I called Woodland Terrace because I was told that Dr. Peele makes his rounds on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I wanted to (a) get an update on mom’s status and (b) confirm which medications she’s currently being prescribed.

Rachel answered the phone and was quite polite when I requested to speak to the nurse assigned to mom. She said, “I’ll page overhead,” and a few seconds later Nurse Crystal answered. I told her who I was and asked her if she was the nurse assigned to mom, and she said she was. I said I was calling because I wanted to know if Dr. Peele had seen my mother today and to find out what he said.

Nurse Crystal said that Dr. Peele had seen my mom today, but that he had only just recently left the building and she had not yet had time to review mom’s chart to see if he had made any notations or changes. I asked her if I could call back and she said I could, so I asked when would be good to do that. She said, “about an hour,” so I said, “Okay, I’ll call back in about an hour.”

Update: I called one hour and seven minutes later — at exactly 12:15 PM PDT and asked to speak to Nurse Crystal in the West wing. The receptionist transferred me to the West wing and a nurse answered the phone. I asked to speak to Crystal and she told me that Crystal had just left for the day, as she leaves as soon as her shift is over at 3:15 PM. I said that I had just talked to Nurse Crystal an hour earlier and she had asked me to call in an hour, and the woman said something like, “Oh, wait. She’s still here. Hold on.”

Then a few moments later she returned and said, “I’m sorry, but she’s gone.”

I said, “Okay, well can I talk to Nurse Dawn or Nurse Cheryl?”

The woman replied, “This is Dawn.”

I said that I was David and my mother was Kathie; I’ve talked to Dawn several times already. I explained that I had called to get a status update on my mother, and that Crystal had told me she hadn’t had time to look at Dr. Peele’s notes yet and had asked me to call back in an hour.

Dawn told me that she had just started her shift and hadn’t had time yet to look at any charts, and asked if I could call back. I said, “Yes, sure. Should I call in an hour? Two hours? You tell me, please.”

Dawn suggested I call after 6:00 PM EDT and I said, “Okay. I’ll call you back after six o’clock your time. Thank you, Dawn.”