Nursing Home Time

Finding the right nursing home can be daunting. We've just been looking for a place for my mother. She's 77 but she's an old 77. She's had several strokes and struggled through a hard life. She uses a walker and is incontinent. Lots of issues here. She spends a lot of time alone but has care givers that come in twice a day to take care of her and to feed her. She's been happy up until now. Her incontinence and her inability to manage her self when a lone has become impossible soooo we decided, after much trouble and many incidences to put her into a nursing home.We went back to the one that my grandmother, her mother, was at. It was the first independent living facility in the Boston area. They took great care of my grandmother right up to the very end. I remember going there to visit her and thinking how beautiful it was and how comfortable the atmosphere. Anyway, going back there brought back wonderful feel good memories which was a relief. Not much had changed if anything.The Head Nurse took us around and showed the facility. We looked at where she would be living and although it wasn't in a private room it was quiet. there was a thick partition between her and the room adjoining. She would share a bathroom with another woman. But the most important thing is that she will have the round the clock care that she truly needs. No more getting stuck on the toilet in the middle of the night. No more falling on the floor and laying there for hours until someone comes in the next morning. She will have all of her meals with other people. It's a very nice, expensive facility so she will be associating with like minded people. That is something that is very important to her. We should have moved her to this place 5+ years ago but she wasn't clinically ready nor did we have the money. The state will pay for her residence when she is ready for it and not before. So it took a while but she is now ready and looking forward to it. Thank goodness. It is so important for the elder to be ready for it.They will monitor her medications, even though she doesn't take any. She's just on maintenance pills now, vitamins, aspirin and the like. Feed her, bathe her, keep her engaged in activities which is something she has been without for a long time.  She's been very happy to watch TV all day long and with cable there is plenty to watch.It's been a long haul but I think she will finally be safe and well cared for.