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Community Corner

Healthcare for 88 year old Vet. after stroke

You live your life as best as you can. You join the service, to fight for your country.  You live in a house in Huntington Park for over 60 years. You rode a Harley and drove a Ford. You are well known in the steam engine train world. You have a stroke. The insurance that you purchased helps and you get care, rehab and you are discharged back to your home.  You can not drive any more. you are more dependent on your family but you manage.  Your mailman is your best friend and he is checking on you daily. One more trip back to the hospital for a blood transfusion and as your niece is driving you back home you have a second stroke because they have taken you off your blood thinners because of a possible GI bleed.  Back to the hospital, your niece is a critical care RN and recognizing the stroke symptoms drives you up to the front door of the ER after she called and let the hospital know you were on your way back. Nothing can be done for this second stroke.  The hospital doesn't want you anymore.  Your speech is getting a bit better but your balance is all off.  You can not walk or take care of yourself.  Back to the skilled nursing facility where there are three people to a room. Since you used your rehab credits on the last stroke your are not covered for rehab and discussions have started immediately for long term placement.  A facility is recommended to you and your family. you are transferred via wheelchair in a transport van. You are feeling like everyone is in a hurry to get you out of there.  You still can't walk and barely talk.
you are placed in a bed in a room by yourself. This is your home now.  There is a cord to pull if you might need help, you can not reach it. A longer string is attached and you don't have the strength to pull it.  They come every two hours to check you and change your diaper. Your family is doing the best they can to have you taken care of properly and with respect.  Things settle you don't feel like you want to die anymore.  The food is still not that great and a few of the caregivers are saints making up for those who do not seem to like the job they are doing and are always rushed. Your family keeps calling and trying to get things for you with the insurance company. Finally after 9 moths physical therapy comes to visit.  You have been doing as much as you can in your wheelchair in your room or the exercise room at the facility. You feel stronger. Your speech is better and you begin to actually stand and take a few steps.  Your balance is still off but you manage to walk more than ten feet.  You are so excited. You are so happy.You feel like there is hope that you can begin to take care of yourself.  The PT shows up you are smiling and wanting to walk some more.  Your PT tells you that your visits are up.  You only had a limited number of visits.  You want to die.  You are so angry.  You ask yourself why did they come to start this and not finish? How can this be to get tossed aside at a time when you felt like things were progressing.  You want to die.....

Our elder uncle, a vet and happy man who just wants to be able to have some mobility has been tossed aside because of limits to his care.  Caremore has turned into a careless as far as I am concerned.  We have called and been there to help guide his care through all of this.  I often wonder about those elders that do not have any advocates to help them.  We have spent much time and phone time talking to those who need to be there for assistance and care for our uncle.  He was actually standing up and walking in his room from the bed to the door.  He advanced to walking in the hallway.  He smiled and bragged about his accomplishments when we visited. I knew if he got the proper attention he could regain some of his strength and be able to perform some of his activities of daily living.  That felt so good to him.  To have it all stooped abruptly, to have the rug pulled out from under him was a big setback.  He felt so alone, so helpless, so abandoned.  He did not abandoned his post in the war, he did not walk away from helping others yet here he is tossed aside and left hanging.  He stated that they should not of even started this is they could not finish. He was given the cookie only to have it taken from him as he was going to take a bite.  How can we toss aside or older population?  How can we toss aside or vets?  This is not making any sense to me.  How can this be fixed?

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