You know how the expression goes: “I need that like I need a hole in my head”? Well, after surgery yesterday, my dad now has a hole in his head. It’s to drain fluid, and after a couple weeks at the rehab wing of the hospital, he comes home for the first time since just before Easter (he’s been in a rehab center following a fall and a head injury, if you missed my earlier post).
It’s currently driving us batty that my parents are expecting that, upon his return home, everything’ll be back to normal. Dad’ll just be more careful going up the stairs, so they don’t need to make any changes. Grab bars are a hassle. And looking at a one-level home? No, they figure that if they just rearrange the furniture (by which they mean moving one chair to a different location), they’ll be just fine. (As you might guess, so far as I know, my family doesn’t read this blog.)
So our next campaign will be to (a) investigate for ourselves the finances behind a Continuing Care Retirement Community and (b) try to convince my parents that, if Dad has more stays, even if “short-term” (weeks or months), in a rehab center, then they’d be better off somewhere where there’s continuity. I’m not entirely sure how a CCRC works — you pay an “entrance fee” and pricy monthly fees (which might be a deal-breaker) and you can move from an independent apartment to assisted living to a nursing home, or have home care, with vague promises of financial security, but at the same time, so far as I can tell from websites, you still pay more for each new level of care.
Anyway, before we start making appointments, I thought I’d solicit any thoughts from readers who might have experience with this.
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