My grandfather will be 95 next week. He has always been in good health generally, and even at his age and in his condition now he looks at least 15 years younger than he is. He was always active and alert and strong, and he is not handling his now-declining health well at all. He has multiple issues and each one has multiple complications that he just deals with, but he to the point where he's not strong enough to care for himself and he's in a nursing facility. (He was living with my mom, but he kept falling and she couldn't help him up. The EMTs told her they wouldn't come to help him up again, that she'd have to find an alternative, so they found a great assisted living place. Unfortunately, he was only there a month or two before he really went downhill and is now in nursing care.)
He's not in much pain, just tired, and not strong enough to move around on his own, even in a wheelchair. His eyes are failing. His hearing is failing. And his brain is still going, so he's lucid, but obviously not happy with the turn of events. I go to visit him once or twice a week, and it's really upsetting.
I know he's aware of what's going on, he always knows what day it is, etc. And yet, the staff there treats all the patients like they're zombies. They get parked in their wheelchairs wherever, and they have no way to call for help if they need it. Gpa can't get in/out of bed alone, and last time I was there, was parked in his wheel chair out of reach of the buzzer. So he was stuck there, with his back to the door, until someone came along by chance. Today, I brought him back to his room when he got tired, and went to find someone to put him to bed. I asked FOUR people before I got someone to actually come to his room, and by then (40 minutes later) he was asleep in the chair. I was in tears.
How can they treat people this way??? And this is supposed to be one of the best places in town. My heart breaks for him, and for all the people who are stuck with lesser care. This is no way for him to spend his final days/weeks/months/however long he has.
So I'm grieving his imminent death, and his current living conditions at the same time. It's eating me up. I can't stand the thought of going back there and seeing all this again, but of course I can't stay away and just not visit. He doesn't have much family nearby, and I'm the only one within 25 miles, so no one really visits him at all except my mom and me.
I'm sorry to ramble on, I can't seem to organize my thoughts anymore. I'm just so sad for my Gpa and also so scared at the thought that I will be stuck in that wheelchair one day with no one to come help me when I need it. It's such an awful feeling.
He's not in much pain, just tired, and not strong enough to move around on his own, even in a wheelchair. His eyes are failing. His hearing is failing. And his brain is still going, so he's lucid, but obviously not happy with the turn of events. I go to visit him once or twice a week, and it's really upsetting.
I know he's aware of what's going on, he always knows what day it is, etc. And yet, the staff there treats all the patients like they're zombies. They get parked in their wheelchairs wherever, and they have no way to call for help if they need it. Gpa can't get in/out of bed alone, and last time I was there, was parked in his wheel chair out of reach of the buzzer. So he was stuck there, with his back to the door, until someone came along by chance. Today, I brought him back to his room when he got tired, and went to find someone to put him to bed. I asked FOUR people before I got someone to actually come to his room, and by then (40 minutes later) he was asleep in the chair. I was in tears.
How can they treat people this way??? And this is supposed to be one of the best places in town. My heart breaks for him, and for all the people who are stuck with lesser care. This is no way for him to spend his final days/weeks/months/however long he has.
So I'm grieving his imminent death, and his current living conditions at the same time. It's eating me up. I can't stand the thought of going back there and seeing all this again, but of course I can't stay away and just not visit. He doesn't have much family nearby, and I'm the only one within 25 miles, so no one really visits him at all except my mom and me.
I'm sorry to ramble on, I can't seem to organize my thoughts anymore. I'm just so sad for my Gpa and also so scared at the thought that I will be stuck in that wheelchair one day with no one to come help me when I need it. It's such an awful feeling.
