<font color=blue>We took in my Mother-in-law this past summer</font color=blue> and <font color=blue>very independent</font color=blue>
I'm glad you were able to take her in. Unfortunately, my mother has not been at all independent for the past 6 years; fell and broke a hip, botched surgery (heads popped off all the screws on the plate the surgeon put in 4 days after she left the hospital), the second surgery resulted in a massive staph infection, 4 more surgeries, a year in the hospital and finally the complete removal of that hip joint and knee surgery that eliminated bending that knee at all. And she's been an insulin dependent diabetic for many years. She lived with my brother and his wife (who also had her mother who was a complete invalid) for several months, and then my sister wanted mother moved to her house and we did that, and of course, we'd have taken her into our home if that's what she'd wanted. Of course, it's a pretty good job for one person to get her dressed and out of bed into a wheelchair, any kind of bathing of an invalid in most homes is a big job, etc. And of course getting her in and out of a car was a pretty good job so she didn't get out very often.
At any rate, she wanted to go to a nursing home, missed going to church, talking to people of her own generation, etc. I guess we've all heard the stories of abuse and neglect in some nursing homes, and I had doubts about her liking the food, the staff, etc.; however, so far it's great. She's told me she likes all the staff, thinks they like her, and the food's very good and more of it than she wants./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
I don't know whether you've visited any nursing homes lately or not, but I think a lot of people would be surprised. At this particular one, they have Baptist, Methodist, and Catholic church services on the weekends, as well as a bible study class during the week, the ladies get their fingernails painted once a week, everyone gets a shower 3 times a week (they've got some neat equipment for handling non-ambulatory residents), bingo and popcorn one day a week, ice cream social one day each week (both regular and sugar free), barber and beauty shop, arts and crafts room, therapists, individual or group singers for live entertainment every week, medical doctor, podiatrist, dentist, audiologist, and optometrist come there instead of having to go to a doctor's office, two big aquariums (one with fresh water fish and one with salt water fish), a cage with cockatiels, bird feeders outside the windows, and they're right next door to a big hospital.
And this is close enough that some of us go by to visit every day besides having her own private phone in the room so she can call anytime she wants to (if a resident doesn't have a private phone, the staff will take a cordless phone to them anytime they want it). And family members are invited to join the residents for any meal with 30 minutes advance notice at a cost of $2 per person./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
Whew, I get too long winded, but the point is that even though she's been with family members who took the best care of her that they could, she's happier in the nursing home (and gets even better care).
