ISN'T THAT JUST WHAT I SAID?!

My brother is still in a nursing home.

Like he has been for the last nine months.

And he's decided he is tired of it, and wants to move out.

Like TODAY.

And he thought that if he can get himself up into the wheelchair, and then into my truck, then I can drive him cheerfully and happy and drop him off at his new home with his niece and nephew (i.e. my daughter and son) for a carefree rest of his existence.

I can appreciate how weary he must be of the facility.

But this is the same man who refused any type of inpatient involvement for months.

This is the same man who used to curse out the staff when they couldn't get to his needs immediately.

And most importantly, this is a man who needs probably about an additional six months of physical and occupational therapy before he is in any manner ready to face the outside world.

So he asks me, this morning, what he needs to do to get out the nursing facility, "for real."

And I told him:


- Begin to participate fully in all physical and occupational therapy.

- Get out of bed, into his wheelchair, and get involved in activities.



- Show a willingness to jump through the hoops at the facility.

- And then get discharged.


He didn't want to hear ANY of this from me.

And he TOLD me this, in no uncertain terms (and a few terms that I would not repeat in polite company).

I suggested that he ask a staff person, then, and see what they said.

He called a nurse in, and guess what she told him?

Exactly what I had said.

And I mean, EXACTLY.

She also added one thing I hadn't been quite brave enough to mention:

Have a better attitude.

We'll have to see if that is possible.