RECOVERY HOME HORROR STORY 3

Remember you are a customer and your surgeon’s office should give you 5-star treatment. Posh Plug provides decision-making matrices and guidelines to finding a provider that cares.

Part #3

At 6:00 AM, the driver dropped me off at the surgery center because the recovery home owner refused to wake up early “due to retirement.” She did however pick me up on time at 11:00 AM, which was a positive.

On my return to the house, the couch recliner was prepped for me with chuck pads. The damn dog was wandering around, and even my surgery sister kept shooing the dog away. We were offered food, and once the recovery home owner and her assistant found out that we had different food preferences, they developed an attitude. “So you don’t eat red meat, no dairy, you don’t like jerk chicken” – it was uncomfortable listening to that type of conversation as a customer, in pain and feeling like a burden. It was utterly rude and uncalled for.

I had to ask several times for help to get up, get dressed and change bandages. They showed me how to help myself  so I didn’t have to wake them up during the night to use the restroom – mind you I paid for this kind of help. Not once did they assist with emptying my drain or documenting the amount of fluid, though I observed this was done for the other patient so why not me?

Each night in that living room was miserable, the assistant was snoring so loudly we had to wear headphones. When the owner was downstairs she watched TV until after 10pm, loud volume, and we had no say in the channel, so we had to ask her to turn it off. I’ll not even start about the dogs next door that barked all day and all night.  It was only after several days of begging her to please say something that she finally called the neighbor in the middle of the night to ask them to take the dogs inside. 

Did I have an attitude…yes I did. Who wouldn’t after all this crap? I was in pain and exhausted.  Yes, I didn’t want to have any conversation with anyone present under this miserable living condition – I spent the money to stay here because I was seeking a recovery home where I could heal in peace and calm. All these attitudes, pettiness, unannounced pets, exposure to non-caregiving guests of the owner (booty calls), services paid for but not delivered per the contract, purposefully omitted or conveniently forgotten agreements are the things that I really can’t forget.

Part #4 is coming next…