Carrara

Rachel

My sister went to Carrara nursing home from the hospital. They're trying to get her on Medicaid and once they get on Medicaid, they're going to try to transfer her to assisted living. It's difficult to judge it, because a lot of these places are just starting over with the pandemic so they haven't got up to full force, but Carrara doesn't have that much activity. They have bingo and they're trying to get started with taking the residents out to the grocery store and that kind of stuff, even though they don't have kitchens. The facility provides the food and stuff but they have a refrigerator if they want to get some of that kind of stuff. Hearing my sister, I think the menu is not that great because many times she'll get a piece of meat and a piece of pie, and that's her dinner. She didn't get any vegetables or anything. I was in nutrition and I know how to plan menus for many years. They claim that it's because she doesn't mark the food off and I said, "Well, in my opinion, you have to make sure that she gets some vegetables". I don't know what the food tastes like. I have never seen it because she doesn't get meals when I'm there. I'm only there once a week and I usually go in between meals like in the afternoon. My sister judges the food and she tells me what they've eaten. She doesn't complain that it tastes bad. It's just not what she expects. The staff has been taking good care of her. The lady that was in the room with her had some kind of an infection so they moved her out to another room because they didn't want my sister to get it. The communication is not as good as it could be, but they're starting to do Zoom meetings once a month. I don't get involved in them because I can't do Zoom very well on my own. I can't do it on my phone and I have a hard time doing it on the computer, so I have to get my brother to set that up. I guess they're trying to do more things now that the pandemic is hopefully on the way out. At least they don't have any more patients there. When my sister went there first from the hospital, she went into this section where they have to watch her for 15 days or something like that, and then she got moved to a different room. They're very cautious about the masks and everything when you're coming in and you have to sign in. I think, on the whole, they're aware of what's going on. It's just that there are some things they're not capable of doing but they're starting to pick up again. When I see the board that gives you the activities and stuff like that, they used to have a lot more activities and they said they're going to start picking up. They've got the bingo going now, and they're letting them go into the dining room to eat now, instead of in their rooms. My sister complains that she's not getting enough therapy because she wants to get up and walk with at least a walker, but they said that she's not ready for that yet. I guess it's all for her own good. She can't walk and this is something new to her since she went into the hospital. She was always out walking with a walker but they said the pandemic made her joints weaker, so they have to build it back up but she's not ready to go on a walker yet. They are locked in, which is for security, but they do have patios they can go out to and they have lounges that she can come out to sit in so she doesn't always have to sit in her room. Her room is acceptable but it's not the cleanest. I think that should be cleaned up. My sister has tremors along with not being able to walk so sometimes she spills her food when she's in the room eating. They only have the residents going to the dining room for lunchtime only. The rest of the meals are taken to their rooms.