What a lovely tribute! I understand how you feel. A tree would be lovely, if the nursing home wants it. What about a bench? That's awfully useful. You might sit down with the administrator or the social worker and ask what they could use, and see what fits into your budget. But if you really want to give back to the nursing home, think about becoming a Friendly Visitor or a volunteer at the nursing home. Your uncle had you to come visit, but many people have no one, or at least no one who comes to visit very often. You might also find a Senior Center near you that would like a volunteer to help with activities. After my mother died at age 95 a year ago, I signed up at our local Alliance on Aging to be a peer counselor, and I visit someone every week, and have been trained to listen and to offer what help I can to seniors dealing with depression or loneliness and other issues. There are so many other people who need your care, and I think your Uncle would like to know that you continue his legacy and treat others With Tender Loving Care. Hugs to you and your family on the loss of your beloved Uncle. There is obviously a lot of love in your family!

I found that site VERY useful when hubby broke his hip three years ago... The list of facilities the hospital provided were all in places I wouldn't go in broad daylight, with an armed guard, and after checking that site I found out they were all below standard... I was lucky enough, with the help of that site, to find one that was within 10 miles of home, ranked high in quality, had a higher ratio of help to patients and offered twice as much rehab time and the best part was, at the time, our insurance covered everything... If you're considering a nursing home, rehab center or assisted living I urge you to check it out... Rita P. S. Ratings change so don't go by the ratings today and expect them to be the same 3 years from now.

The label says it has 512 MB of memory. I'm not sure which memory this is referring to, but if it is the RAM on the motherboard, it could use an upgrade. Windows XP likes to have 2 Gigabyte (2 GB) or more. You are using a wireless router on a DSL sevice. Make sure that your wireless router is secured so that someone else within range can't horn in and ride piggyback on your connection for free. The more computers using the connection, the slower it gets for any one computer. The next potential bottle neck is the DSL service. If this is over a phone line, it may not be a large jump in speed over a standard dial-up service. A good connection does have marked improvement in speed, but a troublesome connection looses much speed advantge. Consider taking the computer to a shop or friend and try on their lines. Another problem, if over a phone line, is a noisy line. Thw phone company can test your phone line for quality. Make sure that you tell the technicam that this line will be used for internet service. If over a phone line, another bottleneck can be the phone company. It may not have installed equipemnt capable of high speed data transfer. If you have a friend who has a high speed cable connection with a wireless router, you may want to try your computer on his connection. Have the computer checked out at a computer shop to discover if it is the computer or the DSL service to your house.

Having worked in a long-term care facility for several years, I must toss out my impression of lawyers who specialize in nursing home 'problems'. Please read on. Each facility has a medical director as mandated by law. There are some who are in the building regularly and know most of the residents; and then there are those who come in regularly and know only their residents. The second way is the usual way. If a doctor has a decent practice, then that MD doesn't have the time to spend in the facility poking around at charts and stuff. Where I worked, there were three nurse practitioners in the facility 5 days a week and those health care providers did all the quality day-to-day things, including the tapering of psych drugs (also mandated by the federal government and it is tracked by the nursing office and the consulting pharmacist in every Medicare certified facility). In the nursing home where I worked, there were about 200 long-term and short-term (rehab only) people. There was 9 physicians who were following those patients. Most of those 9 came in, but 2 would not come to the facility because of their busy office practice; their patients had to get to the doctor's office. Each doctor (or NP or PA - in states where they are allowed to write prescriptions) are responsible for only their patients and cannot address day-to-day issues for other people. For folks who are in a long-term-care facility and they are Medicare, then the government mandates that they be seen by a physician every 60 days. That's the law. Folks who are recent admissions or are there after a hospital stay will generally be seen more often. That is also the case with government mandated Care Plan Meetings. Those take place every quarter. Any nursing home has nurses who are there all the time, just like the nursing assistants (who do most of the grunt work) are there all the time. If they were not there, then they would have never been certified by the Public Health Department of the state. Those attorneys who claim that they are specializing in Nursing Home problems (med errors, falls, inappropriate diets, pressure ulcers, etc.) and what they represent are the equivalent of ambulance chasers. They are seeking clients who are upset with the perceived care that their loved one gets. If you really want to find out about what happens, then talk to the family members of someone who lives in the nursing home. Talk to some of the employees of the nursing home. If they have legitimate complaints, you will hear them. And remember that a nursing home is not the same as assisted living. If you aren't aware, then find out. There are not 'retirement homes' for elders. They are there because they multiple chronic medical conditions whose needs cannot be met any other place. One is in a nursing home because that is the most appropriate place for the person to be. Jim