It never rains it aways pours !

So after settling mum into her new home on the wednesday I finally began to relax and tentatively hoped we could start to enjoy quality family time - something that had been sorely missed for a good long while. Relationships with friends had suffered, and Neil and I had been at breaking point more times than I care to remember. Now I hoped we could start to try and rebuild things. Dad visited mum on the Thursday and Friday and seemed as happy as he could be- yes he hated the whole situation of having her in care but he knew now that it was best for both of them. He felt she was well looked after and he had started to relax a little too. Since mum had been in care we had been enjoying the father / daughter relationship again - talking about mundane things rather than me lecturing him about mum, going shopping together,things we had bee unable do for several years.  We were getting back to the people we used to be before life took over.
Then came that late night phone call the one we all dread - 11.45pm and the care home phoned me. Mum had fallen in her room and pulled a wardrobe on herself. She was on her way to hospital. The care home was short staffed so no one was going with her. I was shocked that they would send her alone
I called Dad explained the situation and he came round to wait for more news. I called the hospital she was in A&E - it was Friday night ,however the nurse I spoke to had things in hand mum was in a cubicle they were aware of her dementia and she was been monitored closely. They would ring with news once they had it. To cut a long start short mum was admitted to a "care for the elderly ward " a true contradiction in terms as it turned out.
We visited every day and mum was reasonably settled, the ward was chaotic and the staff very variable. A couple of days into her stay I managed to catch the Dr a newly qualified House officer. He was a little unprepared for my depth of questions but I had his undivided attention and I intended to get as much information as I could from him. He told me x rays had been performed on mums pelvis and there was a query about a pelvic fracture but the X-rays needed to be reviewed - he was completely blind sided when I told him I would like to view the X-rays !  He agreed and I proceeded to explain that mum had two fractures through her right pubic rami. I Noticed the X-rays were several days old so why were they not reviewed ?? he could not answer this one. With a little help from special friends the X-rays were reviewed next day and mum was confirmed as having a broken right pubic rami in two places.
Now mum was on bed rest for 6 weeks to ensure the rami could heel and she was visited by a consultant nurse who was running a clinical trail into mattress choices and the development of pressure sores. The pros and cons of the trail were discussed and we agreed to mum going on this trail- we felt it meant she would be monitored closely something we were not sure was happening to any degree currently.
Visiting mum in hospital was very miserable for us all - her care was substandard to say the least. I am a health care professional so I appreciate the pressure of staffing levels and the demands of the job etc but some of the staff on the ward were much more interested with socialising and discussing their life than caring. Diners were left on mums table - even though she was unable to feed herself while staff sat at the desk checking their social media. We had a visiting rota which was arranged around meal times so we could ffed mum - it was  the only way we could be sure she was eating at all. I know feeding patients isn't a nursing role but its a basic duty of care and their has to be some provision for these kinds of needs on a ward of this type with our now ageing population. Three weeks later mum was ready for discharge back to the care home they had everything in place and were ready to have her on bed rest. Then Friday as I was leaving work came another horrible call - mum had an un-gradable pressure sore and she could be returned to her care home as they had no nursing facilities - she was now in limbo with no home to go to ! I was stunned, I drove home from work in shock. How had this happened she was on a clinical trail with regular monitoring ? what did we do now ? Mum was homeless we were back at the beginning.