Bathroom Visit

My mother-in-law called my wife this evening to tell her she needed to use the bathroom. This sounded a little strange to me to as I only heard one half of the conversation (my wife’s end) but I got a pretty good idea of the other end of the conversation as well.

My wife asked her mother if she rang the bell for the nurse, so she could help her get out of bed and into the bathroom. Apparently my mother-in-law said the nurse had been in her room a little while earlier and when she told the nurse she needed to use the bathroom, the nurse told her she was too busy at that time to help.

My wife responded by asking her mother what she was supposed to do about the situation. “Mom, I’m 20 minutes away. What do you want me to do about it?” I do not know that I would have responded this way, or put it quite so bluntly, but certainly she had a point. Still, I would hate to think that a nursing home would be unable to help a patient get to the bathroom.

My wife did call the nursing home after she got off the phone with her mom. (I wish she would have told her mother she was doing this so her mom understood that my wife was doing whatever she could). My wife told the person who answered the phone what her mother said and then my wife added, “I don’t really think the nurse said that. Still, could you check.”

I would not have said that I did not believe the nurse said this, I would have waited to hear what the receptionist said first. Still, my wife did not ignore the situation and did what she could to fix it. I gave her a kiss on her forehead and told her she was a good daughter.

“If only my mom felt that way,” was my wife’s reply.

I personally think her mother does know that and appreciates what her daughter does. Still, she does not say it and since she suffered a stroke and is no longer capable of doing the things she once did, I think it is very difficult for my mother-in-law to accept the situation and that makes it seem even more like she does not appreciate what her daughter does.