by pennifold 05 Dec 2022

Hi Gals, well God in His infinite mercy has granted Mum a permanent placement in the Nursing Home that I've wanted Mum to go into for some time.

Our son Ben has been marvellous in helping me with getting Mum's placement too and Trevor has been a huge help in filling out paperwork for the Nursing Home and Centrelink (for her Pension etc.)

Thankfully for us a room has become available on Thursday this week as the lady who was in there is moving to a Nursing facility in Canberra (our Nations capital city) to be closer to her family, thereby opening up a room.

At the same time Jewls (my sister) will be arriving on Thursday evening. She has to travel from the far west coast of South Australia to come up here to Newcastle on the east coast of New South Wales. She is leaving Wednesday and staying at Warrawong on the Darling River, a nearly 2,000km trip. The first day's trip will be about a 10+ hour's drive. She will arrive at Mum's place Thursday evening.

The Nursing Home which is called The Opal Tingira Community Centre is literally 100 metres down the road from Mum's place, so the surrounds will be familiar to Mum.

She is being transported to The Opal on Friday by the Ambulance Transport team.

I am so thankful for the prayers of everyone who has helped me through this phase of Mum's transfer to a new home. It's going to be challenging, but Mum doesn't know where she is even now in the hospital.

She has lost a lot of weight and is sleeping a lot, because she isn't eating well. I don't blame her though as the hospital food is not that palatable. She is on viscous fluids, so she doesn't aspirate. They worry about getting Aspirational Pneumonia. She has lucid moments throughout the day, then falls asleep. I even blow dry her hair and she falls asleep through that!!!

I have a picture of what she looked like when she arrived after a dreadful fall on the 22nd November and one taken yesterday. Her face has healed well where she scraped it on the dirt and bark from the garden where she fell. I witnessed the fall and have had nightmares about not being able to stop her fall down the 1.4 retaining wall in her back garden. I kept thinking what would have happened if she did this when I wasn't there! She could have been lying there for hours before I came the next day.

She has broken her neck in two places the C1 and C2 and will be in that neck-brace for 6 weeks plus. She doesn't like it and it makes it hard for me to feed her, plus the Nursing staff. I go in every day to make sure she is eating, but with the brace it makes it difficult for her to open her mouth wide. She is getting to like custards, mousse, ice cream (but not regular ice-cream) everything has to have the right amounts of protein and carbs etc. Even the water is thickened!!

I'll be going in this morning and try to get her to eat any of the breakfast that she tends to leave. The nurses are so flat out they really appreciate family helping out. I can't fault the care Mum has received at the John Hunter Hospital, they are so stretched.

Thank you to all my friends on here who have been praying for Mum, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Love Chris

1. Map of where Jewls lives in South Australia to where I live in Newcastle.
2. Picture of where Mum fell from the top of the garden bed on the right of the Plastic black garden screen.
3. Top of the garden bed where Mum fell from, she tripped on that little rock ledge under those flowers, through the garden, through the panel and down the 1.4 metre retaining wall.
4. Mum early on when she arrived. She has healed well in the past two weeks.
5. Yesterday (Monday 5th December 2022). I had been blow-drying her hair which she slept through!!
6. Map of Mum's house and the Nursing Home just down the street. Mum's place is with the black line and the Nursing Home is the red circle, literally 100 metres down the road and it's right across the road from a huge shopping complex. It's good as she knows the area well after living there for 19 years.

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Comments (17)

by sebsews 07 Dec 2022

Great news on Mums move! The last picture shows she is still beautiful. I am glad things are working out for you and your family. I am following your story closely and continue to send prayers to you and your family. Hugs and love, Suzanna.

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by airyfairy 06 Dec 2022

Just the best news ever. You really deserve this Chris. You can now relax a bit knowing that your dear mum is getting all the help she needs.
Love to you and the family