know how long she will hang on before she lets go of this life and moves into the next.  It has been a very hard battle for her these last 10 - 15 years.  Now all we can do for her is hug her, be her advocate and pray that God cause her a less painful passing.