March 28, 2006: Past Post...

Dad's new home. He says goodbye to old Hospital where he stayed for 5 1/2 months. He's on a new journey. I hope it will be bright.

The room is for 4 patients. Patient G has vocal outbursts. Really loud ones. It's quite disturbing. Patient T makes faces which cause me to look the other way. Patient E arrived the same day as Dad.

It's a full house. But not cramped like what I had seen when looking at nursing homes for Dad back in December. It's manageable.

The physiotherapist arrives to speak with the family and do preliminary evaluation of Dad. He asks about the house. What's the layout. Any stairs. He asks Dad to so a few things. But Dad is so weak from the pneumonia that it's painful to watch him not able to even take a few steps.

I'm worried they won't accept him anymore.

Dad settles in. I assure Mom we've brought Dad to the right place. I wonder if we have.

Rehab Hospital does things differently than old Hospital. We need to adjust.

March 24, 2006: Past Post...

Dad is to be transferred to rehab hospital on Monday. It's good news except Mom heard from another patients family member that Rehab Hospital is horrible. It's dirty, the patients sit in their own excrement for hours, no staff to help. She's already resistant to going. It'll also be a long journey for her to go on. Bus, subway and then streetcar to get there.

I'm happy he's got the chance to go. Otherwise the options are not great. It would mean he would have to head to a nursing home. The Rehab Hospital atleast will give him opportunity to retrain himself. He's had a bout of pneumonia. He's very weak. I hope they don't send him away before he's had a chance to show his potential.

Dad's worried that they won't have anything there for him. He wants assurance that there is a program in place. He needs to know that they have plans for him.

March 2, 2006: Past Post...

Called the Social Worker and explained. She confirmed that what ever was signed is not valid. She will call Brother and explain. I would love to have heard that conversation.

I guess this is a sign of how people feel. Last night I tried calling Aunt A to find out what was going on. I also called Aunt F but her husband and daughter hung up on me. I did speak to Aunt C who told me she knew nothing of what was going on and that Aunt A couldn't have been at the hospital that night to witness as it was her yoga night. Aunt C said she would call me back after making some phone calls.

I don't expect anything from them.

Note: I gave them $500 towards the acupressure treatments. They decided to stop the treatments in favor of acupuncture. They didn't tell me. I don't expect they will give me any money back. They all go to church regularly. I don't think it's helping. They need to pray much harder.

March 1, 2006: Past Post....

Mom gets a phone call from Brother. He says he has just gotten Power of Attorney for Dad and that Aunt A witnessed the document. He will get Dad acupuncture treatment this Saturday. Mom freaks out crying/wailing to me on the phone. "How could they do this, how could they do this". I find it incomprehensible that they want to be able to control Dad's medical destiny and yet leave Mom to clean up any mess. I try and calm Mom down. Tell her they can't possibly do it, although I don't know for sure.

I go online and find out about Power of Attorney for Canada and what are the requirements. Sure enough, the patient needs to specify the POA prior to admission to the hospital. If no POA is appointed then it goes to the wife automatically. Brother would need to take the issue to court to have Mom removed as POA.

I call Mom to tell her I will call the Social Worker at the hospital to let her know what's going on. I find this surreal. People can't really be doing this, can they?