Sort of an update,,,,,,

  OK,,could not find my thread on the Wife's ailments, so,,,,,,without goin into a whole page of re-hashin (some say I tend to be long winded),,,I'll start here,,,,

  The Director of Home Health Services has discharged the wife from all Physical and Occupational therapy as she is not physically able to participate with the therapy. She has suggested that we place her in "Home Hospice Care" (HHC) that will enable her to qualify for more in depth Medicare benefits that she does not qualify for at this point. I was shocked to hear thet dreaded word "Hospice" as I thought that signified "end of life",,,the wife did not like the suggestion either,,!! The director explained that there were several kinds of Hospice and hers did not necessarily mean end of life. She stated she needs more help at home that I am not able to give her like they can. We had a phone conference with the 5 boys and they all agreed that it was better for Mom. The ONLY'IST thing I am kinda concerned with is that she would have to agree that all future health care needs would be supplied by the HHC nurses that would be available whenever we called. The HHC has a MD available should she require that. All other needs would be supplied by the RN's, Pa's or CNP. HHC would provide a new Hospital bed, which would be a great help, and all other health care items. 

I asked if her follow-up on the Prosthesis would still be available and she told me definately YES.

  Have any of Ya'll had any experience with this sort of issue,,??? Good,,Bad,,,???

Wishing the best for your wife and you and the family in this situation. Sounds like the right move to get the care she needs. Tough choices. 

 Regards,

 Chris

 Les Royer,,,,,,,,,you are the greatest,,,!!  I just got thru talkin with Linda and she has allayed my fears and concerns and convinced me to go ahead with the Home Hospice Care. I figured it was prolly what we should do but just needed somebody from the health care profession to explain it better. I had talked with my older Brother, the Dr. in Milwaukee but he had not had too much experience with it to say. 

  Les,,,I sure appreciate your efforts and Sure glad I called her. By the way,,,does she know you are on the puter this late,,,?? I asked to talk to you but,,,,,,,she said,,"Oh he's fast asleep,,he goes to bed bout 9",,,,?

 Hey Shameless,,your idea is kinda what my engineering mind has been tossin around in my head.  The hardest part of the 4 "transfers" when she has to go to bathroom or shower, is from the bed to wheel chair, then from wheel chair back to bed. I been thinkin to make a 24"X64" rectangle out of 2X2 light angle iron on ceiling and hang a "T" handle from it at the right height so she can grab it to pull herself up to help me get her from bed to wheel chair. As it is now,,the wheel chair and bed are pretty much same height so she doesn't have anything to grab hold of, and is actually havin to "push" herself up off wheel chair and that is not much help. The 64" length would catch at least 4 ceiling trusses and use screws instead of nails,,,?? Whatcha think,,??

  The transfer from wheel chair to potty and back are much easier as I installed a "grab bar" on wall next to potty and is high enough that she can grab it and pull herself up and sure makes it lots easier on poor old Joe,,,,,

 

 Hey JC,,,actually the "agreement" is on a day by day option as she told us if for any reason we are not satisfied, we can opt out at any time but she does elaborate that since Medicare will be paying all the bills, they are going to do everything to keep her AND MEDICARE happy. In talking with ole Les's wife last night, her many years of being a nurse has given her an up close look at this program and like everybody else has told us, the HHC team makes every attempt at keeping her comfortable. I think she will benefit from this so it's worth a try, The Director also told us, the very first thing they will do is get her a hospital bed and that will help many wonderfuls,,,,,,,

  Yep,,,I KNEW you was gonna jump on that,,,,,,,