Here is the backstory-My dad is 84 years old, and has been away from his home since 2021. My mother passed away in 2019, and my dad had been living on his own since then, and the family (myself, my husband and my brother) continued our weekly Saturday visits. My dad was an avid cook and enjoyed preparing dinner for us when we came to visit. On some of those visits we noticed my dad would become forgetful while cooking...he'd leave the stove on and wander off, and on one occasion, when I went to visit him after work, I found the windows and doors open, fans going, because it was 90 degrees in the house. Somehow, my dad had forgotten how to turn on the AC and had turned the heat on instead-and I knew at this point it would be dangerous if he stayed at home alone.
The final straw was when we went to visit him on Father's Day-we knocked on the door and rang the doorbell, but there was no answer...luckily, we had a key so we were able to enter the house, and we found my dad crumpled in a heap next to the commode. No telling how long he'd been there, but we called 911, and he was admitted to the hospital after discovering a large sore on his backside. (He was not taking his blood pressure medications/diuretics, and he had severe edema.)
After months in hospital, he was transferred between numerous care homes, and has been at his current one for about two years. Luckily, he is much improved, but now he has been pestering me to either take him back to his house or to move in with me.
I calmly explain to him over and over that he cannot live alone in his house, and that moving back to the house is iffy due to some legal issues (lien on the house due to my sister misappropriating our dad's Social Security/Teamsters money so the care home was not getting paid) and he cannot move into my house because I live in a very small 2 bedroom house and there is no room for him. (There is hardly enough room for my husband and I.) He said, "I can sleep in a chair, I don't care! Just get me out of here!" I would also be responsible for having him take his medicine...he hates taking pills, and when the nurses give him meds at the care home, he hesitates...I constantly have to remind him, but he refuses. I could not live with that daily. He has said they are not treating him well- he lives in a room with a roommate, and every roommate they have put in there with him has died. One was HIV+, and my dad was angry that they didn't disclose this until after the poor man had died (they had a shared washroom).
Sorry for writing this novel, but I am at my wits' end. I love my dad and want him to be comfortable and happy. Still, I have got so much going on (husband has skin cancer and is 79, I am now unable to work due to a back injury from my job (hotel laundry/housekeeping) and new neurological problems (seizures, memory loss, comprehension issues, brain fog)...waiting on disability to be approved but have been waiting for 2 years after being shot down once.) I will post more about the legal stuff under another post, but my hands are tied until things are straightened out concerning the house. I would like to hire a home health care nurse, but he is only covered for 8 hours a day. I am not good with legal stuff and suffer from social anxiety, so that's why I let my sister handle everything (husband is a lawyer and she is an expert communicator).
So what I'm asking is, what I should tell my dad every time he says, "If you love me, you'll do this for me... take me home or to your house." He claims one of the CNAs told him he could just leave with me and come back... this CNA also told me she had some things she needed to tell me about the facility that she could not disclose while on the property. There have been allegations of racism from the facility made by my father, so at the very least, I would like to transfer him somewhere else... But I just don't know where to start.
Thanks for reading and giving input.
Nadira
Best wishes,
Nadira
May The Lord give you grieving mercies, strength and wisdom during this difficult time.
My mother is 86 w severe RA and gout in her hands and feet. In a 15 month period, she has fallen, broken a ankle, and a hip as well as suffered an aeortic ruptured aneurysm. ( No other health issues) I have no siblings to give added grief ( illgotten spent ss funds etc.) But I will say that since my post, I HAVE gotten my mother settled in an AFH where she thinks she is a guest with friends of mine. ( the snf she was in was horrible) Her trailer was a hoarded filthy wreck ( of 21 yrs) of a mess that I JUST got thru and the park manager offered me $ for it that has gone into an account for her funeral expenses. Her memory is rapidly declining ( not been diagnosed with any dementia etc, it is very obvious in our everyday conversations, but the MAIN point of my answer is that when she asks me WHEN she's going home, I simply say " when you're self sufficient " SHE knows herself this could be Never I believe. She can't walk wo a walker, caregiver holding w gate belt and wheelchair accompanied. She cannot take care of her own personal needs without help. I currently am looking for some kindve a Support group as selling her home and all it entailed feels awful but NOBODY involved has suggested I did a wrong thing. She is well cared for, clean,eating good and has no daily chores in a hoarded cluttered filthy ( stairs too) environment to deal with. I see her regularly and bring her what she wants. One of the most difficult things I've ever had to do in my life. You have your hands full with your own life and yes, perhaps moving him somewhere better suited to his needs would be helpful..But you're doing the best you can. Hang in there:)
If it's not possible that your father can go home with a live-in companion, a different AL is out, and you can't have him with you, you'll just have to keep telling him the truth. It will be hard. If he guilt-tripping doesn't get him what he wants he may grow to hate and resent you, but if the reality is if he's staying where he is don't give him false hope. You have to be an adult and live with it.
Do you speak with staff at his care home about what he's like when you aren't there?
It could very well be that he does all right and turns on the guilt and begging to go home when you show up.
I was a staff supervisor in a nice AL for a while. Some of our residents would be living their best life and enjoying themselves until a family member shows up or calls. Then it' like flipping a switch. The misery, negativity, guilt-tripping and begging to go home starts up.
I am concerned about this CNA who needs to speak to you off of the facility's grounds. Meet her somewhere and talk. Do this soon. She is right that you can take your father out for the day. He is not in prison. People leave care homes for things like holidays and doctor's appointments all the time.
Going to research the website you suggested KNance72, need to see if the nursing home he's in hasn't been involved in some shady stuff.
I am a people pleaser by nature, and it's hard to say no...but I will have to buck up and just do it.
I am finding this message board very helpful :)
I am sorry you can no longer live in your house. But you cannot live in mine. I will care & support you, wherever you live.
On repeat. As often as needed.
Personally, I have no tolerence for anyone laying on guilt for manipulation.
To me, it reads like this:
Dad is wanting you to upend your life & home, for you to meet all his needs, to make him the centre of your world. Why?
So that he does not have to accept his reality. Accept HIS health changed. HE moved. HIS life changed.
It IS a HUGE adjustment. Give yourselves time - both of you.
PS You can move him elsewhere. Start touring other facilities to compare.
Visit and call him in the mid-morning so that he isn't sundowning like he's probably been doing in the afternoons.
You aren't responsible for your loved elder's happiness, and your taking him into your home is guaranteed to make no one happy. As long as he thinks there is a chance of convincing you he will continue to ask. And in fact may continue to ask even if you make it clear that it will never happen.
Taking on an elder for 24/7 care moves that person from considering you a beloved daughter to considering you the caregiver who manages his entire life; you will get no thanks for it, and it could quite literally kill you or drive you nuts.
I am 82. I can tell you right NOW, happy as my life has been, that old age is NOT about "comfortable and happy" as you say. Sorry. That's not on his dance card. Old age is about endurance and making the best of things that are not at their best. It is about family standing witness to the inexorable and continuous losses you sustain one by one.
Please stop thinking that there is a "fix" for this. There isn't. As my own bro said from his ALF, "Hon, this is like the army when I was young; I didn't much like it but I made the best of it". And he did. Dad can make the best of it or the worst of it and much of that is in his own control in so far as he has control now of anything at all.
Tell him you are sorry. Tell him he has your sympathy. Tell him that you understand his losses and you wish he didn't have to endure him. But tell him there is nothing that you can do to change anything whatsoever.
It is selfish of parents to expect their children to throw their lives on their burning funeral pyres, especially when--in these times--it is so slow a burn that their lives are consumed by the time we oldsters die.