Last year after my father passed away, my mother started to decline in her daily functions. I wish I would have gotten help right then, but I thought I could handle it all. We were out one day and she had fallen. That fall lead to finding out about many more health issues that my mother had. She had been hospitalized for quite some time since they had to perform an unexpected back surgery. Eventually mom was transferred to a rehab in Orland. She made great progress after many weeks working with the therapists there. We were ecstatic when they informed us she could go home. There was one stipulation, she had to have a caregiver. I have dealt with many caregiving situations with other relatives and wasn't thrilled about having to deal with it again. The rehab gave me Home Instead Senior Care's phone number and assured me they could help. They met with mom and me at the facility to discuss our situation. In no time at all they had a caregiver lined up and ready to help get mom back home and situated. Thankfully I was told mom would only need a caregiver for a week and she would be back on her feet. Mom and Sharon (the caregiver) hit it off and I was at ease knowing mom was in good hands. That week turned into 2 weeks because I felt another week could do mom some good. When the end of the second week was nearing an end, we chose to add a 3rd week because mom had really connected with Sharon and was almost back to 100%. I could go on and on, but needless to say, Sharon has been with my mom for 6 months now. She has brought such joy to my mother's life and I can rest at night knowing that my mom has Sharon coming throughout the week. Home Instead has been great in moving the schedule around to meet our needs and it wasn't an issue to reduce hours and keep Sharon when mom was back on her feet. I honestly could not handle being a caregiver and a daughter. I am so glad that Home Instead let's me just be a daughter.
more