My uncle had a lot of health issues, but he refused to leave his home.
- To accommodate him, we called home health care to get some help.
We had to wait two weeks before they sent a nurse out to do an initial evaluations of his health care needs. As much as we preferred him living with a relative or going to a nursing home, he refused. He watched his mom wither away in a nursing home, and he didn’t want to go that route. He said he couldn’t walk, but he had all his faculties. He was right, and that was why, with home health care, we were certain he could continue living in his home. When the nurse finally came to the house, the first thing she told my mother was that we needed to have the ductwork cleaned. There was a lot of dust in the house, and it could affect his breathing. Uncle always had allergies, and she thought that could be some of his breathing problems. Once the ductwork was cleaned, she also suggested we have the furnace cleaned and checked to see if we could use HEPA air filters instead of regular air filters in the furnace and the air conditioning unit. I told her she sounded more like an HVAC technician than a nurse, and she laughed. She said her husband was an HVAC technician and he had showed her how poorly cared for HVAC systems were just as bad for a person’s health as not getting the right treatment. She always made sure the family checked the HVAC when visiting a patient’s home.
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