When Dad comes out

I have been thinking about the options open to us following Dad's release from The Horton, bearing in mind he will be 'Partial Weight Bearing' on his left hip for up to six weeks.

We have been talking about Home-Care until now, where Social Services or a team from Intermediate Care arrange to call in to Mum and Dad up three times a day to assist with washing dressing and feeding.
The timings of these visits would be in the morning, mid-day and early evening.

Although this sounds adequate, it does not cover times when for example Mum wets the bed as happened on Tuesday morning and I found her crying in her bedroom, and not knowing what to do.
In this situation Dad would be on the phone to me immediately, as happened in Mauritius.

Therefore I think we need to arrange for them both to be looked after in a Convalescent Home and have been recommended to one on the seafront at Rustington, near Bognor Regis.
Rustington Convalescent Home

I telephoned today to see if they would take both Mum and Dad and depending on a doctor's report they would.

I was informed that a twin room was available from 15th of June but that it could not be held beyond tomorrow.

I immediately rang Ward F at The Horton, and spoke to Dad's staff nurse who says he is fine and that she transferred him to the chair next to the bed on her own today.

He has seen the physio also, but she could not say how far he was able to walk.
However, she says it is going to be slow and we need to look at the situation again in a week's time.
She did say that he is too good for a nursing home.

So on that basis I called Jeanette at the convalescent home again and explained that I would call again next week.
She did suggest we download the medical form from their web-page and get Mum's GP to complete it and fax it through to Rustington as GPs are known to be slower than the hospitals- (I've done this) and that they would need the information before a booking could be made. Dad needs to be safe on his crutches or frame, as there is no-one pushing wheel-chairs about from their room to the restaurant for instance.

In the meantime we still have Mother to care for and after that even if they went in on the 15th for a fortnight, there is still another 2 weeks of partial weight bearing.

We definitely need to discuss this at the weekend.