Kathie Gagne died 4,704 days ago.

Disappointment
April 10th, 2012 @ 2:15 pm

I talked to Janis Stovall at Grace Manor for quite a while today.

She said that mom continues to try grabbing and scratching at her caregivers, and during meals she keeps throwing her dishes at people. Janis said that mom was, “the worst case [she’d seen] in ten years,” and that she needs to be in a psychiatric hospital.

She told me that Dr. Oh won’t see her any longer; Dr. Oh says she has dementia which is just getting worse, and it’s time to give up on her.
She also told me that Dr. Buck is “away for a month”.

We talked about Medicare and Medicaid and she tried to explain the difference to me. Medicare is a Federal program for people who are 65, or 62 for the disabled, but won’t pay any ALF fees. Medicaid is a State of Florida program for people with no money. Mom is currently on a wait list for a Medicaid waiver, but there is no estimate of how long she might remain on the wait list.

Janis said that it was important to note that Social Security Disability is not the same as Medicare, and we really need to get mom on Medicare.

A Missed Call
April 10th, 2012 @ 1:04 pm

I received a voice mail from Jan, Director of Nursing at Grace Manor Port Orange. Here is what she said:

“Hi, David. This is Jan [unintelligible] the director of nursing at Grace Manor in Port Orange. The office number here is (386) 310-4995. My cell phone number is [redacted]. Returning your call and right now it’s about five after four here in Florida and I’ll be around here for another hour, hour and a half and [name redacted]’s here, also, so I’d like to try to touch base with you if we could. Thank you. Bye.”

RE: Therapy for Kathleen A. Gagne (Follow-Up)
April 5th, 2012 @ 12:23 pm

I just received the following email from Janis Stovall, the administrator at Grace Manor Port Orange:

Just wanted to let you know that I have Sandy in the office from Americare and I spoke to them about the situation regarding your mom. There will be 3 visits to see mom at no charge and then $135.00 per each addtl visits at private pay. Melanie was told to call you prior and Sandy will follow up on that. Melanie is waiting on orders from Dr. O now.

If you have any further questions, please let know,
Janis

Talking to Melanie
April 4th, 2012 @ 12:20 pm

I was able to get through to Melanie. (She returned my call after I left a message for her in response to the call I missed from her.)

She told me that mom, “needs to be stabilized.” We talked for over an hour and that’s the only note I wrote about the call, which is a little odd. I don’t know if she works for the State of Florida or for Medicaid or whether she was a nurse or an administrator somewhere or what. She gave me her email address as melzubi19@aol.com, and I emailed her twice on April 9, but she never responded.

Update: I found more notes related to Melanie and can now confirm that she is a nurse hired by Grace Manor Port Orange to see residents there.

Melanie
April 4th, 2012 @ 10:30 am

A woman named Melanie called me from (386) 316-0964 but I wasn’t able to answer the call. She left me a voice mail with no information.

Therapy for Kathleen A. Gagne (Follow-Up)
April 3rd, 2012 @ 9:20 am

I sent the following email to my sister and Janis Stovall at Grace Manor Port Orange:

Dear Janis and [name redacted],

This morning I received a phone call from Sandy and Judy with Americare. (They seemed to be calling from somewhere in Volusia County.)

Sandy informed me that they received an order from Dr. Buck requesting authorization to have a nurse therapist visit mom, which I granted immediately. Sandy then had me confirm this with Judy, who told me that a nurse named Melanie would be visiting mom (at least) three times, at a rate of $135/visit. Judy told me that Melanie would call me prior to visiting mom 1 so I could give her some information and history about her.

Judy said that — because mom has no insurance and is not receiving Medicare or Medicaid — they need payment in advance. I told them that my sister [name redacted] would call them and provide them with mom’s debit card number to charge. [name redacted], please call (386) 290-2194 and ask for Judy as soon as possible to get this ball rolling.

Thanks,

David Vincent Gagne

1 Of course Melanie did not call me prior to visiting mom, which led to a bunch of problems.

Therapy for Kathleen A. Gagne
April 2nd, 2012 @ 4:15 pm

I just sent this email to Janis Stovall at Grace Manor:

Hey Janis,

I was wondering if any progress had been made on finding my mom a psychologist so we can get her on a regular schedule of therapy. Please do keep me updated, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help with this.

David Vincent Gagne

Elder Care Lawyer
March 28th, 2012 @ 9:33 am

Janis Stovall from Grace Manor sent me the following email:

Attorney Scott Selis. 386 445 6702. Chiumento. Selis Dwyer. Law firm. Hope this helps.

Six minutes later I replied with:

Thanks, Janis.

Five minutes after that she replied to me with:

I am at a luncheon with him. His wife is kimberly so u could ask for her and she will get the message to Scott.

Regards.

Mom’s Finances
March 27th, 2012 @ 11:27 am

I sent this email to my sister:

Hey [name redacted],

I just got off the phone with the State of Florida pension fund place.

It appears that what happened is that they canceled the transfer because they thought I was a jerk. They also locked mom’s account. So now I definitely have to get Power of Attorney.

Janis is going to send me the name of her friend that’s an elder care lawyer in Daytona and I am going to see how much he charges. I’m also going to call one of the lawyer’s that [name redacted]’s dad recommended to me to see how much he charges.

Janis said she understands and she isn’t mad or anything; they’re not going to kick mom out or anything like that for not paying yet.

She also said that you were crying yesterday because mom was being very mean to you. I’m very sorry to hear that. I’m sorry.

David Vincent Gagne

A Scary Phone Call
March 27th, 2012 @ 9:00 am

I received a call from Janis Stovall at Grace Manor. She said that mom had been swearing and saying she hated her and my sister all morning. Janis told me that mom collapsed to the floor crying at one point, and when they tried to help her she yelled, “Get your f***ing hands off me!”

So that was disturbing.

We talked for a little bit about mom’s finances, and she told me that I needed to reference “Apartment 214” as her account number if I wanted to send them any money so mom could get a haircut or a manicure or anything like that. It was a little strange to be discussing something mundane like that while there are obviously dramatic psychological problems that need to be addressed.

Everything is frustrating and scary these days.

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