Snickers, Part 3

Life isn't always wonderful, and sometimes I just need to get things off my chest.  If this is too depressing...don't read it, I guess.  Here's your chance not to...
We didn't have a lot of options at that point with Mom. She wasn't eating in the hospital and wouldn't drink much either.  We could have put her in a nursing home with a feeding tube; but since she kept pulling out her IVs, she would have to remain restrained and tied to the bed.  Basically in a straight jacket with a feeding tube.  None of us thought that's something she ever want, so we moved Mom back to the home. 

She needed  'round-the-clock supervision, and we couldn't do it.  Mom was pretty much bedridden. It's unbelievable how quickly the body fails when you are ill and bedridden.  Mom lost a lot of her strength almost immediately.  She could still walk some and  use the toilet with help, but I think she was pretty much done with living.  She just lay in the bed.  She would acknowledge us and talk to us.  Her mental status didn't seem to have changed much really.  She still knew she knew us. I hang out there for part of the day, help feed her, and just read or do paperwork. 

Dad started visiting some and Diane came down frequently.  Someone was there at least once a day.  Jess had a 7 a.m. class that summer, so I usually swung  by on my home, just about the shift change. More than once when I got there, Mom would be laying in adult diapers that hadn't been changed at all overnight.  Her hands were covered in her own excrement where she had tried to clean her own diaper.  The night nurse said Mom didn't like her. One of the day shift girls and I would clean her completely up.  We'd have to scrub the excrement from under her fingernails.

Of course, Diane and I were horrified and outraged.  We met with the manager of the home face-to-face with our complaints twice; I had more several phone conversations with the owners of the homes (husband and wife), as well as a meeting with one of the owners in person.  He promised me that this would never happen again.  He told me if he had to come to the house in person every day to clean my mother himself, he would. 
I'd already started looking for another home in which to place Mom, but couldn't find anything that promised to be better -- after all, the one she was in came with good recommendations. I was on a couple of waiting lists, so we just hung in there the best we could.