This weekend the "When will Mom return home" committee (my aunt, my younger brother, and myself) met to decide the pros and cons of bringing my mother home. I had already decided that she was coming home just as soon as acute physical therapy at the rehab hospital/nursing home is terminated. My aunt thought it would be better to move her to a nursing home near home while she recuperates and gains strength. My aunt is an old-school immigrant from Vietnam and doesn't get the difference between skilled nursing and a medical facility. She puts so much trust in the "medical" component of my mother's recovering, not taking into account the length of time it takes to heal, and the benefits of the comforts of home, family, and frequent visits from friends.

I told her it'd be more of the same, sleepless nights for mom because she isn't properly repositioned after being turned. I had to explain to my aunt that a healthy personal couldn't function with no sleep, how could a recovering stroke survivor be expected to heal in that environment? No offense to nursing homes, because my mother is a tough case, being paralyzed and unable to speak.

Now the entire family is on board the plan and are making arrangements to remodel the current 1/2 bath into a dedicated walk-in shower and purchasing a $20K Bed (automatically rotates a non-mobile person). We're going to hire 2-3 caregivers to look after mom day and night. I'm just so happy we have some concrete dates and something to look forward to.

The next piece of this puzzle is figuring out how the family is going to afford all this care without going broke.

Stay tuned.