A good friend of my little sister’s emailed me to ask how mom was doing. At first I started writing a long reply, but could never manage to finish it. Here is what I did send: Dear [name redacted], Thank you so much for your sweet note. I have tried to write you (and [name […]
I called and talked to a nurse named Dan for about a half-hour this morning. He told me that her doctor is Dr. Caliendo, although I already knew that. We discussed her current medication schedule and he said that Dr. Caliendo had recently prescribed: Benadryl to calm her a little and as an anti-anxiety drug […]
I started to write this email, but never finished and never sent it. I was sending it to my little sister’s good friend, and her older brother: Hey, [name redacted] and [name redacted], Thank you, [name redacted], for sending this email. I really appreciate it. I don’t know how much of the story you two […]
My good friend emailed me in response to something he saw me write about how the “hold music” was nicer at where she is now. He asked me: What do the doctors say? Can you eventually visit? I sent him a very long reply: Ah. I hadn’t told you about the previous place. When she […]
Dr. Caliendo called me at 5:15 AM PST and we had a thirty-five minute conversation. I gave him permission to administer Zyprexa to try to stabilize mom. I tried to give him a history of mom’s medical and psychological issues, but he made it clear that he was spending much too long on the phone […]
At about nine o’clock tonight someone from the Halifax Hospital Psychiatric Unit left me a voice mail asking me to call as soon as possible. (I didn’t get to listen to the message until about 9:30 PM PST.) I was told that mom was being very anxious and the nurse wanted my permission to give […]
Here is an email I just sent to Constance Wade at Halifax (and copied my sister): Dear Connie, Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me this morning. I very much appreciated your interpretation of the MRI she received on Friday, January 20, 2012. I am still somewhat in shock at […]
Nurse Rhonda from the Halifax Hospital Psychiatric Unit called me again to ask about administering Namenda. She said it was prescribed by Dr. Mandeep Garewal; this is the first time I was informed of this doctor’s involvement in mom’s care at all. She told me that Dr. Garewal is the one who ordered the EEG […]
I sent the following email to Sophia Mas at Stewart-Marchman: Dear Sophia, I spoke with both the Elder Help Line at (888) 242-4464 and C.A.R.E.S. at (386) 238-4946 and neither one of them has any record at all of my mother. I spoke with a woman named Linda at C.A.R.E.S. and a woman named Deborah […]
A discharge coordinator, Rodney Curtis, called me from Halifax Hospital. He said that he called “a few other” ALFs but that he keeps “encountering the same resistance” when trying to find a place where mom can go because of concerns about paying for her prescriptions. Shady Oaks was one of the places he called. Rodney […]