Kathie Gagne died 4,642 days ago.

A Long Call
January 11th, 2012 @ 9:45 am

Sophia Mas called me from Stewart-Marchman ACT and, according to AT&T, we talked for about thirty-six minutes.

Here are my notes from the call:

0945
Sophia Mas called in response to an email I sent.
called to explain why she sent me two resources with no context or explanation

  1. # for prescription assistance, help people pay for Rx
  2. Halifax, provides medical care for low-income individuals, and has its own pharmacy

Rodney got on the phone; he was making excuses for Maria (in response to my emailed complaints)
said I wasn’t supposed to be talking to Maria “yet”
said Maria concerned about who is going to pay for Rx & doctor visits
insisting Maria won’t take mom without someone who can pay for Rx and doctors; obviously implying that I should be paying for my mom
I asked about how to start the application process for Medicaid
Rodney said he would email me information about ElderCare in Volusia County (I don’t think he ever did this) 1
said Elder Affairs is a state program and it could take over a month 2
Rodney said he would talk to me by the end of the week
Rodney left the room & now only Sophia
Sophia said I need to find out where mom is on the waiting list for an assisted living Medicaid waiver, said I need to call 386 253 4700 – Council on Aging
said “OSS” is through federal government
Sophia said mom’s meds were increased because she was throwing herself at doors, but they were going to lower them now because she seems to be doing better
Maria (from Lakewood) told Sophia that dogs & cats are okay at Lakewood

1 Update 09/14/2012: I can absolutely state that he never did this.
2 It actually took over nine months.

Re: Kathleen Gagne: Rodney, Meds, Dr. Caliendo
January 10th, 2012 @ 10:00 am

I sent the following email to Sophia Mas at Stewart-Marchman:

Hello Sophia,

(1) Can we please schedule a time and date for the conference call in advance this time? I can be available any time, day or night, any day this week. But it is much, much easier for me if I can plan for it ahead of time in case I need to reschedule an existing meeting.

(2) Why do you suggest those two resources — the Partnership for Prescription Assistance and Halifax Health Patient Assistance — may be helpful? Helpful in what way? I don’t quite understand why you gave me them. Do you want me to call them? If so, why?

(3) I have still not received a return call from Maria at Lakewood Retirement. Her lack of professionalism when I was able to finally get her to answer the phone, combined with the fact that she both (a) failed to ever reply to my original two voice mail messages and (b) failed to call me when she specifically told me she would, do not exactly make me feel confident in her ability to provide long-term care for my mother.

(4) I have also still not heard from Rodney Curtis at all, even though you and Dr. Caliendo both indicated to me that he would be contacting me when he returned from vacation one or two Tuesdays ago.

Thanks in advance,

David Vincent Gagne

Staggered Responses from Sophia
January 9th, 2012 @ 12:51 pm

I received the following email from Sophia Mas at Stewart-Marchman:

David,

The doctor did lower her dosage – your mother seems more alert today & still today the medications were lowered again – I forwarded your message to Rodney – his phone#386-236-1729 – Rodney has been in touch w/Maria & will be returning your call –
Take care,

Sophia

Then about forty minutes later I received the following email from her:

We will definitely have a conference call – this week – the following resources may be helpful:

  • Partnership for Prescription Assistance 888-477-2669 –
  • Halifax Health Patient Assistance 386-254-400
Growing Concern
January 9th, 2012 @ 10:58 am

I just sent the following email to Sophia Mas at Stewart-Marchman (and copied my sister):

Dear Sophia,

Can you please send me the email address for Rodney Curtis, the discharge coordinator there? I have emailed him several times and never received a response; I suspect that he gave me an incorrect address when we spoke several weeks ago.

(Do you know if Rodney uses email regularly? If he doesn’t actually ever use email to communicate then I will not bother trying to contact him that way.)

I understand that your team is under pressure from the administration at Stewart Marchman to have my mother discharged, so I would very much like to know what Rodney’s plans are. I cannot imagine that she could legally be discharged from your facility without demonstrating competence, and we have yet to find a long-term care facility for her. (As I mentioned in an earlier email today, Maria from Lakewood Retirement still has not responded to my repeated attempts to contact her.)

When my sister and I spoke with you on Thursday, you indicated that my mother seemed to be excessively tired and that you were going to discuss that with Dr. Caliendo. Have you done so? Do you know if he has changed her dosages and / or medication?

I have called to talk to her three times in the last three days and have been told each time that she was either asleep or too tired to come to the phone, which is very worrisome. I am very concerned about the levels of medications she is being given. Prior to being admitted to Stewart Marchman she seemed to have intermittent memory issues, but was otherwise okay. Since she has been there, though, she seems to have become significantly more impaired and less animated than I’ve ever known her to be in her life.

Can we please schedule a conference call with Dr. Caliendo?

Thanks in advance,

David Vincent Gagne

No Answer from Lakewood
January 9th, 2012 @ 8:11 am

I sent the following email to Sophia Mas at Stewart-Marchman:

Dear Sophia,

I called this number [386-334-1494] on Friday but there was no answer. There was only a generic voice mail response, so I left a message both times referencing my mother and you, and left her my name and phone number and a request to speak with her.

I received no response from Maria, but I called again this morning (Monday) at 6:00am Pacific time (9:00am Eastern time). Maria answered and told me she was in the middle of taking some of her patients to the doctor and that she would return my call in an hour. That was a little over two hours ago and I have not heard from her. I will wait another hour and then try calling her again.

Thanks,

David Vincent Gagne

Re: Lakewood / [redacted]
January 9th, 2012 @ 7:53 am
 
 
Lakewood Retirement
January 6th, 2012 @ 9:10 am

I sent the following email to Sophia Mas at Stewart-Marchman:

Dear Sophia,

I have called the number for Lakewood Retirement that is on their webpage — (386) 274-1848 — three times now. I called once yesterday afternoon and twice this morning. Every time I call it simply rings and rings and nobody answers and it doesn’t go to an answering service or voice mail or anything.

Do you have an alternate number that I can use to attempt to contact Maria, the woman you said was the administrator there?

Thank you,

David Vincent Gagne

She replied twenty minutes later with the following absurdly verbose message:

386-334-1494

A Long, Long Conference Call
January 5th, 2012 @ 11:20 am

Sophia Mas called from Stewart-Marchman with mom in the room with her on speakerphone, and we conferenced in my sister.

Sophia began the call by saying that it was time for mom to go somewhere else. She said that yesterday she met with a “lady” who was an administrator at Lakewood. Sophia noted that all assisted living centers are “very expensive”.

She said Mom “has stayed here longer than we can help,” and told us that Rodney had reached out to facilities all over Volusia County. Most of the facilities where mom could afford to go are, “in crappy neighborhoods.” Sophia and Rodney are also concerned about how mom is going to be able to pay for her medications.

Sophia told us that Maria was the woman from Lakewood who was “willing” to take mom, but that she needed to know “before the end of the week,” which is pretty short notice since today is Thursday. Apparently room & board at Lakewood runs $3200.00/mo, but they are willing to work with mom via the Council of Aging and Elder Affairs to make it work.

Sophia told us that she added mom to a waiting list for supplemental assistance. 1

Sophia tried to convey to us mom’s level of confusion. She said, for example, that yesterday they had a conversation about putting her dog Mocha and her cat Paprika up for adoption and mom said that might be okay. But then this morning she had no memory of that conversation at all.

She mentioned that we should investigate obtaining Power of Attorney over mom, and then again stressed that Lakewood was “the best we can do” in the area.

Sophia said that mom “appears sleepy” and that she will talk to a doctor about her medications, because I said I seriously think she’s being over-medicated.

At this point we started talking directly to mom, who said (for the millionth time) that she’s really tired. I tried explaining to her that she’d had a stroke. 2 She said, “Okay, let’s go from there.” Then she added, “I don’t like the people who are here.”

Mom said, “I want to get better,” and, “We can’t do this on our own.” It was so, so heartbreaking to hear her say these things.

Sophia gave me the address and URL for Lakewood Retirement Center: 1220 Jimmy Ann Drive and lakewoodretirement.com

As an example of how “discombobulated” mom is, Sophia noted that, “she has trouble naming all fifty-one states.” 3

At this point my sister asked how they came up with Lakewood as an option. We didn’t really get a straight answer, but we were told that Rodney would call us and explain. 4

Sophia restated that Maria wanted an answer this week, and that they were feeling pressure from the administration at Stewart-Marchman to get mom discharged. Most residents only stay there for three or four days, and five or six days is considered an extended stay. 5

Sophia noted that they are not doing anything therapeutic for mom. (She is just “there”. They are not doing anything at all to help her “get better”.)

We learned that Dr. Caliendo had been on vacation for at least the last week, which is why we hadn’t heard from him in so long, but that he was returning today.

Sophia said that mom is “too tired”. She also said that the cards and letters I’ve been sending every day are very stimulating and that that was a good idea I had had, even though it seems like mom can no longer read at all.

That was the end of our conference call.

Immediately I called my sister and just the two of us talked for another half-hour. She told me that mom is receiving $1100.00/mo, which is the maximum amount she can get from Social Security because she is not yet 65 years old.
She said that mom had about $10,000.00 in a State of Florida pension fund from the time she spent working for Americorps. She also suggested that I look at Emeritus, which is on Dunlawton in Port Orange.

1 On January 19, 2012 I received an email from Sophia Mas in which she explained that she had not actually added mom to a waiting list for supplemental assistance.
2 This was, of course, long before we learned that mom did not have a stroke at all. I can’t imagine the psychological damage this misdiagnosis has done to her over the last nine months.
3 The fact that there are only fifty states says more about Sophia Mas than it does about Kathleen Gagne, I think.
4 He never did, of course.
5 At this point mom had been there over a month.

CT-Scans
December 30th, 2011 @ 1:28 pm

My sister sent me this email:

If you want to try calling Halifax, the number I was given is 386-254-4000 for the Radiology Department, and the scan was done on December 14, 2009.

Thoughts
December 29th, 2011 @ 2:37 pm
 
 
« Newer Entries
Older Entries »