Rant, cautionary tale, and call to action for all of us who are at an age or state of health that may require short (or long) term nursing or rehab care. Plan now!
As you may know, I was stupid, broke my own safety rules, and broke my ankle - thoroughly. So I'm non-weight bearing for at least six weeks, and ended up in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) for rehab for the duration. I'd been in a good long term acute care hospital followed by a great rehab facility at the end of my medical disaster year, and was expecting something similar. Wrong.
Since I managed to time this for memorial day weekend, they had some trouble finding a place to take me, even though I wanted to stay in the "big city" of Fargo - I think that the metropolitan area is about 200,000 people now - since this is where all of my doctors are. It finally came down to the one I'm in, since the two good ones that I knew of had no beds available. Now you also have to remember that I was still groggy from pain killers and while Liz was there, she knew even less than I did about the choices (or lack of choices) given than I did.
So here I am, in the kind of place that gives nursing homes a bad name. Old fashioned hospital food, shortage of care staff, strict and unreasonable scheduling of pain pills, treating competent adults like children, complete lack of privacy, all of that good stuff. And in my case a complete lack of understanding of allergies and a complete lack of hypoallergenic personal care products. I've been having to order my own from Amazon.
Also and more importantly, a complete misunderstanding of my underlying health problems and how they affect my rehab. Which would be a little understandable considering how rare it is, but they should be willing, in fact actually want to, research it, since it has a major affect on what can and can't be expected.
After I finally got internet access (since no one on the holiday weekend staff knew or cared what the password was - ironically enough it turned out to be "caring") I was able to look up their Medicare ratings (poor) and reviews (bad except for a few from relatives who obviously didn't visit much) but by then I was pretty much stuck here. Medicare admission rules, while they make sense for avoiding fraud, make it cumbersome to transfer, and I'd have to do all of the research and finding an opening on my own.
If/when you have to choose a place to go you probably won't be in good shape to do research and make decisions. And it is important. While the actual physical therapy and rehab work is pretty good, it is hard to keep a positive attitude and to want to work as hard as I need to when I'm constantly upset and angry about everything else.
So, the point of this post isn't (or is only a little) for me to whine about my situation. It is to talk you into researching in advance what care facilities are available in your area. Talk to people who have been patients, read reviews, check out Medicare ratings, talk to your medical providers. Come up with a list of at least a couple (beds aren't always available when you need them) of places that you think would work well for you. Have backups for your backups. Make sure that any family members or advocates you have know about your preferences. This is really important.
As you may know, I was stupid, broke my own safety rules, and broke my ankle - thoroughly. So I'm non-weight bearing for at least six weeks, and ended up in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) for rehab for the duration. I'd been in a good long term acute care hospital followed by a great rehab facility at the end of my medical disaster year, and was expecting something similar. Wrong.
Since I managed to time this for memorial day weekend, they had some trouble finding a place to take me, even though I wanted to stay in the "big city" of Fargo - I think that the metropolitan area is about 200,000 people now - since this is where all of my doctors are. It finally came down to the one I'm in, since the two good ones that I knew of had no beds available. Now you also have to remember that I was still groggy from pain killers and while Liz was there, she knew even less than I did about the choices (or lack of choices) given than I did.
So here I am, in the kind of place that gives nursing homes a bad name. Old fashioned hospital food, shortage of care staff, strict and unreasonable scheduling of pain pills, treating competent adults like children, complete lack of privacy, all of that good stuff. And in my case a complete lack of understanding of allergies and a complete lack of hypoallergenic personal care products. I've been having to order my own from Amazon.
Also and more importantly, a complete misunderstanding of my underlying health problems and how they affect my rehab. Which would be a little understandable considering how rare it is, but they should be willing, in fact actually want to, research it, since it has a major affect on what can and can't be expected.
After I finally got internet access (since no one on the holiday weekend staff knew or cared what the password was - ironically enough it turned out to be "caring") I was able to look up their Medicare ratings (poor) and reviews (bad except for a few from relatives who obviously didn't visit much) but by then I was pretty much stuck here. Medicare admission rules, while they make sense for avoiding fraud, make it cumbersome to transfer, and I'd have to do all of the research and finding an opening on my own.
If/when you have to choose a place to go you probably won't be in good shape to do research and make decisions. And it is important. While the actual physical therapy and rehab work is pretty good, it is hard to keep a positive attitude and to want to work as hard as I need to when I'm constantly upset and angry about everything else.
So, the point of this post isn't (or is only a little) for me to whine about my situation. It is to talk you into researching in advance what care facilities are available in your area. Talk to people who have been patients, read reviews, check out Medicare ratings, talk to your medical providers. Come up with a list of at least a couple (beds aren't always available when you need them) of places that you think would work well for you. Have backups for your backups. Make sure that any family members or advocates you have know about your preferences. This is really important.
