Complicated

    So Dad was set to go home today, but wasn't feeling at his best. So the nurse suggested that he might want to go into rehab briefly at a nursing home. He was trying to call Margaret to find out what she thought but kept getting busy signals. Meanwhile, I talked to the nurse in the corridor and we agreed that he didn't need rehab. She was going to do his discharge paperwork and meanwhile I went home to eat lunch, since paperwork takes a while.
    On the way home, I get a call from Margaret, who says that she had heard from Dad and they agreed that rehab would be a good idea, since she's going to the doctor Thursday and may have to go in the hospital for a week. Now I knew she was going to the doctor Thursday, but this is the first I'm hearing about a possible hospital stay.
    When I get home, I call the hospital and amazingly am able to talk to the people I had just talked to. I explained the situation, which they grasped better than I did. Essentially, it's easy to get into a nursing home straight from a hospital stay of three days or more; it's vastly more difficult otherwise. So if we took Dad home and then he needed a nursing home starting Thursday, it would have been next to impossible to get him in, particularly for a short stay.
    Thus, Dad has to wait a couple more days in the hospital while he has another TB test (required for nursing homes) and waits on the paperwork. However, he got his first choice, the Lowman Home near where Margaret's daughters live, so she'll be able to visit easily when she can visit. So due to a series of miracles, we got the best result we could. Hard on Dad that he has to be in the hospital another couple of days, and probably in Assisted Living (which everybody hates) for a few weeks, but it was the best result possible. And to be honest, he could use the rehab. So a conditional yaaay!