What's on your mind?

[DerVVulfman]

Things are worsening for my dad, and I feel I cannot care for him anymore. He refuses to eat, and all he wants to drink is water. I don't think I have any choice but to have him in a home where he can get better treatment than what I can give.

The hospice is working on finding a location, but first claimed I can get a 5-day respite. And during this respite, they can work to find better accommodations.

But the respite has been delayed time and time again. Applied for the respite on Monday, a nurse called Tuesday for a Wednesday visit. At that point, she gave my father a sub-dermal injection to test for T.B., claiming she has to ensure he doesn't have Tuberculosis before he can leave. The test would require she comes back Friday. Friday rolled around and it came back negative... a good result. From then, she passed control to a Social worker show was to find a Medical Facility for my dad. She found a Facility and contacted them with the proper papers, but said another nurse had to visit to ensure he was in a valid condition to be transported, and that she was to call on both Friday and Saturday. There was no Friday followup with the other nurse, only the Saturday call. She verified he was good to go, but the Facility where he was to go claimed not to have the records for my father. They admit they had contact with the social worker, but lost all medical records faxed, and the Social Worker will not be in the office until Monday.

So a five day respite is taking a week to obtain. With all this time spent, they might just have found the permanent home with better treatment than I could give first.

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EDIT: The ambulance arrived.

The Hospice was non-plussed that the Medical Facility that initially said could take them in lost the paperwork and knew nothing this morning until they admitted there was a contact. So the Hospice group said he could stay at their own location, one that apparently was much better in their viewpoint. That, and they thought the whole scenario was 'shady' in the words of the weekend social worker who contacted me.

This is painful. Dementia causes severe depression, and dad is going to be wondering where he is and I fear he's going to increase the depression. But they may help since he's not eating or drinking anything but water.