Reality Check

** Spoiler Alert ** For those of you who are big fans of government-run health care and insurance, please note that the following comments may offend you.


Well, when I left Syracuse on Sunday I had one major concern that I felt was in the low probability category: dad's insurance (i.e. Medicare) would decide he is "too well off" to continue paying for acute rehab and kick him out before I had a chance to return to Syracuse this weekend.  Yesterday I was reminded of Murphy's Law when I received a phone call from dad's care provider informing me that he had to go home on Friday despite the fact that he still has severe global aphasia and can only eat thickened liquids.  The "good news" was that he was eligible for home care two days per week but that they don't work weekends, so the next point of contact would be the following Monday.  "Don't worry," they said.  "We'll show your mom everything that she needs to do the hour before he's released."  The other encouragement was that this is all normal and routine and that the caregiver had a similar thing happen to her mom, and even though it's been ten years and she still cannot speak, they've found other ways to communicate with each other.  I offered my sincere thanks for the words of encouragement and begged her pardon if I decided to pursue other options for my dad. 


Let's just say that if I wrote this blog yesterday, the Google censors would have had a field day.  However, I've had a chance to regroup and can report on some progress.  First, I convinced the caregivers to keep dad there through the weekend.  I told them I would cover the cost if necessary, which seemed to do the trick.  This buys me enough time to make it back to Syracuse and assist mom for the discharge.  I am also in contact with the home care provider trying to insist on as many days as possible of care during the first week.  In the mean time, Corry and I are pursuing private speech-language therapy options to supplement the government-provided options.  You'll have to forgive me, but I am not confident in the quality or extent of duration of the home care.  My guess is that once Medicare reads the first couple of reports, they will promptly declare dad ineligible for further assistance and push him to outpatient therapy.  Your tax dollars at work folks. 


On the lighter side, mom did provide me with a funny story about her last visit with dad during speech therapy.  The particular exercise involved pictures of objects accompanied by two written words - one word was the correct name for the object and the other was incorrect.  The idea was to associate the correct written word with the object.  A few questions into the task, dad is presented with the picture of a goat accompanied by two words: "Goat" and "Wife."  Needless to say he was forewarned that he should be very careful in choosing.  Leave it to dad to choose "Wife" in front of mom.  Let's just say he's in big trouble for that one, whether he was joking or not.  Demerits to the speech therapist for creating an "unsafe environment" for dad, though.


Anyway, that's my tirade for now.


I hope to update you soon. 


Todd