Background:
My 84 year old grandma fell and fractured her hip and shoulder in April. She was admitted to a hospital to do surgery. 2 weeks after the surgery she was transferred to another hospital for rehab where she stayed there for another 2 weeks. During this time, it was really hard for my family as hospital did not allow any visitors anymore. During her 3rd week at the hospital she started running a fever. That's when we learned she caught covid sometime during her stay either at the 1st or 2nd hospital. She stayed at the 2nd hospital for another week and we were told she is stable enough and has to be discharged. However , she was still testing positive. We could not take her home and isolate her safely as we live with our 90 year old grandpa. After the hip fracture, she was no longer independent and would need a lot of care since she's bedridden. We couldn't have taken care of her safely at home. The only option was sending her to a nursing home. Brier oak was the only nursing home accepting COVID patients at the time.
Let me start out with saying prior to sending her there, I had many worries because I heard a lot of bad things about nursing homes and of course reading the reviews didn't help either. However, my worries were eased by the amazing people there who go above and beyond to help my grandma. Phil has been amazing at helping my family. I remember one time he went above and beyond for us when I texted him to see if we can FaceTime my grandma. I did not know he was was off that day, but he replied and told me he's off today but will arrange that for me. He sure did and checked in later on the day to make sure I got to talk to my grandma. Talking to my grandma is crucial as she has dementia. She often wakes up scared not knowing why she's there or what's going on. Because of the amazing people there, we were able to FaceTime her and tell her to keep fighting. Jessica (from activities) is amazing also. She goes above and beyond for my family and grandma. She's been a great support system for my family. I want to thank all nurses and CNAs who took great care of my grandma. She finally beat COVID at the end of June and and she's finally home! She stayed at the nursing home for 5 weeks. Although she is bedridden, she did not develop any bed sores there. I do have to say that it is quite hard to get a hold of the nurse. I would have to call a couple of times before the nurse is available to talk. At times I would call (6pm- 8pm) and no one picks up. It can get really frustrating, but I try to keep in mind that they're probably very busy. Whenever I call in the morning to afternoon, it's easier to get a hold of the nurse. All the nurses I've talked were nice and helpful. read more