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Thanks, I'm going to check that out. Sure beats going out for blood draw in miserable weather.
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Also see if your town/city has a visiting or public nurse. My mom's town has a nurse who comes and checks her blood in her independent living facility for $7. It's worth every penny! My mom loves her. The nurse also checks her blood pressure, pulse, 02 rate, and INR. She faxes the INR reading to mom's doctor, who later calls me with changes and how long to wait to check it again. My mom's been on Warfarin for 20+ years and this works great.
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Hi all, haven't been here in a while, busy busy busy! Things are going pretty well so far, Mom's home and comfortable. We have a home aide coming in three days a week, she only stays for a few hours but it is a help. Still waiting on the visiting physician, should be here in a few days or so they tell me. Had a few insurance snafus, so spending too much time on the phone, but all in all things are better than the last time Mom was at home. Her sleep cycle is all screwed up, the Ativan they prescribed her doesn't help at all and actually seems to make things worse so have to speak to the MD about that. Getting her motivated is an issue at times but I've made a little progress so it's not hopeless.

Right now I'm looking into and screening a few home companions/aides who can come by and keep an eye on her while I'm out. After a while I tend to get kind of squirrely being in the house too much LOL. Still though, it beats the heck out of hanging around the hospital or the rehab home.
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Ativan and Risperdal had effects opposite those intended when given to my father during a long rehab for vent weaning.

Glad to hear that things are otherwise going well though, especially with the home aide. You and your mother both deserve a break.
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dmanbro
Glad to hear things are going better for you and your mom. I haven't been here for awhile either (been on vacation - much needed), but glad to be back. Hope the search for companions/aides goes well, and you find someone well-suited for your mom. Take care.
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Hello all, I haven't updated this thread in a while so I figured what better time than the present! Health-wise Mom is doing pretty well. She's confined to bed and doesn't have much leg function (and still resists PT) but there's no pain and blood and vitals are looking good. Mentally she's happier for sure, a little sharper and slowly ditching some of the bad habits she developed over the summer months. Right now the most persistent holdover is her difficulty falling asleep at night. She'll stay asleep once she does go out but she has trouble getting there.

I'm holding up too LOL, it's challenging at times but honestly she's not really all that difficult. For me the most stressful aspect of it all is the endless phone calls, bills, paperwork, applications and etc. Today's big drama was that the visiting nurse's group is discharging her already, so now the task is to line up another service to work with the visiting physician re: blood work and etc. The home health aide has been coming three times a week for an hour and she's been a help (and Mom likes her too) but it's not an insurmountable loss, as it is only for an hour. Other than the HHA the service was as disappointing as the last one IMO. The PT was a poor match for Mom but then again she doesn't really cooperate much. He did offer a few decent tips but otherwise not much else. Otherwise they really didn't do a lot, the nurses were in and out and the social worker mostly just left pamphlets, which I kind of expected anyway.

So right now my goal is to bring someone in a few times a week, which should be financially feasible in a month or so. As nice as the current HHA is, she's only here for one hour three times a week first thing in the morning, which honestly isn't much. Mom can be trusted home alone long enough for me to zip to the bank, the grocery store and etc. but I need someone who can stay for a few hours and keep her busy while I get a break. And it'll be even more important once the weather turns ugly and cabin fever sets in LOL. The oldest granddaughter has been more helpful as of late, although she's really only good for "supervision" and not anything heavy like bathing or changing. So that's where we stand right now, holding up well and trying to keep it that way.
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Man oh man, the bills. As I wrote above, the rehab she was in for all of two weeks dropped a $3000 bill on us and they want payment by the end of this month. The pathologist dropped a $1400 one on us, then today another one arrives demanding $1500 for the "first hour of critical care". Plus we have three ambulance bills ranging from $250 to $600 and a few random hospital bills sprinkled in there too. All I can really do for her is try to work out payment plans but they're all generally not too receptive, or they'll offer insane terms ("send us $1500 now then another $1500 in two weeks") like that helps somehow. Or they'll do like Medicaid and demand all sorts of financial documentation...six months of bank statements, deed to her house, pension and SSI papers, tax returns, utility and medical bills and etc. Who has the time to fool around with that stuff?

The rehab bill is especially galling, as her last stay there was a joke. Because she was "loudly complaining" all night, their solution was to toss her in a room with an even louder patient, as opposed to maybe finding out WHY she was complaining all night. Turned out it was a blood clot in her lung. And not only that but when they discharged her they never told me that she complained ALL NIGHT, literally for ten hours straight at a stretch.
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Aren't her hospital and doctor bills covered by Medicare and by her supplemental insurance ? Or are these the co-pays.?

I think I might try writing the rehab business office that mom's lawyer will be contacting them about the poor quality of care she received.

Please remember that it's mom's money that pays these bills, not yours.

Have you talked to an eldercare attorney yet? Good to hear from you!
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Babalou: Thanks for the reply, hope all is going well! I originally thought the "Medicare clock" reset for her second trip to rehab but apparently not. During her first stay they never left me alone re: money, never mentioned it at all during her second. I'm willing to work with them re: payments but they have to be realistic here.

I'm not even sure what some of those bills are for to be honest. I'm haggling with them right now as I thought she was covered. Again, payments are fine but they have to be realistic, she's on a fixed income and you can't get blood from a stone, as they say. There's a priority list and whatever's left after the necessities is where the bargaining begins.
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I have to tell you, I would not be jumping through hoops to pay medical bills at this point. I'm hoping one of our legal folks jumps in here, but it seems to me that if your mom is in the "spend down to Medicaid" process, the last thing you want to be paying is dubious medical bills.

Medicare is at times notoriously slow at paying, so my SIL, who handles my mom's money generally calls and says " we're waiting for Medicare to catch up". That goes for the hospital and ambulance .

The rehab is trickier. Didn't the rehab fail to realize she had a fractured spine, causing her NOT able to do PT? I would be inclined to play hardball with them. File a complaint with the ombudsman and the joint commission.
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Hello everyone, hope your holiday season is a good one! Things have been going fairly well on my end. it's not without its challenges but all in all everything's been about as well as can be expected. Mom is feeling pretty good, no major or new issues. I haven't made much headway with the bills, although I'm working on it. Just taking it one step at a time. Hope everyone else is well, have a merry Christmas all!
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I'm so happy to hear things have settled into some kind of "normal" for you and your mom. Merry Christmas to you both!!
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Dman, it's so good to hear that things have settled down a bit! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
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dmanbro, it is so good to hear from you again. Have a merry Christmas! They can be particularly precious for us caregiver folks.
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We have good days and bad ones, but all in all no major health woes so that's always best. Mom is still not too interested in any useful PT although lately she's been trying a bit harder to do little things for herself, which is nice. We're both pleased with the visiting physician too.
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Hello all, it's been a while, busy busy busy. Things are going reasonably well with Mom, her overall health is good right now. I think the reality of not being able to walk anymore has set in, her mind is way ahead of what her body can do. She wants to go from 0 to 100 and start using the bathroom, cooking and that stuff but she still refuses my attempts at PT. A few times she's tried to get out of bed on her own and once she actually fell, luckily no injuries but I had to install railings all the way along the bedsides to prevent this. And she doesn't like them at all LOL but I don't have another option.

It gets stressful sometimes (especially during the winter months), right now she doesn't have the funds to pay for any kind of help so it's almost all on me. The grandaughters are still pretty much useless, in fact they haven't been by since Christmas Day. The bills keep coming too, right now I'm (still) going at it re: her last rehab bill which IMO was an outrage esp. considering the lousy care they provided.

Her doctor recommended melatonin to help her sleep and so far it seems to be helping. That's probably one of my biggest concerns, as when she doesn't sleep she gets positively goofy, asking strange questions and generally being confused all day.

Right now I'm navigating with the county re: respite care for a few days or so, as I really could use a break from the routine. It's a grind but I'm holding up pretty well thus far, but man, would a nice long weekend be a blessing right now.
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Good to hear from you and get an update.

I'm glad Melatonin is working for your mother; my understanding is that it's relatively safe, so said my sister who was a nurse. I used to take it occasionally and found there were no aftereffects, which was really nice.

I'd be interested in hearing more about your efforts with the county; I hadn't even thought of contacting ours for respite help, although I can't say that I really need it since I'm not a live-in caregiver. But I wouldn't mind help with some of the chores; the driving all around gets to me.

Whatever happened to that massive bill the rehab center dropped on you like a ton of bricks? Were you able to work out something more reasonable, and on a more reasonable time scale?
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Dman, so glad to see you! Have you applied for Medicaid yet?
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I'm so glad you're hanging in there with your mom. Thanks for the update and good luck on getting some respite.
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