Desert Knolls is real home for the elderly

A typical invigorating day for Dave (not his real name) at the Desert Knolls, a physical therapist, is treating eight to nine patients a day. He was, at the time this interview was made, helping an old male patient, who seemed to have wound in his stomach and who just had an operation, push his wheelchair at the lobby.

The railings all over the place are intended to protect patients from falling when walking to and coming from their rooms. Indeed, it is a patient-friendly convalescence center, recovery clinic, home-for-the-aged since you only see old folks around, or name it-- this is one of the best and cleanest nursing homes I‘ve seen with a ratio of almost one bed or person-is-to-one-nurse. There are 126 beds and a whole staff of 115.

These facilities in the United States are built to help families cope with their daily lives such that if they have jobs to attend to they may put their parents here yet visiting (the more frequent maybe the better) are encouraged. Should one be not too busy to fetch them from the center and finally nurse them home, great.

There are a lot of activities like Sunday service, coffee and pastry, bingo, sittercise or exercising from the seat because most patients are on wheelchairs, art and craft, movie, piano, board game, birthday party, and more. The activity centers are neat and clean. You will love the pastel ambience. It suits well nursing one to recovery. Visiting is usually at 1:30 p.m.

The story of Desert Knolls is a story of love having read its history. The founders, Kenneth and Marie Bechtold were moved by their dream of caring for the elderly in 1951 so off, the couple made a settlement at the Mojave Desert, California. Marie was a registered nurse. You can imagine how it expanded to 126 beds beginning from three patients. The family provided medical as well as personal care like preparing the patients’ meals, washing their laundry, and cleaning their rooms.

One of their four children, all males, Freddie Bechtold now administers the center/hospital located at the Apple Valley in Victor Valley, San Bernardino, California.

Government and private insurances provide for the bills.

Chow down Chinese

One of the first settlers at the Victorville, San Bernardino, California in the US of A are Chinese many of whom did household chores and because of diligence are now successful entrepreneurs especially in the dining business, so if you come from the East and is missing Oriental cuisines, looking for such is not a problem. (The Chinese, and their foods, actually, are all over the US.)

The Sushi (the word originally being Japanese which means rice roll with raw fish and vegetables) House of Joy offers authentic Chinese foods.

Start with something to nibble on-- an appetizer that is some crispy chips that you dip in a sauce. Then here comes the sizzling rice soup, a concoction of veggies like cabbage, carrots, and cubed chicken. This serves like appetizer, too. Whew! Shake off the cold from all over your body. What perfect way to start the meal proper. They have egg foo young (dunno what this means) but this is actually chicken with cabbage, carrots, shiitake mushroom, and there seems to be like tofu, all mixed in brown sauce. The beef with sesame leaves complements the egg foo young and the fried rice Chinese version with green peas aplenty, eggs, chicken, and onion. Here goes the fortune cookies; this makes a Chinese dining treat complete.

There were the four of us with my friends and we even had take-home from our abundant left-overs. Couples and families had been enjoying their plates as well.

Reasonable price? Very very.

The St. Mary Medical Center at Victorville, California

I took a friend to a hospital due cardio-vascular attack and I had the chance to see what a hospital looked like in the United States.

I am talking about St. Mary Medical Center at Victorville Valley in San Bernardino, south of California.

To give you a little background of this place-- Victorville is the city, and San Bernardino is the county-- San Bernardino's earliest known "inhabitants were Serrano Indians (Spanish for "people of the mountains") who spent their winters in the valley, and their summers in the cooler mountains." (http://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/History_of_San_Bernardino,_California)-- you can more or less imagine how the place looks like-- valleys and mountains--- big ranches for cattle raising. It is one among United States' fastest growing cities in California.

Current trends will show hospitals especially at the entrance like real hotel lobbies. St.Mary's is just like that.

Oooops, my attention was caught by the signage in front of the hospital -- it says Safe Surrender Site-- it is for babies who are abandoned by their mommies. Instead of throwing them somewhere, ... might as well deposit the baby here--- this is what the hospital is saying.

The rooms may not be spacious, but they are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like hospital beds that the patients themselves can manipulate at a finger touch or with the use of an easy-to-handle remote control, blood pressure monitors, heart respiration monitors, pulse rates' -- body temperature--- all these are attached to computer monitors at the nurses' stations.

Facilities at the bathrooms are motion-activated from the sink, the soap dispenser, to the toilet.

A cable television in front and the view outside of a hospital room is almost a relief to any sick person. Most of all, patients are well attended to by the doctors, nurses, nurse assists-- should there be need for dieticians or physical therapists, or even the service of a priest or a lay minister-- they are provided.


St. Mary is a Catholic hospital.

Wow!

Used cloths turned into what-looked-like paintings, colored magazines into adorable necklaces, and bamboos into frames to make accents for plants-- can actually produce beautiful products.,

I stopped over at WOW Women of Cavite’s corner at Robinson’s Mall along Dasmarinas, Cavite, Philippines, and I could not help saying wow!

The chopped mahogany wood pieces turned into garden seats and tables were a showcase of functional art.

The rice cake or what we call here in the Philippines suman-- suman is elongated in shape-- but this time the group used chocolate with sticky rice or was it corn flour?-- but I am sure that was melted in rich coconut milk, complemented the Gano coffee that I had. Gano is seven healthful ingredients in one coffee product.

If at all the lady who stood by was proud of these products, it was because Vida Ferrer, the head of the group, said that they had been in the place for six years.

WOW is in one corner of the mall beside the satellite offices of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the municipality of Dasmarinas. Government offices are now re-inventing itself by making their presence felt in malls. Wonder if the rent of the rate is worth the try.

WOW calls the women in Dasmarinas to join the group and be taught creative skills to make them enterprising and self-sufficient.