Avoid Nursing Homes, if you can.

Tom's Journal. http://tomschuckmanjournal.blogspot.com/

tschuckman@aol.com

Hi Friends,
I feel very qualified to speak about Nursing Homes,  because I was "farmed out" in one to continue and finish a serious, comprehensive IV anti-biotic regimen this past year,  and my past wife, Sharon L. Schuckman, had to go to one, after she just kept falling down and bleeding all over the place, repeatedly, and I hated to place her in one.   But when I was a young teenager on the farm in S.E. Wisconsin, my grandmother died, and someone had to look after my grandfather, who used to be a very intelligent gentleman who came over from Europe on a ship at the age of 12 without a dime, but made good in America !  He became the supervisor at a Milwaukee Coal company, bought and paid for 3 houses and raised 4 children who all did well too.  But when he got older, his mind went and finally died of 'old age'  ----  after my family had to place him in a Nursing Home, and I remember visiting him with the family, and what a horrible smell in his ward/ wing, of human excrement all over the place.   It was a bad scene that stuck in my mind, and most of the patients there were "not acting right."   My past wife, Sharon, had a number of health challenges, but we loved each other dearly...   -- including Diabetes, RLS,  and CHF, and her death really shook me up and saddened me.  
     I realize that there are good and bad Nursing Homes, but Freedom is always better if you can figure out some way to care for yourself or even get a visiting Nurse, and/ or a cleaning lady to help the house or apartment clean and safe.  I know that in the Christian Community, the friends try to help each other out as best they can, taking them shopping, and to church, etc., and that is what my kind, fine, wife does, a lot.   God has blessed us, and we feel that helping others might be a way to show our appreciation for His loving kindness.  
       It just so happened that my past wife, Sharon, got put into a bad Nursing Home in Kenosha, WI., on Sheridan Road, down by the Lake Michigan, where the Dept Head RN male had a reputation of verbally [and other wise] abusing the poor, elderly patients there, but my wife never told me that, because she was afraid that I would kill him, and then go to jail......  But in fact, the day before she died, she was filled with joy because WE were instrumental in finally getting that short, pudgy bastard fired !!   I would have loved to have met him in a dark alley sometime, just to have a 'talk with him...'  I love to talk to bullies who pick on defenseless, old people, who are suffering already.   A bus load of patients from that Nursing Home came to Sharon's funeral at Union Grove Baptist church and told me what went down at the facility and how Sharon actually started a Bible Study where a nice circle of friends met in a circle, in the cafeteria, etc., to consider God's Word, etc.   
    But when I had my own 2 weeks in hell, I felt so sorry for the patients at Pinecrest Nursing Facility in the U.P. of Powers, MI., as they were so lonely, with hardly no one to talk and visit with!!  People just stared off into space, even though I think that the staff tried hard to make them feel "at home."  The food was disgusting and nasty, IMHO, and I actually got sick of the egg salad sandwiches one night, and other items.   I just quit eating and lost about 30 pound, but my Terri brought me some fresh fruit and canned tuna.  Most of the staff treated me well, but one of the head supervisors butted heads with me, and made life miserable.  I still email one nice guy from that facility.   I got stuck in the one room without an A/C unit or a shower.    As one nurse's aid told me,  "I got hosed."  
      Now, back at home, I am so blessed to have a kind, helpful wife, to wait on me and make great, delicious, healthy food for the two of us, but I also like to take her out for fine dinners.