brunobaby

They're transferring Jim to a rehab unit at Village Nursing Home either today or tomorrow. I checked out the facilities last Friday and they seem to be acceptable, or at least as acceptable as the rehab unit at Mount Sinai where he's spent time after previous brain tumors.

It has the advantage of being a ten-minute walk from our home. I've passed this place almost every day of my adult life and figured, someday I'll probably be moved from my rent-stabilized place to the Village Nursing Home. I didn't think I'd have to be checking out its environs for any reason this early in my game, but I'm not the player here.

The rehab is a separate, short-term unit from the rest of the home. It's affilitated with the Rusk Institute and it's part of a pretty recent thing that's becoming a phenomenon: Instead of stockpiling the eldery and the ill in nursing homes, patch 'em up and get 'em out. Back into their homes as "part of the community." In other words, the insurance companies are balking at the expense of storing somebody long-term. So we're approved for 60 days in a short-term rehabilitation facility.

If he gets stronger, we can call Sloan-Kettering again for further cancer treatments. If he worsens, that's when we check out hospice care again, unless they're calling it something else 60 days from now.