Monday, February 5, 2024

Monday, February 5, 2024

Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2003. Mattie was 10 months old and fully ON! If you have any doubt, Mattie was looking right at me. We had a special connection with each other! He loved following me around our home in his "tot wheels" walker. Mattie's face always lit up when he was looking at me. It is a feeling and memory I will NEVER forget. 

Quote of the day: I heard somebody define heaven once as a place where, when you get there, all the dogs you ever loved run to greet you. ~ Robert B. Parker

This is one of my favorite photos! Sunny and I touching noses! Sunny in my opinion was part human! He had his own way of communicating, of providing support, and was always gentle and loving! Which is why I always referred to him as "My Gentle Giant." He had a heart of gold and is deeply missed. Our house is very empty without his furry presence. 

As if I am not dealing with enough in my life, I have this chaos. DAILY! My neighbor has a large construction project going on for months. Our street constantly looks like a parking lot, there is continual noise, trash that I am picking up, and frankly if I wanted this level of commotion, I could have stayed in the city. The only thing is in the city, I was surrounded by management of our complex who always listened to me, looked out for our best interest, and truly loved our passion and mission with Mattie Miracle. I miss our city friends!

This is my morning view! Can you see the memorial stone of Sunny on the counter? This stone sits where I used to have all of Sunny's medication bins. I donated all of Sunny's medication back to the Hope Center and in its place, created this little memory area of my Sunny. Now when I sit down for breakfast and dinner, my boy is still looking at me. Just like he used to do when he was alive. 

After dropping my dad off at his memory care center this morning, I came back home and greeted the physical therapist who was going to evaluate my mom today for physical therapy. The evaluation went very well, and my mom liked the therapist. It is a father-son therapy team, where the dad does the evaluation and the son does the actual therapy. I got to know this team, as they have worked with my dad in the past, and they are currently working with him now as well. So basically I have both parents undergoing more therapy! 

Once the therapist left, I juggled several phone calls. I contacted my dad's benefits center, from his former employer. His employer used to provide a health saving account on a yearly basis to cover the costs of some of his care. The former employer has now removed this benefit and instead want to give retirees a Medicare Advantage Plan (MAP). Truthfully I am juggling so much, that I am very grateful to our friend, Phyllis, who lives in Los Angeles. Phyllis is very savvy regarding healthcare benefits. It is thanks to Phyllis that I now have the 411 on MAPs. Which would not be a good match for my dad and his extensive healthcare needs. Any case, I was on the phone for 50 minutes today, trying to talk to a live person. I literally hung up in disgust and will try back later this week. 

From that phone call, I then chatted with the company which hosts our Walk website. It is that time of year in which I have to start revamping that website. I am very familiar with the content on the site, as I have written it over the years, but NOT at all familiar with the technology and what needs to happen to make the site work and go live. Thankfully I have a contact at this company who has worked with me for years. When I get confused, which is often, I reach out to him and today he helped me secure a SSL certificate for the website. A SSL Certificate basically keeps user data secure, verifies ownership of the website, prevents attackers from creating a fake version of the site, and gain user trust. So it is important!

After that call, I then reached out to the infusion center who will work with me on administering Prolia. In comparison to the doctor's office, this infusion center is a peach! They are professional, answer questions, and completely explained my out of pocket costs. Costs which are MUCH lower to me when it is billed as a medical benefit over a pharmaceutical benefit. We are talking a difference of thousands of dollars! It is a good note to self.... if you need a medication, ask the difference in cost to you between it being billed as a pharmaceutical versus medical benefit. 

I received this photo from my new friend from England. She and I are in a support group together and she went to this light festival and wanted to send me a ray of light electronically. Very thoughtful.