I received a surprise phone call yesterday morning. Good Sam is discharging my wife on Friday because her progress does not meet Medicare standards for improvement, they say. Medicare will not continue to pay, so she is coming home. While I planned for that, the timing surprised me. I am scrambling to prepare for her and trying to figure out just how I will care for her. Fortunately, several people have stepped forward to offer support and assistance. At this stage, though, I don’t quite know what assistance I (and she) will need. This morning, I’ll disassemble our four-poster bed so we can put a rented hospital bed and a twin bed in the master bedroom. Sometime between now and Friday, a hospital bed, a Hoyer lift, and various other “stuff” will be delivered (I hope). In between, I need to go shopping for things she’ll need.
I hope her return home will set in motion the recovery of her happiness. Being locked away in an isolated medical setting with no visitors for three months is, I think, akin to torture. I wish I had brought her home from the hospital instead of relying on Good Sam to help her; in my view, Good Sam did just the opposite. Now it’s my chance to make things right.
