Well, the tossing and turning about what to do and making a decision, then sleeping on it always helps.
I think what we’ll do is sell her car (there’s no way she’ll be driving again, she can hardly walk, it’s scary to think about her reaction time behind the wheel of a vehicle when other people could get hurt). Use the money from that to put her in AL (assisted living) from the SNF (skilled nursing facility). I have POA (power of attorney) and one of her banks accepted it so I can access the account, but the other bank, where she has her savings, has their own POA form, which we need to get filled out and notarized before I can access those funds. I’m going to be needing to transfer money from her savings (at one bank) to her checking (at the other bank) to cover the upcoming expenses. Her stay at the SNF was close to ten thousand dollars for two months. Good thing she saved all that money. It sure takes a load off of us. Now we just have to make it accessible.
Since the housing market is in the dumper, it will take a while to sell her mobile home, which needs to be cleaned up anyway.
So, as I said, I’m thinking to move her directly into AL from the SNF. Being in AL, I won’t feel the need to check on her every day, I’ll have more time to do the things I need to get done. And being away from the SNF, with all the ambient noise, in a more quiet environment, but with other people around, the same people, she might get more comfortable and do better in recovery.
And, who knows, she might flourish in this environment and love it there. Or, she might recuperate enough to go back on her own (one of the doctors told me that it could take up to six months for her to get better, if she does get better, I wonder how she’d be doing in three or four since she’s made so much progress in less than two).
While I’d love to see her go home, it would definitely be easier for me to have her in AL. The cost of AL vs home isn’t that much different, factoring in having someone come in to check on her, adding a life alert system, you know, that kind of thing. I won’t be worried about her eating, though, I won’t worry about her not taking her meds, I won’t be worried that she’s drinking again (at this point, the smoking really doesn’t bother me, as long as she’s not drinking and in danger of passing out and burning down the place).
And if she does well enough in AL to be able to move home, well, that’s great. And it would be a lot easier to take her from AL to home, than let her be at home, then take her to AL. That would be really hard.
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