My mother is 86, recovering from partial hip replacement surgery, and about to leave her nursing/rehab facility across the country. Her income is extremely limited. I've gotten her on the list for a great assisted living here, as a permanent solution, but I'm having trouble finding interim beds that we can afford. I'm terrified by the thought, but should I care for her in my home for now, with perhaps daily visits from an in-home aide?
She is okay with the wheelchair; she's been using one at the nursing facility. She herself had a conversation with the PT there about how she could probably use an on-board wheelchair to get from the plane door to her seat, rather than her walker....I was pretty pleased that she was gathering info like that. She tends to overanalyze things to the nth degree and sometimes get stuck on irrelevant factors, but having so many people involved in her life these days seems to be a healthy balance to that.
Thank you!
While a wheelchair will get your mother to the airplane door,are airplane aisle wide enough for her to use a walker and will her seat be near the front so that she does not have to walk too far?
The last time that I flew across country, I don't remember the aisle being very wide.
She's been with us for a month now, and she's doing much better than she was in the skilled nursing facility. As someone pointed out to me, the ratio for her care is now much lower....there were so many patients in the facility, and at my house she's one of three people who need help. She's stabilizing here. We have a routine down for when she needs cream of wheat and a scrambled egg, etc. She's starting to take over more of her needs now.....yesterday I showed her how to use the microwave. She's moving around in her walker a lot as well. The physical therapist is working on having her go down the steps so we can actually have her leave the house. I have a goal for an outing next week to a nearby arboretum for a drive-through.
We haven't heard much yet about how long the wait will be for the assisted living facility of our choice, but that's fine. If it becomes too long we'll consider other plans. We're adjusting as things go. My mother's possessions are en-route now. We're making longer term plans for caregivers in the house, hopefully one person who can adjust a schedule to ours and sometimes stay overnight....I want to go camping with my kids this summer! So far I've been able to get out a little when we've gone over the routine, she has her emergency button, or the home health aide or a volunteer elder sitter from my neighborhood came by.
My kids are doing all right with it. I got us all a bigger TV to compensate for the move of our "den" to the downstairs floor....although we all like it better down there anyway. At first my kids avoided being around my mother entirely, but that's stopping. She's pretty quiet, and they say that they're getting kind of used to having her around. She's actually rather pleasant at dinnertime each day...she comments on the birds she sees out the window.
I'm a little antsy with the constant presence and hyper-awareness of all the details of my life...my mother comments on how long I leave the milk out, etc. But I think it's going quite well, overall. We still have a lot of work to do on working out the new insurance, the new pharmacy, getting my mother new glasses, etc.....but I think the first phase of transition to this new era for my family is going really well.
Thank you for thinking of us, everyone. Happy Memorial Day.