February 28, 2010

Dad was moved last week from his private room to a new shared room.  He shares his (very nice) room now with a kid named Trevin.  I call him a 'kid' because I'm not exactly sure how old he is.  I was told that he had a brain tumor at some point in his adolescence.  He is a full-grown adult in size, but his mentality is about that of a 5th grader.  The only complaint Dad has had so far is that Trevin doesn't like it when Dad turns his TV up loud enough for him to hear it.  Trevin is away a lot on weekends and some nights, spending time with his folks and grandparents.  Last time Ashlyn and I visited, Trevin named Ashlyn "Super Princess" and myself "Super Queen" and followed us nearly out of the care center!  Dad is hard to read sometimes, but hopefully he is glad for Trevin's company when he has it.  Another great thing about his room is it also has access to the outside via double doors and it looks suitable to be used as a picnic area or playground when the weather warms up.

Dad saw a neurologist (Doctor Groves) last Friday, February 19th.  We had arranged the appointment to see if we could get to the bottom of Dad's complaints of pain pretty much everywhere on his body.  The doctor did no scans or blood tests--just talked to Dad and did a few simple "follow my hand with your eyes" tests.  As we assumed, the doctor thought a nerve disease such as fibro-myalgia was a possibility, so he prescribed a remedy for that.  He's been taking it since last Monday, February 22nd, and says he has not noticed a change.  We will give him a while longer taking that prescription before we rule that out as a cause. 

There has still been no physical improvement, obviously, since the physical therapy stopped with the cancellation of Medicare payments (which also caused his move to the shared room) in the last week or two.  We are looking into ways of finding Dad some part time physical therapy.  The social worker said it would cost at minimum $25-30 for just 15 MINUTES of therapy.  As this cost is prohibitive for us, we are looking into other alternatives for aid.  Dad could qualify for VA benefits, but only if he happens to be destitute...  I believe the same is true of Medicaid.  It sure seems odd that one who worked his whole life to be self-sufficient and was smart enough to have medical insurance, long term care insurance, etc., would be "punished" due to his forethought....but unfortunately, that is how it seems to work.  So we kids have decided we are going to have to get Dad to qualify for assistance one way or the other.  Everyone we have talked to recommends "deceiving the government" (as Dad puts it).  That means getting Dad's assets out of his name so that he can qualify for aid based upon financial need.  That is this week's task--trying to learn about trusts or other measures that can be taken to allow Dad to still have his assets but not have them recognized by the government.  This will become especially important in a couple of years since Dad's long-term care policy has a maximum benefit of 5 years.  The assets must not have been  in his name for several years (we have heard 2 or 3 years) in order for the government to allow eligibility for needs-based aid like VA benefits or Medicaid.

The great news is that Dad got a set of surprise visitors yesterday.  His sister, Shirley Wallander, and her husband, Greg, came down from Billings.  It was sort of an accident that they surprised him.  They'd come down quickly and no one had had a chance to let Dad know they'd be here until they walked into his room.  He said "Well.....Shirley!" and it was pretty easy to see that he was glad to see her and Greg.  He also had another surprise that same day, as I let him know that Janice had her baby on Friday morning.  With Jan having her baby and myself being sick for several days, not much information had been getting to Dad since he is so darned reticent to answer his phone!