Cunningham-Ramos AML & Stroke after TBI Journey

After having Kim with me here at my home ( where my brother lives) since we arrived, helped by a full time nurse and a part-time one on the weekends, it still became very clear to me that I could not really go back to the States to take care of all the things I left undone unless I placed him in a facility. 

Fortunately, with the help of my youngest sister, I had researched the best facilities in the city and decided on one I had known for years with a terrific reputation. My dear friend Ampi, with whom I was very close while I lived in Rochester, has two sisters here who set up a care center to take care of their mother who died over a period of 20 years of Alzheimer’s. These two sisters have created quite a geriatric place – their philosophy is that, after caring for the basic needs of their patients (they only have 20), love, companionship, engagement, compassion, etc., are the things that are important to these patients. They never advertise, patients don’t leave (die at their place), and they are always full. 

So I visited their facility, loved it and then decided to take him there last Thursday. It is bitter sweet though. I miss him terribly but I see no other choice.🥲 He has been doing well, thinks he’s in a hotel ( which I’m happy about because he always enjoyed being at hotels and eating good food), and says he likes how he is treated there. Still, every day I go there, he wants me to take him home, something he has been doing for years anyway, even when we were in our own home.

I return to the States next weekend and will be very busy taking care of all the things I left undone while I was preparing for over two months to bring Kim to Colombia. I need to prepare to leave the US for a long period of time so I can be here near Kim. This entails having to make many decisions.

I hope everyone is looking forward to a nice spring. Global warming can be felt so clearly here where we’ve had 2+ weeks of extreme heat! I’m looking forward to a ‘cool respite’ and hope to see some of you.