Thought for The Day - July 15, 2008

Enjoy the trip called the journey of life…..the destination is final.

Tomorrow my youngest son will be 31 years old.  I was wondering today where it had all gone.  My life is like most, with its ups and downs.  There are some things that, if I could, I would have done differently.  If I had I then I would not be the person I have become today.  I’m not unhappy how my life turned out.  My only real regrets are those things that have harmed others, specifically my family.

Mom

I went to Lubbock this weekend to visit my Mom.  It was, as usual, incredibly depressing.  She has reached the stage in her dementia where she doesn’t remember to swallow food.  Everything must be in puree form and followed by something to drink.  Liquids she swallows.  She has lost more weight this month.  Her nurses aid says she has deteriorated a lot this past month.  It is hard for me to accept that she has no idea who I am.  I combed her hair, gave her a manicure and put lotion on her dried up skin.  I fed her dinner on Sunday night and slurpee on Monday.  I made her an appointment for a hair cut and perm for today.  She does not seem at all unhappy.  I guess that is the most I can hope for, that somewhere in her mind, she is in a happy place.

Thought for the day - Saturday

“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”

Shamelessly stolen from the Bastard - my eldest.

Thought for the day - March 28, 2008

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

The most wonderful take my breath away moments were the first time I saw my babies.  Don’t tell them that - they’ll get the big head.  

A tip on looking younger

Know how to prevent sagging?
Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.

Happy New Year

The good news is that I survived this year!

Work sucked, but I still have a job.  We survived to see the year eand and I’m grateful.

Best to all my family and friends - may we all get better than we deserve

I love this kind of phone calls!

Tonight I have a voice mail from my brother…

“Hi Sis,

I have a letter looks like it is from Medicare saying all of the cases against Mother have been settled.  Good going.  See ya, call me if you want to.”

OMG, YAY, YAY, YAY!!!

Tomorrow I call the nursing home to report that they may now bill medicare, write Mom a check for 20 days refund, and file for a refund of the past 10 days. 

Thanks to John Simpson, Attorney at Law and Mary Ann his assistant for all the wonderful help and referring me to the State Representative

Thanks to the office of Texas State Representative Randy Neugebauer from Lubbock, for your intervention on behalf of my Mom.

Thanks most of all to my Brother and Sister.  Not only for all of the brain storming, leg work and phone and fax machine……but because you’re mine.  I am so grateful that in times like these, you are there.

Medicare liens…..before it happens to you!

Every senior citizen who is eligible for medicare should know a few facts that I’ve learned, THE HARD WAY!

If you or and elderly person you know is the recipient of medicare and has had medical expenses that an insurance company was liable for, but medicare paid:

Medicare CAN and WILL:

Place a lien on benefits payable to any skilled care facility.  They may collect the benefits from the insurance company, your attorney or you.  They may also NOT show the payment as taken care of and you will have no clue this has happened since they will not notify you……..until a facility tries to pre-cert you for skilled care.

This recently happened to my Mom.  The nursing home said they could not get medicare precertification because of 3 liens, for auto accidents that medicare paid and insurance was liable for.  When I got on the phone with them, medicare could not give me an answer on why this happened.  They gave me a number of a third party collections department for medicare.  They said yes, an insurance company was liable, they paid and until they receive the money, mother gets no skilled care.  My brother and I brainstormed and remembered something about money that her attorney had in trust to pay medicare on an accident she had in 2001.  I called the attorney and he said he remembered it well and was able to tell me that he sent a check to medicare in 2004.  He fax over the paperwork he had as well as copy of the check that medicare had cashed.  Another two wrecks in 2003 the insurance paid nothing on medical, therefore she owes nothing on that.

All sounds ducky huh?  NOT HARDLY.  I fax this information to the medicare collections department.  They are VERY behind and it will take up to 60 days to get the information into the system.  Great!  No there is nothing they can do to expedite the process.

I called the state representatives office and they agree to intervene, but state they are only doing this as a service to the people they serve and it still takes up to 60 days to process.  I fax them all the information also, for what I am still clueless.

I was looking on the internet this morning hoping that I could find something to give us some recourse.  I came up with this site: http://www.tlie.org/riskmgmt/news/2000isu1.htm   It appears that the attorney took care of the matter as they should.  This one that says they can do it: http://www.thecentersforlienresolution.com/medicaresetaside.html.  Where in the hell is one that says what to do when the bastards don’t take it off the books when it is paid???  Wonderful - I found this site for lien resolution and it only cost $1,800. to do what I’ve already done. http://www.thecentersforlienresolution.com/lienresolution.html  Kiss my ass!

You may ask why I’m making such a big deal of this.  Before we could get Mom into the nursing home we had to pay one month in advance…$4,976.58.  That does not include therapy she must have for her leg or her medication.  Three months minimum in the nursing home….do the math.

If you have family members that are enrolled in medicare call this number to see if there are any liens on their medicare.  1-866-677-7220 and have their medicare number and birthday handy as you must have that information to access their account.

The Bastard Jr. says this is just one more reason to keep the flat shovel handy.

Update on Mom

Mom got moved into the nursing home yesterday.  She was supposed to be transferred at 10:30AM and made it at 2PM. 

When I walked into the room in the morning the first thing that hit me was the starkness of the place.  I’m thinking…mmmmmmm maybe I could do something to make it more homey.  I went to her apartment and picked up some silk flowers to spruce up the place a bit.  I unpacked her bags and arranged the flowers in the rooms.  Much better, I thought appraising the room. 

I went to Wal-Mart and purchased the sweat pants they said she would need for her therapy, grabbed the usual quarter pounder and diet coke for lunch. 

I went back to the nursing home, she still wasn’t there.  Filled out a ream of paperwork to complete her admission.  Still no Mom.  I sat out in the car for a while.  Finally the transport vehicle arrived and unloaded Mom.  I gave them an opportunity to get her in the room, as I wasn’t up to hearing her scream during the process of getting her into bed.

When I walked into the room the nurses were assessing her leg.  Lucky me, I got to hear her scream anyway.  Then Mom saw me.  ‘WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM’ she screamed.  The nurse told her, ’she’s been here taking care of your business all morning.’

3:00PM  I have a 6 hour drive ahead of me, I’m exhausted and depressed.  I tell Mom ‘I have to go Mother, Elaine will be here in less than an hour, try to rest.’  She says to me, ‘thank you so much for all you’ve done, I don’t know how I’d have made it through this without you.’ 

The Grand Bastardette

Mom fell on Friday night and broke her femor in 4 places.  It was neatly put back together, on Sunday, with a plate, 10 screws, 4 wires and artificial bone.  She will not be able to put any weight on that leg for 3 months.  After that she will probably have to learn to walk all over again.  She is 84 years old….I’m not sure if she is motivated or well enough to do it. 

I have spent the last couple of days and nights with her and vowed that if I didn’t get out of that hospital this morning they would surely have me in a straight jacket by noon. 

I wonder if they do all of those painful things in the middle of the night to patients so the visitors don’t turn them in for cruelty.  Every hour they came in and did some procedure that made her scream to high heaven.

Today I am packing up her apartment as she will be in a nursing home for at least 3 months.  She will require more care after that than what she has been receiving at the independent living place. 

I am sitting in my brothers office posting this.  He’s taking me to lunch.  If he doesn’t he has to go spend a week with Mom as punishment.