After 3 months in hospital (barring six days at home) my mother has been moved to a nursing home. It’s an absolutely beautiful home set in acres of countryside so she has an amazing green view out of full length windows. Finally out of the misery of a busy noisy hospital ward full of patients screaming night and day and rushed-off-their-feet nurses, not to mention the poor standard of care she received that left me and my sister at breaking point, she has found peace and calm in this idyllic environment where staff so far seem attentive and lovely and she can literally gaze out at countryside 24/7.

The downside is, she’s very likely she’ll only be staying there a week!! For reasons unbeknownst to us, she has to have a proper needs assessment there, as this was never done in hospital. They need to assess what her needs actually are, whether she needs nursing care or is able to manage on residential care (without a registered nurse). She may even have to go back to her house with a care package again, although this is very unlikely. After the needs assessment she will be financially assessed to see whether she needs to contribute towards her costs. This is where it gets tricky. This nursing home is super expensive and the NHS won’t cover it. I don’t think she can top up the rest. If this is the case, she will have no choice but to get moved again to somewhere cheaper. It’s a pain, but right now we are focussing on the positives: she is out of the nightmare of hospital and being properly cared for somewhere she can relax.

She remains terminally ill, that won’t change, but since recovering from the most recent infection that had her rushed back to hospital from her house, she seems more stable. A nurse told us that she had 2 months at best, but this was when she was battling the second lot of pneumonia. She remains on oxygen 24/7 and is very frail, but due to the nature of her conditions (end stage lung fibrosis and heart failure) no one knows how long she has. She’s completely bedbound and incontinent so I’m hoping and praying that where she finally ends up, it will be somewhere peaceful and caring where she can live out her final weeks/months with dignity. Isn’t that what we all deserve? So many don’t achieve it, sadly.

At the moment I’m so happy that she’s where she is that my heart could burst. It just shows how awful the last 3 months have been that we can be so grateful for a week in such a beautiful place where she watch Tv, lay quietly or witness the healing presence of Mother Earth from her comfy bed.