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We had the conference today at the nursing home and finally got a date for him to come back home. As I suspected, the date was driven by the 100 days of care that medicaid/medicare will pay for post hospitalization. So, 100 days in the nursing home, and 46 days in the hospital before that. It's been a long haul.
So he is coming home on wednesday. My older brother will pick him up and stay with him the rest of the day until I get home. Got a walker and bedside commode from the town's senior center, free is good. Social worker at the nursing home is supposed to arrange for the senior services provider will come and do an evaluation, and the same for the visiting nurse service, and setup some transitional care for weekdays when I'm at work.
Hopefully he will settle in fairly rapidly and establish a routine we can live with. Probably some form of helper or nurse will be in each day initially, then we can figure out what is actually needed.
He still has the stomach tube in. He's not being fed with that anymore, but the nursing home doctor has a protocol that says the thing should be left in for "A while" to be sure he is eating okay. The nurse later mentioned that "A while" could be six weeks to a year, depending on his progress. But the nursing home staff are soooo risk averse, I think they would leave it in forever, just in case. So I'll have to do daily dressing changes and twice daily flushing of it until we get it removed.
We have gotten a list of foods to avoid and how to feed him. He is still on a soft diet, and certain foods give him a lot of difficulty. Need to have his dentures adjusted or remade to fit, as they have been giving him a lot of trouble with his eating that is complicating things. As we get him eating better and gaining weight, the sooner the stomach tube can come out.
His prostate is still screwing up his urination. So we have to monitor how often he pees, and if he hasn't done so in several hours, we will have to do a straight cath to drain the urine. By we, I mean me. Mom cant do it, and the health aides are not licensed to do it. Hopefully Dad's mental state will progress enough so that he can do it himself, like he did a couple years ago, but not sure there. He's wearing a diaper, just in case, but has been going to the bathroom by himself.
Dad is still pretty tottery, and needs someone in the house who can hear him fall and go help him. Hence the bedside commode and walker. Daytimes when I'm at work, mom will have to call one of the grandkids to come help if he can't pick himself up if there isn't an aide in the house. He also needs help dressing and undressing, but I believe that is mostly just going to be prompting him to do the next thing.
Mentally he is still pretty vague. He needs someone to be with him or nearby to remind him where he is going or what he is doing. Don't want him going outside without someone with him. Obviously he cannot drive, so I'm still on the hook for shopping and so on. I hope he continues to get better there, but how much was the lyme and how much was the alzhiemers is unknown, and healing from that is really slow and hard to judge.
But, progress!
So he is coming home on wednesday. My older brother will pick him up and stay with him the rest of the day until I get home. Got a walker and bedside commode from the town's senior center, free is good. Social worker at the nursing home is supposed to arrange for the senior services provider will come and do an evaluation, and the same for the visiting nurse service, and setup some transitional care for weekdays when I'm at work.
Hopefully he will settle in fairly rapidly and establish a routine we can live with. Probably some form of helper or nurse will be in each day initially, then we can figure out what is actually needed.
He still has the stomach tube in. He's not being fed with that anymore, but the nursing home doctor has a protocol that says the thing should be left in for "A while" to be sure he is eating okay. The nurse later mentioned that "A while" could be six weeks to a year, depending on his progress. But the nursing home staff are soooo risk averse, I think they would leave it in forever, just in case. So I'll have to do daily dressing changes and twice daily flushing of it until we get it removed.
We have gotten a list of foods to avoid and how to feed him. He is still on a soft diet, and certain foods give him a lot of difficulty. Need to have his dentures adjusted or remade to fit, as they have been giving him a lot of trouble with his eating that is complicating things. As we get him eating better and gaining weight, the sooner the stomach tube can come out.
His prostate is still screwing up his urination. So we have to monitor how often he pees, and if he hasn't done so in several hours, we will have to do a straight cath to drain the urine. By we, I mean me. Mom cant do it, and the health aides are not licensed to do it. Hopefully Dad's mental state will progress enough so that he can do it himself, like he did a couple years ago, but not sure there. He's wearing a diaper, just in case, but has been going to the bathroom by himself.
Dad is still pretty tottery, and needs someone in the house who can hear him fall and go help him. Hence the bedside commode and walker. Daytimes when I'm at work, mom will have to call one of the grandkids to come help if he can't pick himself up if there isn't an aide in the house. He also needs help dressing and undressing, but I believe that is mostly just going to be prompting him to do the next thing.
Mentally he is still pretty vague. He needs someone to be with him or nearby to remind him where he is going or what he is doing. Don't want him going outside without someone with him. Obviously he cannot drive, so I'm still on the hook for shopping and so on. I hope he continues to get better there, but how much was the lyme and how much was the alzhiemers is unknown, and healing from that is really slow and hard to judge.
But, progress!
