Getting to the hospital

[ChemGal]

Perhaps the restriction mentioned re O2 was in retirement level facilities. As I recall, when my m-i-l lived in one, she had to use a concentrator, not bottled O2 when in the facility, had the bottles just for when she went out. When she moved to LTC she was on O2, not from a concentrator.

It was part of the panelling process so was LTC.

 

[EasternOrthodox]

I believe in NS they have now some paramedics right in the ER department who take over from the one’s coming in until a nurse can be assigned to the incoming patient. That way, the ambulance gets freed up earlier. We also have stretchers now in hallways, use rooms that used to be for one patient with two ( a temporary wall in between) and the area for same day patients is now divided up and houses admitted patients until a bed becomes available on the unit.
I was surprised about the upset in the news that in Ontario people waiting LTC might get to be sent somewhere else from the hospital. We have had that for years- it’s called “ the 100 km rule”, and means that if a bed comes up within 100 km from the hospital you got to go there. You will still stay on the wait list for your desired nursing home from there. Due to the division in health zones, nobody ever would have to go 100 km away- the furthest that ever happens is about 60 km, often it is just about within twenty km. But they also might send you to a different hospital to wait there, rather than plugging up the beds at the more specialized hospital. So in NS, if you want to go to your choice of public LTC facility, you need to get yourself on the waitlist from the community in time- and not wait until you have to be admitted because you and your family can’t manage anymore. I find that reasonable. After all, humans plan a lot of things- weddings, jobs, kids, houses- they need to plan their old age as well.

It’s harder to plan because you don’t know what your health will be like.

My parents didn’t require help from me, partly because my father was 14 years older than my mother and he had her to help with age-related concerns. My mother sold the house after dad died at 79 and it just so happened that the waterfront house that they bought in West Vancouver back in the 1960s sold for a lot and Mum could afford care for herself in home (neither had dementia fortunately).

But I have neither a husband nor such a valuable property. Still my modest condo in Victoria is paid off. Plus I have a pension from many years with the BC Govt. I’m better off than many.

My daughter lives in Edmonton and my son and his wife have just bought property about a half an hour drive away.

My first exposure to hospitals came in July after I fell on a wet floor and sustained a “compression fracture”. The treatment is basically rest plus walking (I have a walker).

I called an ambulance. I hope my insurance will cover it.

My back is a lot better now, barely any pain. I spent several days in the hall at Victoria General, likely because I wasn’t as needy as some.

For going home I was transported in a “MediVan”, a sort of scaled down ambulance. I did notice oxygen (although I don’t use it).

I’m back at the condo debating if I should go for a care home. They’re awfully expensive but I could sell the condo. My kids like this option presumably because they are worrying. I haven’t looked into it enough to know if there are waiting lists or what. For now I’m managing with a lady who has been cleaning for me for many years.

 

[Mrs.Anteater]

Of course, these are difficult decisions. What I mean by “ planning”, is that one should not be surprised by an aging body, a fall, a broken bone and a failing memory. I always wonder about people who retire and then buy or build themselves a three level beach house which is not accessible at all, is too far away to get any public services an require driving a long distance for shopping. Fine, if you are rich enough to pay for live-in caregivers and can renovate extensively. I also think that one can “plan” in a certain way by not assuming that the kids will care for oneself. Otherwise, that’s an open communication to be had. I always come across families where dad or mom had pressed the kids to promise they will “ never put them in a nursing home”. And now they just can’t be taken care anymore at home.

 

[EasternOrthodox]

Of course, these are difficult decisions. What I mean by “ planning”, is that one should not be surprised by an aging body, a fall, a broken bone and a failing memory. I always wonder about people who retire and then buy or build themselves a three level beach house which is not accessible at all, is too far away to get any public services an require driving a long distance for shopping. Fine, if you are rich enough to pay for live-in caregivers and can renovate extensively. I also think that one can “plan” in a certain way by not assuming that the kids will care for oneself. Otherwise, that’s an open communication to be had. I always come across families where dad or mom had pressed the kids to promise they will “ never put them in a nursing home”. And now they just can’t be taken care anymore at home.

True. It’s never going to get easier, that much we can guarantee. The care homes don’t sound that bad. My problem is that I don’t know much about them. Should I wait until I have some serious accident or just find one now? There’s 2 different types in BC: independent living and assisted living. The assisted living offers help with things like getting dressed and taking meds. I don’t think I need that much help just yet. The independent living focus more on activities and outings. Both types do most of the cooking. My daughter-in-law did go and look at one while I was still in the hospital. A friend recommended it based on knowing someone there. it’s a lot fancier than my current condo. Is this typical? i don’t know.

 

[Luce NDs]

The great economic scheme is to reduce people in hospitals and put them on the street (as they did years ago with mental facilities with bad reputations). Once on the street ... you know what the paradigm believes about good street sense ... leaves room for the initiates to learn their own way ... a downhill proposition considering a lack of appreciation of what great unknown they are up against (con?) something that there is great panacea about without consideration they don't know yet if it is right or remaining to be seen! Many of the determinate are already set in that decision and don't know the reason!

Life is something to be lived or as my old boss would say: "you wouldn't believe the administrative errors gone astray!"

Thus the heavens split ... might a been a Thunderbird ... eclectic thing ...

 

[Mrs.Anteater]

True. It’s never going to get easier, that much we can guarantee. The care homes don’t sound that bad. My problem is that I don’t know much about them. Should I wait until I have some serious accident or just find one now? There’s 2 different types in BC: independent living and assisted living. The assisted living offers help with things like getting dressed and taking meds. I don’t think I need that much help just yet. The independent living focus more on activities and outings. Both types do most of the cooking. My daughter-in-law did go and look at one while I was still in the hospital. A friend recommended it based on knowing someone there. it’s a lot fancier than my current condo. Is this typical? i don’t know.

I don’t know how it is in BC. It might be good to know if you go to independent living if there is an area for assisted living in the same building or complex and how easy or hard it is to get in there if needs change.
I took my 92 year old to an independent living facility here for a tour and they offer med service and one meal included and more help for a fee. They had also activities on a daily basis. I liked it and thought it would be ideal for them, but at about $4000 for a two bedroom it would have been too much for many. ( I am guessing BC would be even more expensive)

 

[Luce NDs]

Pricing one outlandishly is great for elimination of the people considering street solutions ... that's the way ... send all the disadvantaged out so what remains can be taken advantage of in appropriate righteous manner ... allowing nothing to remain ... socially a one sided escape from culpability (onus) we've created ... thus self-destruction of our parts of the social order ... generating tyranny ... OK? Thus accepted by the powers ... encouraging diminishment ... and so something fades ... into the grey ...

 

[paradox3]

Here in Ontario there are many different models of care falling under the umbrella term "retirement home". All very expensive.

 

[Luce NDs]

Retirement is only for brutal wheels that will crush all that supports "M" in the fullness of Psyche! Isn't that a blast when it busts ... Ω 'd could that be one as paired inde deuce! One must continue a minimum activity ... beyond that nothing but the thought! Thus collected ... in the greens ... grassed over? Earthy essences ...

 

[Mendalla]

Here in Ontario there are many different models of care falling under the umbrella term "retirement home". All very expensive.

Yeah, that's something that either the industry or regulators need to address at some point. I mean it can range from an apartment building with housekeeping and a dining room to something just shy of LTC in terms of the level of care. Potentially very confusing when you're shopping for something but aren't at the point of needing LTC yet.

 

[BetteTheRed]

Potentially very confusing when you're shopping for something but aren't at the point of needing LTC yet.

It's also very difficult to project one's lifespan with any accuracy. I knew a woman who moved into a retirement home in her early 80s, when she was going deaf and blind, and her husband had died. She ended up living another dozen years in a pocket-handkerchief sized-space, far longer than she had anticipated.

 

[Mendalla]

If I make it to my eighties with my faculties mostly intact (Dad developed dementia in his late seventies so that's not a given), I'd probably pick my accommodations based on living a couple more decades. People are simply living and keeping their independence longer nowadays in developed countries. Even in China, the urban population are reaching Japanese levels of life expectancy, it's the rural areas that are keeping their expectancy down.

 

[paradox3]

In my experience, hospital staff were almost clueless about the nature of retirement homes and the wide range of care that is provided in different settings.

Ran into this with elderly parents being discharged from hospitals. From acute care in one case and from rehab in the other.

 

[Luce NDs]

If I make it to my eighties with my faculties mostly intact (Dad developed dementia in his late seventies so that's not a given), I'd probably pick my accommodations based on living a couple more decades. People are simply living and keeping their independence longer nowadays in developed countries. Even in China, the urban population are reaching Japanese levels of life expectancy, it's the rural areas that are keeping their expectancy down.

I imagine there are a lot more cases for dementia than we know of given our propensity to teach people they do not need to know regardless ... and thus less regard than one might be cognizant of at present when stunned by the activities of the powerfully willed ... that well ... seem to be deficient! Thus I was forced to depart an earlier train of thought ... not that heavenly ... somewhat of a train wreck!

I experienced a considerable bit ... while being told not to report on it because of reputations! They had to be supported if even not there ... thus they appear as holes, abstracts ... sometimes called manifestations appearing not quite as expected ...

Stories are built around such spins, weavings, etc. the latter clipping alone a quite a pace ... furious and loaded with naivete if that could be understood in the midst of a storm ... expect blow-out ...

Consider the items of idiocy placed in power with greatest intent! Is there reason there? Kant spoke on the faults of reason! Few said they understood his leaning about the lack therein ... it does go round as lapse!

 

[ChemGal]

Really sad, seems like more local treatment resources could be put in place. Was there an AED available as an example?
Also interesting in BC they say firefighters cannot transport, whereas in Alberta that was done for a child.

8-month-old baby dies in B.C. community where no ambulance was available

An eight-month-old baby died Thursday in a small community in the B.C. Interior. At the time of the death, there was no ambulance service in the town.

bc.ctvnews.ca

 

[Luce NDs]

If such sensations are not common ... they will become sentient of the lack! It may cost someone if no prescient sense is present and perhaps passed by ... the way absent psyche passes bi ... bifurcated ... divined ... then they cut up ... once a taste of the edge ...