It was a couple weeks before Christmas, and Yolanda Hummel, 89, was planning to make a dent in her holiday shopping. She drove to her favorite shopping center for a day of gift buying and had just gotten a cart when her foot caught in a wheel, and she lost her balance and fell.
That twist of fate caused a hairline fracture in Hummel’s hip. She was diagnosed at a local hospital where she spent the night and then moved the next day to Bridgeway Care & Rehabilitation at Bridgewater to begin rehabilitation and her journey back to doing all that she loves.
Rehab: Doing the Hard Work
Rehab turned out to be the perfect prescription to help Hummel get on the road to recovery. “The therapists encouraged me to put in the hard work, and I did,” she says. “I didn’t want to be a burden to my family and especially at Christmas.”
While Hummel benefited from physical and occupational therapies, the Bridgeway staff made it easy for her to move through their Continuum of Care to get just the right level of personalized care as she continued to improve and grow stronger.
Assisted Living: Gaining Confidence
“I was so glad I picked Bridgeway,” Hummel says. “They helped me gain the confidence I needed to get back to living my life. At first, I was a little afraid on the stairs, but staying at the assisted living community gave me a taste of independence before I went home.”
It didn’t hurt that Hummel got in some pampering, too, during her stay at The Avalon at Bridgewater Assisted Living Residence. “I had my hair done, looked forward to someone else cooking for me and enjoyed sitting on the porch,” she says.
Care at Home: Staying Safe and Capable
Hummel, a self-described “fast walker,” who enjoys lunches with friends, and of course shopping, is back to living independently in her own home.
“The therapists who came to my home showed me how to stay safe,” she says. “They gave me some tips about making my lighting a little brighter and moving my washer and dryer upstairs from the basement.” Bridgeway Care at Home therapists routinely include a home assessment as part of their therapy plan.
A month after her fall, Hummel was able to confidently return to her home in Mountainside and back to her usual energetic routine—and that was the best Christmas gift of all.
To learn more about the Bridgeway Senior Healthcare Continuum of Care, visit BSHcare.com.
