Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2008. Mattie started treatment at Georgetown Hospital in August of 2008. The staff had known Mattie for about a month. Yet they figured out early on that Mattie loved packing boxes. They saved whatever boxes came in, because they knew he would want to build and create with them. As you can see, that day he picked up three more boxes at the hospital. Mattie would create with them in the outpatient clinic or in his hospital room. Needless to say our hospital room was about the size of a small walk-in closet. Besides housing the three of us, it also had many of Mattie's art projects all around the room. It was always full house.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- number of people diagnosed with the virus: 6,094,562
- number of people who died from the virus: 184,914
I maybe home in Washington, DC but I still feel like I am living in "paradise." For those of you who haven't been following along, "paradise," is my facetious name for where my parent's live. I have come home extremely worn out and very agitated. It is hard working 14 + hour days for a month. Though it is hard with that day in and day out pace, it is ten times harder trying to manage things from Washington, DC.
I sent this photo to his doctor and then wrote to my dad's visiting nurse and his wound care specialist. Everyone but the doctor has been great and very professional about responding. I arranged for the wound care specialist to come to the house today to examine the wound and report back to the doctor. I made it clear, I wanted my dad started on antibiotics. It was all arranged. Then I received a call several hours later. The wound care specialist was at the house, but NO ONE was answering the front door! Why? Because my mom created her own plan and took my dad to the doctor instead. She did not text message the wound care specialist. I of course had to apologize profusely to the wound care specialist, as we are wasting her time driving around town. It is very frustrating for me. If you want my help then we have to be on the same page.
Meanwhile, I arrived in Los Angeles on August 9th. On August 10th, I called Best Buy to request that someone come to fix my parent's dryer. They have a service plan through Best Buy. Best Buy contracts their service calls out to local companies. So on August 11th, was my first interface with Ashton Electronics based in Culver City, CA. The tech examined the machine and said that the dryer wasn't functioning because it needed new parts. Mind you this machine is only two years old. But that is another conversation. Any case, the tech said that he had to order the parts but that Ashton Electronics would contact me when they were received. Needless to say, a week went by. Finally I contacted them again on August 21. At that point, their administrator (Amy) told me that she would schedule the parts to be installed into the machine on August 28. Needless to say, August 28, came and went, and no repair person showed up. So I called Ashton Electronics again. The administrator had some sort of excuse as to why the repair never happened. Any case, she assured me that a repair person would be at my parent's house TODAY before noon. I remember this conversation specifically because I said given my dad's health concerns, morning hours were better for visits. That we also need the washer and dryer to work because of all the laundry we do. She said she understood and that we would be the first customer of the day. My dad's caregiver witnessed this call, and therefore she had it in her calendar that the repair person was coming this morning.
Needless to say, the repair person did not show up again (0 for 2). My mom tried dealing with the administrator, Amy, who said that there was NO appointment ever scheduled for today. My mom was so annoyed with Amy, that she asked me to deal with it. So I called Amy myself. Do you know she hung up on me!!! I called her right back. She said I was yelling at her and that she wouldn't be talked to like this! Someone has to shake her up because she runs a very unprofessional business. I told her she could pretend there was no appointment today with my parents, but I don't have dementia and I know what we agreed to. She said we never had this conversation! So what does that mean, I am making it up? I am delusional? If I was not a mentally stable person, I would personally visit Amy and throttle her.
So now I am on the phone for over an hour with Best Buy, trying to talk to the CORRECT person. They need feedback about their contractor, Ashton Electronics, and more importantly, we need to be assigned a company who can get the job done when they say they will. I feel like screaming! There is never a peaceful moment.
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