Candace Larson
Jun 2026
Part 2 Experiences at The Terraces in Palo Alto. Once again, because PT can't organize anything. She stopped by at quarter to 10 asked if i had my pain pill. I told her no but she could just request one from the nurse. She said she'd be back at 10. She finally returned at 11:05. I yelled at her. She took real offense at that. She said she couldn't get back when she tried. That's just the way it is here she reiterated. We don't do schedules. She told me she wasn't here to give me a session now but to put me off until later again. I’d been waiting since 10AM. She said she'd have to get somebody else to work with me. I agreed. I realized how she operated. She would whirl in like a tornado. Start taping exercise diagrams on the walls and then say she would be back later at her convenience. I asked if they could give me a window for PT. 8-10 or 10-noon. She said they never start at 8 and that they couldn't do windows either. There is no end to the incompetency and inefficiencies at this facility. I'm making a comedy out of this but the reality is there are people in this facility that may be in life and death situations, and it is not a laughing matter for them. There is no communication between groups or with the patient. No schedules just pandemonium. They have a whiteboard where you can put down pain control, when you had your last dose, when's the next one, what your pain level is when your pt schedule is etc. But nothing is filled in on them. This place is run by the seat of somebody's pants, I just don't know who's really in charge. There is a whole team of hard-working people at the bottom that are trying to do their best. They are the people that serve your meals. The wonderful Peter, who changes the ice all during the day for my knee is smiley, nice really cares. The people cleaning people, the cna's some of the nurses, but management just lets everything run helter, skelter. The PT when it happens is good. You just don't know when it's going to be Happen. All I can think of is the patients are too old to care. They just do what they're told when they're told, and they don't have any advocates. I don't fit into that mold. If friends want to come and visit, you don't know when to tell them to come because you don't know when anything is happening. And there's the infamous red button. They have a handset at each bed, to operate the TV, and it has one big red button you can push if you need help. You can kind of only push it once it's either like on or off. There is no two-way communication. Then you sit and wait. You could wait an hour. If you need help going to the bathroom, good luck. There are signs all over the walls. Call, don't fall, press the red button. What a joke. I think the last scheduling issue with the PT woman was the end of everything as far as I was concerned. There would be little or no PT on the weekend so I saw no reason to stay. I had friends arrive on Friday, and I ask them if they would help me pack up to leave, and they said, absolutely. I changed to in- home PT and someone came on Sunday.
