12/8 - Searching for a nursing home

I now know what the most depressing thing is EVER... searching for a nursing home. Dad has finally transferred out of the ICU and into a regular hospital room. Tomorrow he will have a procedure done where they put a feeding tube into his stomach, either temporarily or permanent... depending on how he does with his throat therapy. He currently can't swallow and does not have gag reflexes. His speech is just whispering and not everyone can understand him but I can. His memory is really good and doesn't seem like it was affected by the stroke.

So, today I went to check out about 10 nursing homes in Long Beach. I hope to God that dad does not have to stay in this type of home for long... they are so depressing. The Courtyard Care Center www.courtyardcarecenter.com was the winner for me. They only have about 59 beds (which is low... usually they have around 100) and they have a single room available (which is amazing because all the other ones were 2-3 beds per room). The nursing home was very clean, staff was friendly, they have a large beautiful courtyard in the back (hence the name of the facility) and most importantly I was impressed by their Director of Rehab. She was very knowledgeable.

The hospital should be releasing him any day now. Although he seems to be doing better, the tests are not showing any improvment with his phnamonia, lung infection, bladder infection and still no movement on his left parazied side.