I cannot reply to recent comments and don't know why. Later I will figure that out.
Thursday night, we decided to go to Cullman last night. We did, went to PO and Chicken Salad Chick. I always ask Tommy if he wants a can of popcorn. He says No. Today, I said I would buy him popcorn for Christmas if he wanted it. He said Yes, make the flavor a surprise. I bought the can of popcorn with Santa. I bought chewing gum because I wanted some...lol. I bought two other things that I don't remember.
When we came home about 4:30, I told Tommy I might be asleep when he got into the house. I went straight to be and heard nothing. I awoke at 8:30.
Oh, yeah, I bought a red sweater and a red jacket.
Thursday afternoon, a physical therapist called for an appointment on Friday. I told her I had plans, but if we got back in time, she could come. Well, she did not get to come. She said she would call next week. I questioned why did not make appointments the week before instead of waiting until my date book was full because if I had appointments, I would be busy. She said okay and said a time hurriedly.
When a nurse was here, I commented out of frustration that I needed to be able to wash my hair and cook. She jumped on that. Well, making my back hurt less is the solution, so wonder what kind of treatment I will get. ??? There was talk of exercise...lol.
Cleaner cannot come because we want to go to the Christmas Parade.
I am too tired to think.
If you want these home visits to continue, I strongly urge you to prioritize your schedule for them. If it’s anything like here, they work as a team: Nurse, PT, Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist, but you may only need some of the services. The entire team meets weekly to discuss the care of the patients assigned to their team. If you make scheduling difficult, miss, or constantly cancel appointments, they will drop you as a patient. If you don’t follow orders and do the exercises provided, they will drop you as a patient. PT tends to have the heaviest patient load on the team, so she is trying to fit you as a new patient, into her already booked schedule, hence the short notice.
ReplyDeleteI guaranteed you that these caregivers share ALL information about their patients at their team meetings. They have to, in order to provide you with the best care. They will try to devise a plan that works for you, including assigning exercises that, while you may not specifically enjoy, you won’t despise so much that you won’t do them. You are fortunate to have these visits, so again, take advantage of them, but take it seriously.
Meg,
DeleteI urge you not to talk to me like that. They cannot get away with waiting until the last minute to schedule me. If I have a doctor appointment, I will not cancel to prove I am taking it seriously! I also tell them what each other are doing or saying as a matter of conversation when they ask questions. You always come off like I am to blame.
They should be using the same system as your other caregivers in the network, so should have all your medical appointments in their system. And I am merely trying to warn you since I know how the system works. If they think for a minute you are uncooperative, they will drop you, and it doesn’t take much for them to put you on notice. I am speaking as someone whose husband had six months of rigorous, in home speech, OT and PT, 4 days/week, and we never missed an appointment. One day, PT was due to come at 2p.m. We had an appointment at the bank, and got home at 1:45. Apparently the physical therapist showed up at 1:40, knocked, then left. I was pretty certain I saw her car pass us on the county road as we turned to our lane. She called at 3:30 with the warning, while DH was at the dining room table with OT. (My favorite team member.)I had already informed OT what had happened, and told the PT on the phone that we didn’t miss, she was early. PT admitted she was running early, but didn’t see any medical appointments on DH’s chart, and knew OT was coming later in the day, so she was confused about us not being there. When I told her it was a banking appointment, she allowed as to how that would explain why. OT told me she would put a note on DH’s chart and make sure to remind the PT at the next staff meeting that protocol was to wait ten minutes past scheduled appointment after knocking. She would also make sure the PT didn’t flag him because after two flags, the system drops you. Also, not sure of your situation, but in our case, if DH was going out and about for things other than medical appointments, regular religious services, and things like haircuts and business which needed to be conducted in person, they would stop coming, because if he could go gallivanting about town, then he clearly didn’t need home health visits.
DeleteToo bad your system is so screwed up.
DeleteNo, it’s Medicare, not our system, Those home health care providers, though most were amazing, are overworked, underpaid, and at the mercy of the insurance companies, in this case, DH’s Medicare and supplemental plan, which is the “Cadillac” of plans. And, I daresay “we ain’t seen nothing yet” so hold on to your socks.
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