Reviewer RC#0104a
I am a friend or relative of a current/past resident Review of Truewood by Merrill, Port Charlotte I had my husband at Royal Palm. The people were very nice and very helpful. It was a beautiful place. I gave them a list of what he could not eat 'cause he's diabetic, and he's not on a typical diabetic diet, and they didn't stick to it. They just gave him diabetic diet things like orange juice. He can't eat white potatoes but he got those and coconut cream pie. He eats whatever he can get hold of, so any sweets I have at home I hide them. They did not follow all of his diet. Then his recliner chair didn't work. I sat in it when they first got there and I couldn't get it to go back down. I told them they never did replace it or fix it, and he's got horrible back pains. When I got him home he was in a lot worse pain than when I sent him. When I talked to people they all said that "All assisted living is the same way, that you're not gonna find anything different." They'd take them and they have their rules or they have their things. And another thing, he can't have milk. It gives him a horrible diarrhea, and I wrote on there, "No milk. He can have it if it's cooked into something." But they gave him milk. I wrote, "No milk. If milk is needed I have almond milk you can give him." They said, "Oh, we have almond milk." But they gave him milk.
I am his 24 hour a day caregiver. I'm very, very uptight about anything that isn't done right for him. I fire doctors if they don't do what's right. I'm very picky about what happens to him. He's eighty seven, a purple heart grand war veteran, and he is in a lot of pain all the time. He was in the assisted living. Parts of my experience were really great. The people were very helpful, very nice, but they didn't follow up. I sat down and wrote out everything that he needed. I didn't just drop him off and say goodbye.
They had activities too, but he was in isolation for a week. That's why he wanted to stay for a little bit. They have games there too. The facility was beautiful, clean, and his room was great. They brought a TV in, 'cause he was in isolation. It had a microwave and a little refrigerator. It was great. When I told him he was gonna have to go to an assisted living for a few days, 'cause I had to have a heart test, he was very unhappy. Then after we saw that place, he said "I wanna stay there for longer." It was great. They had all kinds of activities for him, the people were all nice. They would have just stuck with his diet and gave him more assistance in his room. He wouldn't ask for assistance. He's an old tough marine, you don't ask a nurse to help change his diapers. When I pulled him out I wanted to tell them what I thought of them, and he said, "Don't get involved in that." I said, "It's not for me, it's for other people." They were all great. They just didn't follow his diet. I had to pay for a full month even though he wasn't there a month.