Tonight's picture was taken on January 14, 2009. We were in NYC, so that Mattie could receive experimental treatment. While there, we took Mattie on several adventures. Like going to the top of the Empire State Building. I was expecting crowds and long waits. But that day things were moving and we got an express elevator to the top. Everyone working there was very kind to Mattie and it made for a beautiful and memorable day.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 61,397,324
- Number of people who died from the virus: 839,372
Last night my mom showed me her feet. One was terribly swollen and the other one was slightly swollen. She was convinced this had to do with her heart. Which of course sent me right over the deep end. To me the issue came on too acutely and for the most part, she doesn't have heart issues. Therefore I attributed the swelling to TOO much physical therapy exercise. Yet I am no doctor. So this morning at 8am, I called our doctor's office. This is the doctor I signed all of us up for, who offers concierge service. Those of you following along, may remember that I decided I couldn't take this doctor because of his unwillingness to treat my recent sinus infection, and therefore I returned to my previous physician.
In any case, I called the concierge doctor at 8am. No one answered, so I left a message. I called the office back at 8:30am and the manager answered the phone. He told me that the soonest the doctor could see my mom was Thursday afternoon! I honestly thought that was a riot. I told him that this concierge practice is abysmal and that he can let the doctor know because of how poorly run the practice is, I returned to my previous physician. The manager said he would contact the doctor immediately to determine if he would see my mom on Tuesday. Concierge service isn't inexpensive and you are paying to have access to a physician at all times. This particular physician truly doesn't get this concept or even abide by it! On an aside, my nickname for him is Dopey Doo! If you know me well, then you know I have nicknames for people who drive me crazy!
Meanwhile, I have my mom's feet elevated, I have wrapped her foot that is swollen with an ace bandage and I have iced her foot. It seems to be helping. But this doctor's office has me super frustrated. The whole point of me leaving my long time doctor was to get access to a physician without going through gate keepers. However, this concierge physician refuses to answer his cell phone during business hours. Instead, he insists you call his office staff. To me this is NOT concierge at all.
My dad's occupational therapist came over this morning. She is absolutely LOVELY! She has started my dad on a whole new exercise regimen and is working both his body and his mind, which is wonderful. But of course, just like with physical therapy, the burden falls upon the family caregiver to perform these exercises daily. This is the part of Medicare that needs to be rebooted! They have NO regard for the tireless work performed by the family caregiver.
Peter is in Atlanta but before he left, he created a paper reminder about his trip and left it by my dad's side of the breakfast table. This is fabulous, because on it I have created a count down chart, so my dad can check off the days that go by until Peter's return. My dad has many, many anxieties, and in a way OCD. For example, this morning he almost flooded the toilet again. This time I saw the problem in action. So I reached out to our plumber and we are replacing the toilet with a new one on Thursday. As this toilet is clearly old and can't handle massive amounts of paper my dad throws into it. My dad is concerned about the toilet and the whole day he asked me when the plumber was coming and specifics about the new toilet being installed. The average person could lose it after repeating the same thing about 50 times, but I remind myself once again..... this is not my dad.
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