Sunday Update

August 24, 2008
By Judy and Linda

My, my, my! What a whirlwind of emotion and activity this weekend. Mom's sudden improvements meant finding a new "home" after the acute care hospital that she no longer needs. She is more alert and conversant than we have seen her in a lo-o-ong time. Several skilled nursing facilities were toured so we could make an informed choice about moving Mom to more extensive rehabilitation and therapy services. We settled on the rehabilitation unit at Covington Manor at 5700 Wilke Road off west Jefferson in Ft. Wayne. It was difficult to decide from many wonderful options. We realized we could search and search for the perfect match forever. We opted to make a decision that was as good as possible in the time we had and relied on input from many sources before choosing a very respected facility for the next stage of Doreen's therapy. Covington came highly recommended and feels like a good next step. Judy will move her in (by transporting her in her car!—another first) on Monday morning.

We are excited to hear what the next accomplishments will be for Mom. At Covington Manor, they will not let her get away with asking to go back to bed. They do therapy 7 days a week, they expect residents to eat together in the dining room, and Mom will not be able to just ask to go back to bed without a lot of prodding and encouragement to keep working. They even have a Wii that is used for therapy!

We thought at first that this would be a step toward a more complete rehab facility, but this program is called Homeward Bound, and the expectation is that residents will go to their home setting after therapy here. So we hope this is the final address change before a final home that will bring Mom and Dad to the same address!

Dad has been enjoying Timbercrest. He has attended choir practice, has made a number of new friends and connected with many old ones, and is learning to negotiate the rhythms and routines of the Timbercrest community. There have been a few bumps in the road, but we hope to smooth those out.

One more thing we have done is to engage the services of a geriatric care specialist who will advocate for us and help to coordinate all the myriad services and agencies we still need to negotiate. Now that we all need to return to work and school, this specialist will also be able to be present when we can’t and can be a local person in case of emergencies. We wish we would have had this help earlier!

Let us know if you need more information about finding the new facility. And thanks to Jim Garber for helping to manage all your generous offers of help to carry Dad to see Mom!