Notes from the Home - May 26, 2016

One day in late March, I went to the Columbus Clinic to see Ms Taylor, who works with Dr. Verson, et al, in the neurology department. The purpose of the visit was to go over the wheelchair assessment that Lance, from NuMotion, and Paulyne, from Amedisys, had done a few days before. Ms Taylor flipped through the twenty-some pages NuMotion had faxed to the Columbus Clinic and said she was impressed with how complete the assessment was. She would do whatever had to be done to prepare it for Dr. Verson’s signature, return it to NuMotio, who would send it to the insurance people.

A few weeks later, Lou from NuMotion called to tell me the Scrooges at Humana had decided the diagnostic information in the assessment was not sufficient to warrant a wheelchair of the type Paulyne, Lance, Ms Taylor, and Dr. Verson all said I needed. Lou said he would send everything back to the Columbus Clinic along with Humana’s concerns, and he suggested I make an appointment to go over them with Dr. Verson or whomever. 

On the afternoon of April 27, Russ and I made our way to the Columbus Clinic. We were led to an examining room, where a nurse took my blood pressure, listened to my heart, and assured us Ms. Taylor would be along directly. When she arrived, Ms Taylor was again going through a sheaf of papers. 

“Everything they say they need is already in here,” she said. “Who did you talk to at NuMotion?” 

“Lou.” 

“Well, I’m going to give Lou a call and find out what needs to be done,” she said, and sent us on our way.

A week later, Lou called to say NuMotion hadn’t heard from the Columbus Clinic. These things need to be done within a certain time, he said. and if they didn’t get the assessment back to Humana soon, we’d have to start over. He asked that I give the Clinic a call. I did, and they assured me it would be taken care of.

On Friday, May 13^th, ominously enough, Lou called again. NuMotion had called the Columbus Clinic neurology department several times but had not received a call back. “You’ve got to call and be your own advocate,” he told me.

I called the Clinic, and as soon as a human came on the line, replacing the recorded assurances that the Columbus Clinic cared about my call and would answer it as soon as the phone answering person got out of the restroom – or words to that effect – I became the whining, crying, begging me. OK, I might have thrown in a “what the hell is wrong with you people?” or two. But, I spent most of the phone call pleading. Again, I was told that it would be taken care of.

On Tuesday the 17^th, the phone rang as I was sitting on the toilet. By the time I fished the phone out of my pants pocket, the call had gone to voicemail. The phone told me it was Lou who had called. The message Lou left was familiar: NuMotion hadn’t received anything from the Columbus Clinic; I needed to make an appointment to see Dr. Verson one day that week. “When you get the appointment, let me know. If it is at all possible, I want to be there."

 

Tuesday wasn’t my day. I hadn’t slept well Monday night, and I felt like crap. More to the point: I felt like I needed to take a crap, and I spent most of the day sitting on the porcelain throne urging my bowels to move. To pass the time, I found crossword puzzles online, printed them and did them while trying to do the other thing. By 4:30 that afternoon, there were five completed puzzles lying atop the hamper. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to the people at the Columbus Clinic. And I didn’t.

Wednesday morning, after a good night’s sleep and an early morning bowel movement, I was ready to go, and at 8:45 I got started by calling Lance. I wanted to apologize for not calling him back and to get whatever additional information I might need before calling the Columbus Clinic.

“Hello, Lance, this is Tom Harris.”

“Oh, Mr. Harris, we’ve got everything we need. The doctor’s office sent us the stuff. We’re in good shape.”

An hour or so later, Cory, a nurse in the neurology department of the Columbus Clinic, called to apologize for the delay in getting the material to NuMotion. According to him, Ms Taylor had been out of the office for some time, and he was unaware of what was going on with NuMotion, Humana and Me.

That was a week ago. Apparently, Humana didn’t dropped everything else in order to consider my request for a new wheelchair. I wish they would; I’m getting anxious.

*     *     *

Not all of my dealings with the folks at the Columbus Clinic have been so frustrating. In March, when I saw Dr. Miller, my primary care guy, for the annual checkup, I left some blood and urine for his perusal. The next day, a nurse from his office called. The lab report showed that I might, or might not, have a urinary tract infection. “Do you think you have a UTI?” she asked. I wasn’t sure. At times, I thought I might; other times, I was pretty sure I didn’t. 

“Do you want Dr. Miller to give you a prescription?”

“Better safe than sorry, I guess.”

“OK, I’ll tell him that and see what he wants to do.”

As it turned out, he wanted to give me a prescription. I found that out when the call came from a recorded voice. “This is the Publix Pharmacy in the Milgen Plaza,” it said. “A member of your family has a prescription ready for pickup.” When I was one day from taking the last of the seven-day allotment of prescribed pills, the nurse from Dr. Miller’s office called. 

“We got a report from the lab. You have a urinary tract infection.”

“I know.”

“I’m going to send in a prescription.”

“I already have a prescription.”

“You can stop taking that. It won’t even touch this.”

Who am I to argue? I didn’t ask any questions about either the infection or the pills. When the friendly recorded voice from the Publix Pharmacy on Milgen Road called, I called Russ, he took me pick up the prescription, and I used them as directed. And they did a wonderful job. My balance is much, much better than it has been for months. It is so nice to wake up in the morning, sit on the side of the bed and bend over to put my socks on without feeling I’m about to have an intimate moment with floor. So many little things are less work now. It’s easier to do a lot of things when I’m not afraid of falling out of the wheelchair.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                        

Notes from the Home - April 23, 2016

I have been picked up off the floor three times in the last month. The only injury was to my pride. My right leg caused the first two falls. Well, a few other body parts might have been involved, but the irresponsibility of the right leg is what I noticed. Until a year or so ago, the right leg was darn near normal, or so it seemed to me. The doctors told me several times that the right leg was stiffer than the left leg. Perhaps. But, stiff or not, the right leg did as it was told, which the left leg had stopped doing years earlier.

These days, the right leg won’t straighten up – literally. When I stand, my right knee remains crooked, and I can’t get my right foot flat on the floor. The heel stays two inches above the floor. If I press on my knee hard enough, the right foot will get closer to the floor, maybe even make contact with it for a few seconds. As soon as I quit pushing on the knee, it bends and I’m on tiptoes again.

As a result, transferring from the wheelchair to the bed is tricky business. To get into bed, I get the wheelchair about a yard from the bed, place my hands on their respective armrests, and push myself up into an unsightly standing position. Leaving my right hand on the armrest, I lean forward just a little and reach out with my left arm to get a hold of the fitted sheet. It isn’t easy to get a firm grip on a fitted sheet. It is worth the struggle, though. Unlike the other sheet, or the blanket, the fitted sheet stays put, and I can bring myself forward by pulling on it. As I edge forward, I push with my right arm, then let go of the armrest, bring my right arm forward as quickly as possible to brace myself as I fall on the bed.

Twice in one week, the right leg gave out before I got my right arm down to brace myself. Both times I slid off the bed and found myself between the bed and the wheelchair.

The first time it happened, I was up late for some forgotten reason and fell as I tried to get into bed at midnight. My call for help was answered by the man working security that night. He is a tall, muscular man. He looked at me lying on the floor, bent over, and told me to put my arms around his neck. When I did, he stood up, taking me with him, then put his hands about my waist and sat me on the bed. After asking if I was OK, he rode off into the sunset, or more accurately, walked out the door and went about his business. I still don’t know the gentleman’s name, but given his size and strength, I’m sure “Sir” will do.

One day the following week, I gave a repeat performance as I attempted to lay me down for an afternoon nap. This time I knew the folks who came to get my carcass off the floor. Cherie, from home health, came to make sure I hadn’t injured myself, and Cepeda and Lucas, from food service, came to do the heavy lifting.

Two days later, my bedside bar arrived. Rob, an occupational therapist, had suggested I get one when I told him about the first incident. “They’re around thirty dollars,” he said. Rob knows his stuff. James, one of the maintenance men, brought the package from the UPS guy to my apartment.

Russ had said he’d be over the following morning to take me grocery shopping. My plan was to ask him then to help me assemble the contraption. But after staring at the box for fifteen minutes, it dawned on me that I should get the instructions out to see what tools we would need. I don’t have much in the way of tools, and whatever tools the job required, Russ would have to bring with him.

Once I opened the box, I had to take everything out, because the instructions were conveniently placed at the other end of the box. When I found the instructions, I discovered that no tools were needed. And looking over the parts strewn across the floor, it looked like a project I just might be able to do myself. Going forward in my own inimitably inept fashion, I got the darn thing together. There are two horizontal bars that go between the mattress and the box springs. The instructions said to take the mattress off the bed, position the horizontal bars, and put the mattress back. Fat chance. Instead, I put a stack of books between the mattress and box springs and pushed. When I could push no further, I put the wheelchair into switch-engine mode and pushed.

Russ came over the next morning, and I let him push the assembled apparatus the final inch between the mattresses. Then I had him retrieve a small part that rolled under the bed when I doing the assembly work the previous afternoon. In a highly technical sense, I didn’t complete the project on my own. But, boy, it felt good to damn near get ’er done by myself.

 I'm still trying to find an easy way to get into bed using this thing. But I haven't fallen since I put it up. And it does make getting out of bed much easier.

Things went to crap again Tuesday evening when I went to take a crap. To pass the time until my bowels did their job – they usually take longer do to their job than the U.S. Congress takes to do its, and the results are strikingly similar – I took a crossword puzzle with me. Three clues into the puzzle, I dropped my pen. I reached down to retrieve it, lost my balance, and fell off my perch.

A yank of the emergency pull-cord got Teresa’s attention at the front desk. Via the intercom, she told me she would find someone to help her get me up. A few minutes later, she was back on the intercom: no one was available to help. The nurses assistants in personal care were all busy with people whose needs are greater than mine. “Would it be OK if I called 911?” she asked. “Sure,” I said.

Teresa and three EMTs came in my door a short while later. There was the take-charge guy, who looked around for a second and said, “I’ll get around here, you get his legs, and we’ll get him out of here.” There was the sensible guy, who said, “Shouldn’t we move the wheelchair out of the way first?” “Oh, yeah,” said the take-charge guy. The third guy must have been the boss. He had the disgusted look of a man who wanted to be home in his recliner, drinking a beer and watching TV. Instead, he was watching his crew pick up a clumsy old guy who’d fallen off the toilet.

*     *     *

There was a setback on the wheelchair front. Lou from NuMotion called Tuesday. He said Humana doesn’t think I need a wheelchair of the sort I am hoping to get. He said he was going to fax the information Humana sent him to Dr. Verson. I will see the doctor on Wednesday. With any luck he’ll be able to reword things to the satisfaction of some clerk who has never laid eyes on me.

I had better luck with catheters. My order was delivered on the day the email informing me it had been shipped said it would be delivered. So now, I can at least piss around until I find out about a wheelchair.

*     *     *

Chances are more than a few people in the Cleveland area turned off their TVs in anger as Jeopardy ended the other night. The Final Jeopardy category was the origin of city names. The clue: “This city, which has an NFL franchise, is named for an 18^th Century British prime minister.” None of the contestants knew which city, and after the third one revealed his lame guess, Alex Trebek said, “No, the correct response is Pittsburgh – the city of champions – named in honor of William Pitt the Elder.”

Springing in to Spring

Spring came in with the rain, the almost constant rain that fell Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Under the gray, dripping sky, flowers sprouted, leaves appeared, and suddenly all was green. Even from the inside looking out, it was beautiful. And it was even more beautiful yesterday and today, when the sun shone brightly in a cloudless sky.

What glorious days they were. A gentle breeze and mild temperature. It was pleasantly cool in the shade, and pleasantly warm in the sun. There will not be many more days like this. In a few weeks, the heat and humidity will rise to the stifling level and remain there for six months.

Today was a day to enjoy, to be appreciated. And I did.