one week home

Today marks a week since Mom took Dad home. I called Monday morning. She was exasperated. She said she couldn\"t take care of him by herself.

She said she couldn\"t be in the phone, the computer, or even be in another room without him getting upset. So she couldn\"t do any research on finding care either in-home or in another living situation.

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D, who\"s been in senior living for many years, explained to her while he was hospitalized that if he had a 3 night hospital stay, Medicare would pay for 20 days in a rehab/skilled nursing facility, giving her time to make decisions.

Despite us trying to make that clear, Mom was convinced she only had 3 days to make a decision to place him somewhere. She thought the nurses and the hospitalist wanted him out in 3 days.

We took her home one day for her to try to get some sleep (she stays with him at the hospital whenever he\"s there). We\"d been home maybe 20 minutes when the nurse called asking when we\"d be back. Mom was enraged. It didn\"t help that they called a second time, saying someone needed to be with him around the clock, and they didn\"t have the staff for that.

From then on, Mom was completely irrational. It didn\"t help that neither of them had had much sleep. I stayed that night with them. Daddy slept a good 7 hours. She spent much of that time complaining to me about the situation. That was Friday night.

Which brings us to Sunday, when she took him home. I had gone home, exhausted and beyond frustrated. If anyone tries to help her understand she should make a different choice, if anyone has the courage, she balks and insists she\"s right (after all, she was a medical transcriptionist for decades and is an \"expert\").

She found out for herself that Monday that, by taking him home instead of to another facility, Medicare wouldn\"t pay for said facility.

It\"s been a hellacious week that will be another entry.

xora