Carol’s Story: Learn From Someone Who Has Experienced It
Carol Shockley founded Ask-Carol! following years of caring for her own Mom (and her Mom’s boyfriend) and making many mistakes, mistakes that she doesn’t want others to repeat.
HERE’S CAROL’S STORY, IN HER WORDS.
You are probably going through many of the same things and may see yourself. Several years ago my Mom, Grace, fell and broke her hip, just six days after my son got married. After several days, the hospital sent her to a nearby rehabilitation center that it owned. Immediately, I knew it was the wrong place for her. So, I did my own search and soon moved her to a very fine local nursing home for recuperation.
I then began to realize the problems that I was facing.
Maybe you didn’t know that Medicare has a limitation on how long it pays for nursing home care. I didn’t. So when the nursing home told me that Ma had only ten days to go on Medicare I panicked, because I didn’t know what to do.
Ma really wanted to go home, so first I tried taking care of her myself, and then I tried home-care. I knew within a couple of weeks that I had made two more mistakes.
For some time, my husband, Bill, had said we needed Assisted Living for Ma. I should have listened to him sooner. So finally, I started looking for an Assisted Living Facility in the area. Bill did online searches. We knew very little about how to make a selection, so it was a learning experience, and we learned the hard way.
After some phone calls and visits, I selected a Facility and moved Ma there. At first it was fine, but I soon learned that she needed more care. They never told me they didn’t have a nurse on duty 24/7. And they didn’t tell me that Ma was eligible for a VA pension. That cost me thousands of dollars.
Even at her advanced age, I knew I had to relocate her, so this time we spent more time visiting other Facilities. Finally, we found the right place and moved her – along with her boyfriend. I even got Medicaid for him.
It was the right decision. She and her boyfriend loved it, and a huge amount of stress was lifted from my shoulders, and Ma’s, too.
You can go through what I did (or worse), or you can let me help you, just as I have many others. Over one thousand families have contacted me.
There is no cost to you for my help, and my team of Certified Senior Advisors and I will share all our experiences in dealing with Medicare, Medicaid, the nursing homes, and the Assisted Living Facilities. If we can’t help, we’ll point you in the right direction.
You don’t have to go through what I did.
