This is a journal of events that my mother has been going through since 1989 and leading to her eventual stay in a nursing home. In order to keep each part of the journal I have been keeping over the last half year brief, I will post this journal in parts, as I entered them. All the postings for this continued article can be found in the Hannah's Journey folder.
Nov. 27, 2008 - I haven't updated this for a while due to the Thanksgiving holiday and being preoccupied with my mother's transition from the hospital to an assisted living home. Hannah was in the hospital for a total of 2 weeks, where she did get full daily rehabilitation. There was a lot of confusion to our family because the social services person at the hospital had called us after about 1 1/2 weeks that my mother was there. She asked us if we wanted to transfer her to another rehabilitation location because if she progressed too far at the hospital, her insurance would not cover going to a second rehab center. She really led us to believe that we should transfer her because she would be able to get a longer amount of rehabilitation at another center. The real mix up happened when she said we would be fine to stay in the hospital over the weekend while the family discussed where we all would want her to go. After that weekend, on Monday, I called her back to tell her where we would like her to be transferred and she said that the person giving her rehab stated that she has progressed along to far to be transferred now. She further told us that we could only take her home or to an assisted living home where we would have to pay personally for her care. This all greatly disturbed all of us as we thought we had been misdirected in the whole matter and were going to lose out on insurance paid care her her. After talking to my mother's doctor, he clear the matter up and she remained in the hospital for that following week, getting the daily rehab.
This made a total of 2 weeks of aggressive rehab to which she responded very well. She was walking with a walker and able to climb several steps. The doctor told us the "rehab is rehab" and that she received the exact same amount in the hospital that she would have received anywhere.
So now, there was no real option to bring her to home as my wife and I work daily and no one else is in our home and my mother needed to have someone with her all the time for a while. My sister is scheduled to have knee surgery in a couple weeks, so she can not care for her and there were no other family members who could either. So, we moved her to a fairly good assisted living home in her town so that most family members could visit her daily. The home is not top of the line, but it is fairly clean and nicely decorated and the rooms are nice. We first moved her into a semi private room but have just had her transferred to a private room as it was only $15 more a day and well worth it. My mother was feeling self conscious about using TV, radio and the bathroom and the other women was not particularly being open minded and friendly. The private room should make her feel much more comfortable and we are expecting to only need to have her there for 2 to 4 weeks maximum.
The cost of this home is approximately $2,300 per month but they are billing us on a two week basis as her stay is supposed to be temporary. Also, in a few weeks, Anita and I will be on Christmas vacation and she can come and stay with us through the holidays. If all goes well, she should be living back in her apartment at the retirement residence in Jan 2008.
This has been quite a learning experience so far! We all knew it was coming but she has been so healthy and independent that we just didn't expect it yet!
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