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Our Family’s Experience with Nursing Homes in Northwest Indiana

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For many people what comes to mind when you say “Nursing Home, Skilled Care Facility, or Assisted Living Center”. The images and thoughts are very depressing and disturbing. The fight or flight senses kick into high gear. We all have heard horror stories about nursing home incidents. Some of those being, lack of care, no one cares, they just stack them in a room and close the door are some of the most frequent.
Welcoming common area at Life Care Center at the Willows skilled Nursing Facility and physical therapy in Valparaiso
At some point many families find themselves having to make a decision on what to do with Mom, Dad or Grandpa. As they do not have the ability to take care of themselves and you don’t have the strength, the time or the patience to do it yourself. My wife has unfortunately had a good number of medical problems develop and has gotten to the point several times where she did have to go to a facility for therapy to recover enough to return home and hopefully resume her normal life. Luckily she has had success and returned home but in some cases not to her full strength and she has to continue to work on it.
Casa of Hobart: A Difficult Stay
She recently had a hip revision surgery to repair her hip and the surgery went ok with a few complications. She did have to go to a facility here in Northwest Indiana for physical therapy. The facility she went to first was Casa of Hobart. The first night there she asked a staff member if she could have something like a sprite. She was told she had to give the person a dollar before she would get it. Then her roommate controlled the heat in the room and the temp reading was 95 degrees constantly. It was literally a sauna with smells. We also found that they probably hadn’t read her discharge notes from the hospital when it came to her care and within days she was back in a new hospital with hemoglobin at like 4.5. That’s very close to death. I could go on but nut nothing more needs to be said about that facility. Not sure you could even call it a “facility.”
Life Care Center at the Willows: Hitting the Jackpot
After recovering and getting in a good state at St Mary’s in Hobart a Powers Health Facility a fantastic place she was sent to The Life Care Center at the Willows in Valparaiso for continued care and physical therapy.
  • OMG we hit the jackpot. The staff was caring and they did know what they were doing.
  • Yes the room was small but it was comfortable. The nurse’s aides who you rely on for a lot of your care were young but didn’t match the attitude of today’s younger generation. They had a great work ethic and went above and beyond.
  • For a Skilled Care Facility they were “Skilled” and they did “Care.”
  • The physical therapists were well advanced in their skills and accomplished with my wife during her therapies.
Again here I could go on and on but in a much better direction. Would I recommend this facility God Hell Yes!
This is a great site online at Medicare to get more details about facilities: Medicare Care Tool 

Soothe The Savage Beast!

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I like a lot of different music. Though I’ve always considered myself a “soft rock” kind of guy! Or I’m a little bit country (I always was in love with Marie Osmond). A few years back I had the opportunity to be at a conference in Florida. The first night was a big reception at a very large hotel with different “food stations” all over the place including out by the pool. But you know Florida, hot and humid and who in their right mind dressed in a suit and tie is willing to stand out by the pool? Continue reading →

The Greatest Country in The World?

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We brag alot about how we live in the Greatest Country in the world but is it really?

Over the last 10 years or so I have had the opportunity to interact with clients in many different countries around the world. Because of that exposure I’d like to consider myself somewhat “worldly” as they say.

It has opened my eyes as to how unaware I was of the world around me and more importantly how blinded I was to the realities of America’s short comings. The clip (link) I have listed here really sums it up quite well…

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31810.htm

It really does make you think and wonder what “we” have been doing besides blindly going around with our chests puffed out about how great America is when in reality there are alot of other countries that have it better than us in many areas that are important to each of us indivdually.

I Have Coca Cola Addiction I am an Addict!

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Coca Cola Addiction

There I said it. Its supposed to be the first step in overcoming an addiction right? Admitting that you are an addict just like an alcoholic needs to admit they are an alcoholic when they join “AA”.  But having a Coca Cola addiction is a little unusual in that Coke is “America’s” drink! We grew up with it, we were sold on how “American” it is. Were are even sold on it being the drink of the world.After all Coke Cola is in just about every country on this earth. I can’t think of any other soft drink with that kind of notoriety. The commercials; McDonalds and Coke, Olympics and Coke, Polar Bears and Coke, summer and Coke, Drive Inn’s and Coke the list just keeps going and going.

Its been about 30 days without a Cola Cola and I’d just about kill for one right now. You see at my peak when I stopped I was probably a 10 Coke a day man. Now I know what you thinking… how big is this guy? I was up to about 320 lbs. I’m 6ft. tall so I don’t look like those guys on the “Biggest Loser.” In the “hotel industry” many of my hotels had restaurants and I had access to the soft drink fountain gun any time I wanted.

In the last few years their has been an upward trend in getting healthier so we have been hearing more and more about how much sugar is in a can of Coke and how bad a Coca Cola addiction is. That alone is pretty scary but when you combine it with my age, my weight, and some diabetes in my family it finally caught up with me. Then a few weeks ago they added the new twist the carmel coloring maybe a cancer causing agent.

At 57 you start thinking about wanting to live a little longer. You want to do some of the things you had always wanted to when you were younger. Then there is the factor that you may be to out of shape or to sick to do anything. It kind of smacked me in the face. Which I deserved and needed.

I never thought of it as a Coca Cola addiction. I never thought that Coca Cola could kill me. Or shall I say Coca Cola assisting me in increasing the odds that I would be passing sooner that I had expected.  I’ve gone through a withdrawal that still hasn’t ended. There was the headaches ( I think that was the cafene). There were also the shakes ( not a lot). Then there was and still is the longing for just a sip, maybe a small glass the wanting a fix of Coca Cola. I’m assuming that that desire will go on for a long time just like with alcoholics. I compare it to morphine. I had that once for a surgery. Oh my god, was that stuff great, I never felt that way ever and did not want it to stop.

I don’t know the full extent of what it has done to my body over all these years but I went cold turkey and I hope I can make it. I wonder if thier is a Coca Cola addict support group. I think I’ll “Google” it! Wish me luck. Here is a Coca Cola Addiction site I guess I’m not alone. And another one.

Maybe Our Politicians Should Commit Suicide!

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As usual with any election I find myself as frustrated as ever! Not one of the candidates seems to fit the bill. In fact most of them seem like idiots. They just seem to be out of touch with reality. Most of them make millions of dollars a year in income and have no idea what its like for the rest of us poor people. In fact many of the candiates are presently in office. Some are senators or governors and they are the ones who put many of the laws allowing the abuse of the “system” into place and they don’t think there at fault at all.

In Japan several government officials felt so badly about what had happened under thier watch that they committed suicide. They were so embaressed and disgraced they couldn’t face anyone. Can you imagine that? If only our officials had that much integrity, maybe then they would do a good job!