The meeting with social worker Meghan was scheduled for
10:45 am Monday; didn’t get started until a little after 11 and was done about
11:30. Needless to say both Dad and I
felt it was a complete waste of time.
Granted we had no idea what to expect considering neither one of us have
been in this position before (hey the last place just said you can go home on
“X”) but we thought we might be able to get a couple of answers to those pesky
questions (Why was he put on an antidepressant & how long is the
recommendation? Why now is someone
“concerned” enough to Xray his neck? Results? What do you mean he needs a CT
scan & why hasn’t that been done?); boy were we disappointed.
The social worker Meghan just wasn’t ready for tag team Huntley. I’m usually the one that’s over aggressive
& insisting on having my concerns answered to my satisfaction, but Dad took
the reins on this one & even surprised me.
He started out demanding to know when he was going to be “let out”. Meghan and Hector (his physical therapist)
both thought he was joking but soon figured out that he wasn’t. Turns out that they won’t release him until
they are sure he’ll be safe (understandably) and wanted to know how much of the
list given to us during the home visit last month we had accomplished. Well let’s see… without a release date we
can’t set up home help nor can we get a ramp put up so, how about you give me
something I can work with. (No I didn’t
say it but I sure as hell wanted to.)
Hector piped up and admitted that the only thing holding him
back from being released earlier was that Dad has a problem going from sitting
in the wheelchair (which everyone admits is too low for him) to a standing
position. Once he’s standing he’s fine;
can walk 50-60 feet with his rollator (walker with the seat). In other words he’s willing to sign off on
him. So Dad pipes up with “Why did they
x-ray my neck?” I nearly busted out
laughing at all the blank faces around the conference table; no one seemed to
know. The day nurse opens up his 5 inch
thick chart & reads the x-ray results noticeable
changes in vertebral discs & admits that it didn’t make sense to her
especially since they didn’t have anything to compare to. *SIGH*
So after this meeting I dumped Dad off in his room & got
to work. I headed over to HomeInstead & signed him up. They
were very friendly and informative (brought up some things that I hadn’t
thought of) and even suggested that they go over and talk to Dad. That way he would have a veto option &
wouldn’t feel like everyone was making decisions for him. Wow… that impressed
me big time. (Thanks Micki for the
recommendation.) While I was talking to
Steve at Home Instead he suggested a company on Military Hwy (in the old Alpha
Music building) that can do the ramp; off I went.
Not only were they willing to work with me (in the rain
& on a holiday no doubt) they came out to the house did the measurements
& gave us an estimate in about two hours.
(Dad said “Damn I should have let you and Sam do it.”) Yeah, it’s not going to be cheap but at this
point he doesn’t have much of a choice anymore; it’s got to be done.
Dad’s release date is set for Monday. I have mid-terms Wednesday & Thursday
(including the 3 hour BIO on SCC campus that I’m freaking out about) and a
research paper/speech to write for class Thursday night so it’s going to be
another drive-by visit home. But the
good news is that he’s getting out of that blasted place.
