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Subject: Cat's Corner

Posted by: Catreona
Date: Nov 11 20

A virtual blog to post updates on my mother's illness and other thoughts

629 replies. On page 5 of 32 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Catreona

...Though, come to think of it, they may not be British. The Decastro Sisters recorded the song first, in 1955, and they sound like they're American. Dickie Valentine recorded the song in 1957. But the problem remains that nothing I do brings up any info at all, of any kind, on Chorney, Shrager and shrager.

Reply #81. Dec 04 20, 9:10 PM

postcards2go

Here you go, Cat

http://www.45cat.com/record/301245

Al Chorney, Sid Shrager, and Hal Shrager

Reply #82. Dec 04 20, 10:06 PM

Catreona

Postie, you're an angel!

My apologies for that rant. It's nobody else's fault but my own that my googling skills are so abysmal. Sorry for subjecting everybody to such an unloading of frustration.

Reply #83. Dec 05 20, 3:12 PM

MiraJane

That's the beauty of having your own, blog, Cat. You get to rant about anything you like in it.

Reply #84. Dec 05 20, 4:41 PM

postcards2go

Happy to have had a small contribution to all the wonderful quizzes by authors like you.

As for ranting, listen to Mira... It's your blog. You can rant all you like :-D

Reply #85. Dec 05 20, 6:08 PM

Catreona

:D Thank you, ladies.

Quiz "Christmas Songs by Bridge" has been submitted. As with "Christmas Songs by Verse" last December, it's hard for me to grok that nothing of the kind already exists. I guess that's the beauty of Quizzyland, different quiz creators have different ideas.

Got about four hours of sleep last night. No idea what caused the problem; I simply couldn't drop off. So today I don't know whether I'm coming or going. Probably gonna go to bed early. I have a lot to do tomorrow, including a thorough wrap up of the past few days that I've been too tired and too unsettled to write about. The Cliff Notes version: There's been action but precious little progress.

Good night, friends. Thank you for being here. ♥

Reply #86. Dec 06 20, 5:49 PM

Catreona

Warning: You should probably have a bottle of your favorite pain reliever handy. this mess is headache inducing!

To recap a couple points:
a)The medical practice Mom had been going to for years closed this summer. They were, shall we say, casual about notifying their former patients of the fact. Starting in early Fall Dad chased around the area, searching for someone to take her. After all, she needs someone to write the prescription for her blood pressure medicine... But noone was taking new patients. Finally he found a nurse practitioner and made an appointment for a telephone visit several weeks out.

b) A number of years ago, Mom filled out a health care proxy, naming Dad as her agent and me as the alternate. Fast forward to now. Come to find out, although the paper was duly signed and witnessed, it is not effective or legal or whatnot without the signature of a medico.

Now, once the stroke occurred and Spectrum (You remember good ol' Spectrum :P) came in, they needed a medico to sign off on their starting treatment. As I noted in point a above, Dad had an appointment set up with a new provider. However, that appointment was several weeks out, so someone else was called in* to give the go ahead. As you recall, Spectrum's treatment went nowhere. Meantime, Dad needed the health care proxy signed; so, he contacted the same P.A. (Peter something) who had okayed Spectrum's treatment.

That phone call Monday of last week that we pinned such hopes on was with this Peter. But it turned out to be nothing like we expected. He called to confirm that Dad needed the paperwork signed. That's it! The phone call lasted all of two minutes. And, it gets better. The SOB waited until after 4:00 Friday afternoon to call back and say that, although the paperwork looked to be in order, *he* was not the right person to sign it. That should be done by her primary care provider. You know, that primary care provider she doesn't have.

Or maybe she does.

Remember that phone consult with the new nurse practitioner that Dad worked so hard to set up but that couldn't be moved up to suit Spectrum? Come to find out, they took it upon themselves to cancel it. But here's the strange thing. Dad only found out that they cancelled it because he received a reminder about it, but it never happened. When he looked into why it never happened, he discovered the cancellation and who effected it. Man, was he mad! Fortunately, he was able to arrange another phone appointment. That is supposed to take place Wednesday at 8:30 A.M. We'll see.

Pretty sure I mentioned that a couple weeks ago some pencil pusher called Marco Hernandez from the Dept. of Elder affairs called one evening at suppertime. It had been a long, difficult day, and Dad unloaded on him. He promised that he or someone else from his office would call again the next day. Unsurprisingly, noone called the next day. At the beginning of last week, then, Dad put in a call to the dept. and was eventually put through to a Miss White who was, he's pretty sure, the woman who laid the charge of abuse together with the list of supposed infractions on him at the start of this nightmare. All the same, she seemed interested and concerned now, and told him she'd come out Friday morning at 11:00. For a wonder, she did. She took a look see and promised to send out a case worker. She said nothing like this had ever happened before, to which Dad replied tartly that it happened to us. She also did not like Dad's mention of having talked to a lawyer. She stalked off in a huff. I'll believe the case worker when I see one.

The insurance company was supposed to call today. They didn't. They say they're sending someone to perform an evaluation and recommend a course of treatment - one month out. Again, I'll believe it when I see it. At this point, I probably wouldn't believe the Archangel Michael if he covered his heart with his hand and promised on scouts' honor.

Meanwhile, Mom herself is muddling along, sometimes seeming a little better, sometimes seeming a little worse. Overall, she is worse than in the first few days after the stroke. She doesn't really converse now, and she can't follow what's on the television. The occasional word, mainly from a commercial, catches her attention and sparks an association or short train of thought, but that's all. In those first days, she was still very aware and with it, to the point of making comments relevant to what she heard on the news and offering a couple of coherent opinions, notably that Biden should not take anyone from the Senate for his admin. because we need all the Dem. senators there. She didn't express it quite as smoothly as that, but the meaning was obvious. By contrast, the day before yesterday I was thrilled that she was sufficiently together to show off her new nightgown and discuss (using the term loosely) the color and pattern.

Worryingly, she doesn't remember that fall she took on the night of Nov. 22. The EMTs checked her out, and it didn't seem like she hit her head, but the fall clearly had a deleterious effect. She has been so much worse since. It makes the occasional clear moments all the more precious.

Reply #87. Dec 07 20, 7:52 PM

rubytops

Cat, Haven't read your long list yet but will go back to it when I have listed this. I love the Englebert mask...very stylish. I wonder if Jackson does one I must go on his site and check that one out. I keep a mask in my car always just in case I forget to take one out the house but always gave one with me and use it all the time.

Reply #88. Dec 08 20, 1:45 AM

rubytops

For list/listed read Post/posted

Reply #89. Dec 08 20, 1:46 AM

rubytops

Cat just read your long post above...I cannot imagine how difficult all this has been and your being pushed from pillar to post with no one seemingly caring too much about what effect their actions or none actions are having on the family. It is diabolical.
I pray that somewhere among all this travesty you will come across at least one person who can give your family the help it needs and sort out the mess once and for all.

Reply #90. Dec 08 20, 1:55 AM

MiraJane

Cat, I'm so sorry you and your family are going thru the Catch-22 of Health Care. I wish I knew how to help you.

Reply #91. Dec 08 20, 10:52 AM

Catreona

Just being there and being my friends is an enormous help, believe me. Thank you both. ♥

Ah, so the mask shows up clearly. I wasn't sure the avatar/photo would be big enough. My original plan was to keep the Peace Dove profile pic/avatar (Peace Sign on Twitter) till Trump left office. But over the weekend it just all got to me. Why don't more people wear masks? And I decided to take a stand - change my profile pic to one of myself masked up across social media. I only intended to post the photo with the Engelbert mask in my FB Engelbert group and use another mask for the profile pic, but Engelbert got such an enthusiastic reaction on FB that I decided to go with that pic. Don't think it'll work on Twitter though because that profile pic is quite small. The day got away from me today, along with the daylight for photo taking; so the new selfie for Twitter will have to wait another day.

I actually have a Donny Osmond mask that I may show off here at some point. After all, before there was
Engelbert, there was Donny. /swoon/

Reply #92. Dec 08 20, 3:40 PM

postcards2go

Excuse me, Cat!

Donny Osmond became *mine*, after I was finished with Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy... Stick to Englebert :-D

I don't have people on any of my masks, but I do wander around advertising several (mostly losing) sports teams.

Reply #93. Dec 08 20, 4:06 PM

Catreona

Oh yes, Postie? I went straight from Bobby to Donny. David was okay, I guess... His brother Shaun was cuter though. Not as cute as Donny, of course.

My favorite of Bobby's songs was always "Sounds along the way", unless it was "Rainy Day Thoughts". How about you?

Reply #94. Dec 08 20, 9:11 PM

postcards2go

I really like a song called 'I'm In a Tree' It's on the 'Portrait of Bobby album (yes, I have it in vinyl), and it's funny. I also like 'August' from the same album. Fell in love, watching 'Here Come the Brides' (((sigh)))

Reply #95. Dec 08 20, 9:56 PM

rubytops

I as definitely in the Dave Cassidy camp..I loved the Partridge family programme.
Yes they do do a Jackson Browne mask by I haven't ordered one as would have to come from the US.

Reply #96. Dec 09 20, 12:10 PM

Catreona

Postie, but of course you have Bobby's albums on vinyl, so do I. Yes, I loved "Here Come the Brides" too.

Ruby, I liked "The Partridge Family", of course. It was a good show; though my favorite character was Susan.

Hey, everybody, my quiz is up!

https://www.funtrivia.com/quizdetails.cfm?quiz=403979

Reply #97. Dec 09 20, 3:08 PM

Catreona

Not to lay a jinx, but we had some good news today.

The phone appointment with the primary care nurse came off on schedule this morning. She is efficient. She already has the health care proxy paperwork signed and arrangements for hospice care en train. What a welcome change!

The insurance people called on time. They asked a great many very detailed questions, but Dad seemed satisfied with the call.

Yesterday afternoon and evening Mom was more talkative and alert than she has been for some time. Asked for a little bit of chicken for supper and had a better amount of fluids. She has also been together enough both yesterday and today to make meaningful, thoughtful comments on the content of the TV news. Not everything she has been saying makes sense, but it has been in complete, well formed sentences. Couldn't work out what she was saying about a stroller with a piano keyboard attached. /scratches head/ Otherwise, she's been doing very well. Such conversation and all that thinking is very tiring needless to say. Also, I realize I shouldn't read too much into such ephemeral moments. Still, they are encouraging.

Reply #98. Dec 09 20, 3:28 PM

MiraJane

The stroller with keyboard attached is from a moment in a commercial.

Your mother wasn't being delusional. She was being observant. :)

Reply #99. Dec 09 20, 5:25 PM

Catreona

Ah... I miss so much, not being fully sighted. But, that's pretty bizarre. What's it a commercial for, pray tell?

Reply #100. Dec 09 20, 8:41 PM

629 replies. On page 5 of 32 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

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