First Visit Home

Dad came home on Saturday for a brief visit--the nursing home would only let him stay away for about four hours. What should have been a big event was actually pretty low-key, which was nice. He came home, sat in "his" chair for a while and visited, toured his completely overgrown backyard, went upstairs to his bedroom for a while (with no problems on the 14 stairs at all), back down to the family room to read through the newspaper and re-start his stack of papers that drives Mom nuts (although I'm sure she was happy to see it again!), then lunch and back to the nursing home. The only difference from the usual routine was that Mom was the one who ran out to the grocery store for bread when we didn't have enough for lunch. I don't know, maybe it was a bigger deal to him than he was letting on, but he said the house didn't seem strange in any way. The fact that is wasn't a big deal means (to me) that he really is ready to be home. He still has problems getting up to a standing position from sitting down (he needs to build up more strength), and Mom has difficulties helping him because of her back, but if they both keep working out, they should be fine.

The nursing home recommends getting a hosptial bed to have at home, at least until his strength is back and he is better able to manage on his own. They say it is easier and better to have it and not need it and have to get rid of it than it is to need it, not have it, and have to get it. So they'll set that up in the family room (and Mom thinks a stack of newspapers looks bad?) where he'll have easy access to everything except a computer--and if they can get the wireless router working, he'll even be able to have THAT in the family room.