I Can Haz Chalupa

Guest post by my beloved.  He hasn't been feeling well this week, but a wrote a short post over the weekend as follows:

Regular readers of this here blog will no doubt know that I’ve been a tad under the weather for some time,and will have some idea of what the circumstances are and have been. If you’re not a regular reader,I suggest that you hie theeself back a few pages and acquaint thyself with the contents of this area of the blogosphere.

Suffice it to say that oxygen is NOT over-rated. I myself receive 3 liters per hour of the stuff,the delivery system being @50 feet of slender plastic hose surmounted by a nasal cannula,which I commonly refer to as a chalupa,which isn’t necessarily the item that is carried by Taco Bell,or a cannoli,a delicious Sicilian dessert.

In any event,I am alive,reasonably well,and busily creating edible treats for our evening repast. Our budget is small,which allows for a great deal of creativity and an endless search for the best bang for the buck.

So thanks for all of the well-wishing and like that. I truly appreciate it. I am pleased to announce that I am still alive and possessed of a variety of humors,which are only exacerbated by my condition. Those of you who wish further elucidation or have a corresponding need to excoriate me may contact me via facebook,via my own corner of cyberspace (see blogzilla aka modblog),or by email at moderanathotmaildotcom.

And speaking of edible treats,here’s one for you folks to try-my version of pineapple/mango salsa:

Pineapple/Mango Salsa

ingredients:

1 fresh pineapple,cored,peeled,coarsely chopped

1 red mango,peeled,seeded,coarsely chopped

1 pickled jalapeno,sliced (jarred is okay)

1 yellow onion,peeled and diced

1/4  each of red and green bell peppers,chopped and seeded

1 tablespoon white sugar

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

chopped cilantro to taste

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 stick butter

preparation:

Over low-medium heat,melt butter. Add chopped onion and peppers. When the onion starts becoming transparent,add the pineapple,mango,and jalapeno.

combine liquid elements,sugar,salt pepper,garlic powder. Stir to dissolve.

When the onion begins to brown,add the liquid to the pan,turn the heat up to medium,and cook until the mixture begins to bubble,stirring occasionally.

Turn off the burner,cover the pan,and let the salsa cool at room temperature.. It will thicken slightly while cooling. Store in refrigerator-it’ll last a week or so. Great over pork,poultry,or fish. We had ours over roast pork with a brown sugar/chipotle rub,with white rice and stir-fried vegetables on the side.

A yellow mango was also sacrificed to the cause,being peeled,seeded,and chopped,placed in the blender,and covered with ice and gin,with a little sugar and half a cup of cold water. Yum.

WIP Wednesday

Not much crafting is happening here.  So much to do, I feel like I'm running in circles.  It's not the patient, it's everything else.

About an inch was added to the tank top, not really interesting enough to take a picture of.  It would probably look the same as last week.  The good news is my daughter told me she has my boxes stored in bathroom.  I know a bit more of the yarn I'm using for the tank top is in one of those boxes.  Bad news, I'm still waiting for her to send me Girl Scout cookies since October.  I'm thinking they got eaten by now.

My spinning wheel sits next to my swivel rocking chair, so it's very easy just to sit, spin for a few minutes, then jump up to do something else.  I've finished the second half of the merino/silk and have now begun plying.

Hopefully 900 + yards of mind numbing plying.  The blue is the merino/silk, the purple is a strand of 6 ply embroidery floss. I think it's funny that when I'm spinning I can't wait to see the yarn plied, then when I get to the plying it's, this so boring.  Those of you who spin, is it like that for you?  I'm hoping it might be done by Friday.  Then I will start on the alpaca.

When my daughter called on Monday to say she's having another girl, I found this fingering weight cotton in the bin I'm going through.  I was going to sell this, but decided to start a top down raglan sweater like I made for my daughter and granddaughter when they were babies.  This is as far as I had gotten, then I was thrown off by thinking about buttonholes or to just leave it and sew on velcro.  Me, I'm totally overcome over the thought of buttonholes or no buttons.  Stressed just a bit??  If you've read my blog, or have seen my past projects, you might find this amusing.

Artfire, I'm thrown off by that one.  They won't let list until I have a banner and a number of other stuff.  I'm just going to put up stuff on my Ravelry page Knittingbunnies. It will be easier that way for me, and I need something to be easy right now.

Amy over at Dyed In The Wool and Carol Knitting Knot have both bought from me in the past.  There have been others, but I can't remember who is still blogging.  In fact, Amy's current project is with yarn she bought from me almost two years ago, I recognized it right off.  How cool is that?

The in-home case manager called and said they would pay me for two hours a day, 14 hours a week.  I think that's a little low, I was hoping for 20.  I got in contact with an agency and they pay 10.00 an hour.  Friday, I have to go for the CPR and first aid class from 9 to 4.  Then a few other places for TB testing, finger printing, state Id.  The cost of which will be taken out of my paycheck at 20.00 a week. Do the math.  14 hours times 10.00 minus 20.00 and taxes.  Not much is it?

She said, they weren't having an orientation for a couple weeks but she will see if she can get one scheduled for next week.  She didn't sound hopeful about me picking up extra hours.  She wanted to send me to Nogales, Phoenix and Three Points. Yikes. Even if I had a car, I wouldn't be driving that far with gas prices as they are.  It's $3.63 a gallon here. I know it's higher other places.

 I asked if she didn't have anything in town. Yes, but the busses are unreliable.  Really?  I've not had much of a problem.  She said in 6 months she might be able to get me 30 hours.  Honey, I need an extra 20- 25 hours now.  Oh well, I'll figure out something.  At least I'll be listed as employed and that makes it easier to find another job.

D called the cable company about our phone and internet, they gave us a whopping extra 3 days.  Not even 30 days past due and they are throwing a fit.  I have until June 2 at midnight to come up with $100.00 to keep the phone and internet on, plus the very basic cable, it's a package deal.  Which is really June 1 to make the payment.

I was going to take more pictures of stuff today, but it was the last day of school and the kids and neighbors were in the pool all afternoon, three feet from my patio.  I didn't feel like the third degree, so I'll sort more tonight, take pictures in the morning.  I have a couple places to go tomorrow, so will add to my Rav page when I get back.  Friday is a lost cause.  Start again on Saturday.  The plumbing here sucks, so dying the yarn  is a slow process,  In a dishpan, in my tub (the only decent plumbing).

For your entertainment, D is almost finished with his guest blog post.  He'll probably be more entertaining as he won't sound like the exasperated housewife. He's posting the recipe of my favorite meal we made together, pork loin with pineapple mango salsa and rice.

On comments about Monday's post.  My children, they are the product of their genetics.  Most of the people in my life since I was very small are self-involved to the point of narcissism.  Both related and in-laws.  The poor kids didn't stand a chance, so I just accept them as they are.  I learned at a young age that to get my emotional needs met, I would have to look outside my inner circle.  Sometimes that leads me to find yet more self-involved people, which I leave where they are because I have enough already.  Which is why I stay with D and was amazed at the lady who took me back and forth these past three months.  Plus all of you who continue to read my blathering.  I don't know why you keep coming, but I'm glad you do. .

Also, Teresa, it's why I moved 3000 miles away from my family.  Actually, 2,750 miles.

 I figured out the person from Lima, NY  is my daughter popping in occasionally, to check on me.  I don't know who the person in Pittsford, NY is.  (waves Hello to the mystery person in Pittsford.)  It's nice to know someone from home reads me.

As an ex-Western NYer, I know all about complaining about the heat.  Yuck, a hot day up there is like having syrup dumped on you.  I'll take this dry heat any day. It's so hot and dry that when you start to sweat, it dries right away.   Though I will complain about the possibility of spontaneously combusting and the heat index of Hell.  When it gets to 110F, I'm going to fry an egg on my patio this year and take video.

Thanks for visiting.  I'm in the transition phase.  Transitioning back to creative endeavors (I hope) and less stressful whining (really hopeful.)   Clicking the button below will lead you to more creative people.

The Tired Chronicles

When I die, if I have to come back, I want to be Bootsie.

We are managing just fine here, though we both fall into bed totally exhausted at night.  Then our muscles wake up and complain.  I'm telling myself this exhaustion all the time will pass.  You'll remember I had these episodes of fatigue a few times before these last couple months.

The patient is pretty easy, 17 animals, and keeping the apartment clean for visitors that show up.  I have to two out three isn't bad.  What am I talking about?  The home case-worker was ok.  Friday, we had our first outing and it wasn't as bad as I had worried about the night before.  His new primary care Dr. is one of the Dr.s from ICU team.  That was a big relief.  Then there was the nurse from Nurse Finders.

He kept talking about advice his Dr. gave him that had nothing to do with D's issues, his whole families health history with hypertension and diabetes.  How much he hates McDonald's.  Twenty percent of red meat has MRSA and you can catch it if you have a cut on your hand while handling it.  We should all just go vegan.

He didn't bother D, whose seemed to have acquired super human amount of patience.  I had to restrain myself from asking him to finish up the Necessary business and leave now.  Especially when he asked where I worked.  Then while watching me spin on my wheel asked if I spin yarn and knit sweaters for sale.  Yeah, right after I open my boutique on Beverly Hills.  D told him, not many people could afford the sweaters I knit.

The link to my Artfire store, Knitting Kitties.  That's as far as I've gotten today.  Monday started with a call from my AWOL daughter at 8:30am and the phone didn't stop ringing all day.  Her internet and laptop is messed up is all the reason I got for her being AWOL for weeks.  She found out she's having a girl due October 13th but will have a C-section the week prior to that.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but last week I woke up, made my coffee, sat down, fired up Facebook.  Just as I was taking my first sip of coffee, up comes a post from my oldest son that he got married that morning.  Daughter informed me that youngest son got married two days before that, and his wife is due in December.  Poor Dot Whooten. (me) (reference to a character in Standing in the Rainbow .)

I found a package of ten skeins of undyed fingering weight merino from Knit Picks that I will dye for sale later this week. I'm thinking tonal colors. Any suggestions?  I looked on their website and they don't sell it any more.  I had bought this to dye for a Fair Isle sweater.  I guess I'll replace it with their merino/silk at some point, maybe.  I'm trying to sort through the confusion that is my stash.

A sneak preview of some things I'm going to list.  This is 2/20 silk 1200 yards that I dyed in pinks, peaches with a touch of violet.  I have a second skein to remake this Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl (my rav page).

Two skeins of merino/silk 70/30 fingering weight 440 yards.  Dyed in shades from medium to light blue.

That's as far as I've gotten.  Pathetically sad, I know.  I need to get busy, the phone/internet is due for shut off on the 29th.  I think if D calls them, they will give an extra week for a small fee.  I'll have him call later today.

Remember those birds that we hatched around Christmas and New Years?  The two on the perch, on the right are lifting the door together.  The one sitting on the food dish is telling them they aren't lifting it high enough.  They lift it just to the top of the dish, the bottom one tries to stick his head out and they let it go trying to follow.  The door drops shut and they have a discussion.  Then they pull the lid off the dish and that's when I get up to put a stop to their antics.

Summer is coming to the desert.  The watch for the first 100F/38C day has started.  The Weather Channel has predicted it will happen this weekend.  Fun times.  Very soon, I'll be whining every post about the heat index of Hell.  Very much like northerners with non-stop snow storms.

WIP Wednesday

I'm very late this week, but if you read yesterday's post, then you'll understand why.  I'm very busy playing personal assistant.  Sorry, for the crappy late night pictures.

Not much progress has been made on the tank top this week.  Most of my knitting was accomplished in the nursing home dining room, while watching the news.  It entertained the other diners how I could stare at the tv and yet still keep knitting.  It's just plain stockinette stitch at this point, not very hard to do.

I finished the first spindle of the merino/silk.  I'm about a quarter of the way through on the second.  Depending on my schedule, I should have this finished in the next week or two.  Then I'll find out how K wants her alpaca spun up.  Afterwards, I'll put it all in the mail to Phoenix, unless of course she and her husband would like to come down for some amazing barbeque or chili.

Bootsie was afraid of D until he went to bed for a rest.  I put up on the bed and once she had a sniff of his Old Spice deodorant, she realized who he was and made herself at home in his armpit.  Strange little cat. Tennessee and Butterscotch are afraid of the wheel chair and the O2 machine.  They are coming around slowly.

Dammit sits up on his back legs when D is in the bedroom and has conversation. Dammit moves his mouth around and looks like he's having quite the silent conversation.  He's the only bunny I've had that I've saw do this. I had a hard enough time trying to read D's lips in the ICU, I'm not even going to try rabbit lips.  I took him out of the cage and they had a huggle fest on the bed.

The past six weeks, D's been watching the Food channel, making plans for when he gets home.  Monday night, I went grocery shopping and found a side of spare ribs on sale.  Today, he rolled up to the dining room table and fixed dinner.  He just told me what he needed and I got all the supplies for him.  He made his favorite ribs, German potato salad and corn on the cob.  I operated the stove and oven.  He said he had a great time fixing dinner together.

Now that I can finally relax, my anxiety from these past months has come rearing it's ugly head full force.  I'm good during a crisis, but afterward I have a bit of freakout. I keep worrying that the Murphy's Law police are going come busting through the door to arrest for not having my daily quota of bullshit to deal with.  We demand that you come with us noisily, maam.

It feels a bid odd for both of us, getting used to a new routine.  I don't think it will last for very long.  Tomorrow I have laundry and a long list of phone calls to make.  The case manager gave me a list of agencies they work with to get my certification.  She said, one will pay for my first aid and CPR card, another will pay for it but take the cost out of my first check.  One agency only works with family, so I won't get that many extra hours, with them.  Once he's not needing my assistance as much, I can pick up hours with other cases.  She took down what assistance he needed and will work out how many hours they will be willing to pay me.  So, I don't know how many or how much, just yet.  Wouldn't it be wonderful, if I can find out an agency or someplace that will help me with the expense of getting my nursing license transferred down here?

All those services that the nurse case manager said that would take her some time to set up? Never happened.  The SW handed D a sheet for Nursefinders and told him to call and set it up himself on his way out.   Their Dr. never wrote an order for those services.  Which made the In Home Caseworker raise an eyebrow to.  We'll have to get the orders from his new Dr. on Friday.

The internet/phone company called and left a message on our answering machine while he was in his office.  He heard the message and is now worrying about the bill.  I told him, he's not to worry.  His job to get better and stronger. For those of you that might be interested, I'll be listing stuff on Artfire this weekend, since I don't know how soon I will get a paycheck coming in.  Now that I'm home, I'll have to time keep up with listing and mailing stuff. With a lot of help from some wonderful friends, I've made it this far, I'm not about to give up now.  It's probably going to be a little while before we here from Social Security for him.

Thanks for stopping by. Thank you for all your wonderful comments on yesterday's post. A special thank you to all of you who have been so supportive through this whole nightmare.  D will be making his guest post in the next couple days.  I think he's still digesting all that read yesterday.  He said it was like reading his biography and he wasn't dead yet.

For more WIP's click the button below.

HE'S HOME!!!

It's the post  we've all been waiting for.  I've finally exhaled.

There he is having his first lunch home.

It was no small feat, let me tell you.  I almost went apoplectic yesterday.  He was in the nursing home chasing people down to find out the name of the company to deliver the equipment.  I was home trying to reach company to find out when delivery was going to happen.  The social worker gave the company the wrong phone number to reach and they had been trying since Friday morning.  7:30pm almost everything, the most important stuff, oxygen equipment and wheel chair.

He started on them when he woke up this morning.  My friend and I arrived at 11am and he was outside and waiting.

The at-home case manager came by.  It wasn't nearly as bad as everyone had made it out it was going to be. She was very friendly, helpful.  She just loved our animals.  She was surprised by how well is compared to most people she sees.  Thinks he was ready to come home a couple weeks ago.

The nursing home didn't set up half the stuff they said they needed to get done before he comes home.  It's all been left up to me.  Such liars they are.  Oh well, I'm writing everything up and soon they will be hearing from the State.  I have a website full of numbers to call in the coming days.

His first order of business was to pet his cat Bootsie, who ran away from him frightened with a big puffy tail.  They'll all come around.  The bunnies have more bravery and have been checking out the O2 equipment.  Nippit likes to lick the tanks.

Then he went to his office and read all those posts since February 16th when this whole nightmare began.  He says he will right a guest post in the next couple days.

I keep running down the hall making sure he's really here.  I think I might drive him sane with constantly asking are you ok, do you want anything.  Aaaah, he told me to go relax and I don't know what to do with myself, now.

FO Friday

How much do I love FB, let me count the ways. One, Two posts went missing from the outage, just like for everyone else using Blogger.  Thankfully, I also post through my FB profile and those two missing posts were backed up in my profile notes.  I probably shouldn't have said that.  I might have a pack of angry Bloggers after me.

All of your comments are in my e-mail from the last couple days.  I could add them at the bottom of the posts, later.

Last night, while refreshing Blogger hundreds of times along with everyone else that uses Blogger, I skeined off the last of the BFL/silk. In my sleep deprived state, I counted around 550 to 600 yards.  I think I'm going to do a recount.  This is 8 ounces of 3 ply heavy fingering weight.  I believe I should have more yardage than that.

I'm leaving it the natural color which is light tan with grey and silver tones.  There is a pound all together that D bought me as a late Christmas present back in January. The other skein I believe I posted back in early February.   I was going to knit a cable sweater with it, but it will probably be awhile now, with the heat that's soon to be here.  Also, thought about selling it to pay bills if I could get a fair offer.  Will need to get a more accurate yardage count.

I know I said in yesterday's post that I didn't want to spew venom all over this post.  However, they gave me a fresh batch to spew.  So much so, I had a cussing right there in the lobby.  D they give ativan, me they give fresh venom to spew.

If you are just here for the fiber or are easily offended, because it's going to get nasty here in a bit, just scroll right past the following, if you want to comment on the yarn.   I'll give you time.  For more FO Friday posts, click the link below.  Otherwise, the rest of you wanting to continue reading my saga, we'll carry on after the Bootsie picture.

To save keystrokes, here are the abbreviations for the cast of characters:
NCM- nurse case manager
SW- social worker
GA- some lady who calls herself D's guardian angel  (if she were mine, I would send her back. She's pretty useless.)
ICM- insurance case manager
Dir - nursing home director

After I posted late Wednesday night, which is yesterday's post, I couldn't get to sleep to save my life.  That little person in my head said, "They got something else up their sleeve.  Something will go wrong and he won't come home Tuesday. What is it?"  Tried all my going to sleep tricks, but nothing would shut that voice up.  Finally, at 6 am I just got up and made coffee, sat in my chair, drumming my fingers and going over all their past conversations in my head.

Finally, at 9am, I hit upon it. The primary care Dr..  Did they get him one, like they said they were going to?  I'm betting not. My mind also went through all the patient care/discharge meetings I've witnessed back in NY. Where they do things the right way. (I'm not saying all nursing homes are messed up in AZ. Just this one.)  That's when I also decided, I'm not going to do anything to put me in jail. I'm going to call the state.

Here's how a meeting goes in NY.  In a conference room there is the nurse manager of the unit, social worker, representatives from PT/OT, dietitian, anyone else involved in the patient's care that the patient wants present, patient, patient's family and someone who takes notes on every thing that is said.  It is spelled out to both the family and patient what they need to do and what the nursing home needs to do.  A paper is written up and everyone gets a copy.  The patient knows for example, they need to be able to walk 50 feet for three days in a row, before discharge.

Here's how the last care planning happened last Wednesday, May 4, 2011.  I walked into the nursing home at 2:30pm, a half an hour before the meeting was scheduled to happen, to get D shaved, cleaned up, and in his chair to go to the conference room at 3pm.  I was met in the lobby by the NCM, SW and GA saying they had time and would do the meeting right then.  They piled in D's room and stood at the foot of the bed.

The NCM informed me that the insurance still hadn't been approved and that I needed to contact the intake person at the insurance.  (Which I had, you can read about it in WIPW post this week)  He needed to get a primary care dr. and be seen at least a week after discharge.  They said they would contact this one service for the primary care Dr. appt., and I informed them, that service's rep told me they didn't accept AZ long term care insurance.  They said they would contact someone else.  GA then made a list of all the equipment that needed to be ordered for home.  D nixed the hospital bed idea. Then they left with a tentative date of this Friday, (freaking today) to be discharged if I could get the insurance approved within 24 hrs. (Which I freaking did.)  Nothing was spelled out to D as to what he had to be capable of doing in order to come home.  Nothing.

If you haven't read my Wednesday and Thursday posts of this week, you can go back to catch up.  I'm about to start where I left off from there.  It's ok, I'll wait for you.  (Sits and watches the birds chirping away.)

Are you back?  Here's where it might get pretty nasty.  I'll try to censor myself, but not sure if I can because I'm still so pissed off, I'm shaking. (That's never a good sign. It's seconds before explosion time.) (The poor cat's are walking on their back legs, as they are covering their ears.  The birds are just trying to drown my cursing out.  Betty and Nippit are just ignoring me and Dammit is sitting here giving me tips of which explicatives I've left out.  Like a useful Zeppelin roadie would.)

Yesterday, I go right down to the NCM's office to check about the primary care Dr. appointment.  She says, well, just call so and so.  I said, "Does that company take his insurance? I told you last week, their rep didn't think they did."

She said, "Well, just call this other company.  Let's go down and ask SW."

They discuss who I should call and I have to actually stand there and request the SW to look up the numbers for me.  They then say, he has to have an appointment in place for Wednesday in order for him to leave on Tuesday.  Fine freaking time to say something.

I start with UMC as that was the hospital he was in and they have his records.  They are very friendly and give the first available appt. they have at the hospital for Mon. the 23rd.

I go back to the SW office, tell him.  He says, that's not good enough.  It has to be on Wednesday.  That the in home services will be there on Wednesday and that they will go back to their office call his primary to get orders for further service.  To call back and see if they Dr. will authorize it before he sees D.

I call back. No the Dr. will not authorize anything until after he sees the patient.  She then looks to see if she has anything sooner at another office.  Friday morning, the 20th is the absolute soonest she can fit us in at another location. I take it.

I go back down to the SW office and this is where I lose it.  No, Friday still isn't good enough, has to be Wednesday.  He tells me to call their other affiliate that is not affiliated with UMC, and to tell you the truth, I want to keep him with the UMC hospital since they saved his life and all.  I argue what is the difference of two f**king days.  He then says, well now, D can't come home until Thursday.

I lost it.  I told him how I thought they were very unprofessional, evasive and deceitful. That if I hadn't brought it up today, they would have waited until Tuesday to bring it and use it as yet another excuse to keep D there longer.  He gave me a blank stare and came up with some stupid answer.  I stormed out of his office yelling, "This place if full of f**king bullshit!"  I heard him yell, hey, but I kept right on stepping down the hall back to D's room.  I swear to everything there is to swear to, if he would have followed me, I would have decked him.

I call their other provider he suggested and they won't have an appointment for another 3 or more weeks.  How come I'm not surprised. Then, I call the ICM and leave a message on his voicemail about the above conversation and how I fail to see how two damn days makes a difference for D coming home on Tuesday.

D and I are so livid, we have dinner in his room, as we don't feel we would be suitable company for the other couple.  Which was by the way, one hotdog, D got a small salad (about a half a cup of iceberg lettuce), I got a bag of potato chips, and a tiny dixie cup of ice cream.  I've never seen such a small pathetic dinner served at any of the nursing homes back home, and I've worked at some of the nastiest as an agency nurse just before they were shut down.

The Dir stops in to congratulate D on coming home today.  Oh boy, do we give him an earful and he takes notes on his I-pad.  He says he will bring it up in their staff meeting.  I explain to him, I've worked long-term, re-hab and home care back in NY over ten years and I've never seen such a shoddy, unprofessional, deceitful and evasive discharge as I have just witnessed.  I then went on to explain how things are done back home.

After he finished taking notes, he then asked D if he was ok. D said, I guess so.  Just hope it helps the next person.  He said me if I was ok. I said, nope, I'm just reminding myself how I don't look good in prison orange.  He laughed. I glared.  He then apologized and said he'd never heard that expression used that way.  I thought, hang out on my FB page buddy.  You'll get an education.

If you're one of my FB friends you may have been entertained or not by my venting through status shuffle the past couple days.  Venting there is better than doing something that I will end up wearing prison orange. It's ok to think it and feel it.  It's just illegal if I threaten to actually do it or act on those thoughts and feelings.

This morning the ICM called me back and said he doesn't see how Friday's appointment is a big deal and he has it down that D is coming home on Tuesday, final.  He then called a second time with the At Home Case Workers name and that she will be at my home on Tuesday afternoon to meet with both D and I.

The Dir. and GA came to D this morning and confirmed that yes, it is in the computer that the equipment has been ordered. Yes, they have it for his discharge officially on Tuesday. Now, the NCM said on Wednesday in the hall to D that if we have the equipment in the house on Monday night, she has no problem with him going home Monday night.  We shall see.  As far as him coming home Tuesday, we'll shall see if that happens too.  At this point, I'm believing it when it actually happens.  If not, however, I will be on the phone to state right there in D's room. They didn't pay attention to whom they were dealing with. I looked them up online and they rate a 2 out of 5 on the states rating.

I'm leaving out the name of the place on my copy and paste from the ucomparehealthcare.com's website.

******* a nursing home in Tucson, AZ received a 2 out of 5 overall rating from CMS of the Dept of Health and Human Services on August 10th 2010. This score means that ***********  is rated below average overall based on health inspections, nursing home staffing and quality measures.


***********  has an above average registered nurse per resident per day of 38 minutes compared to the Arizona state nursing home average of minutes. They had 24 deficiencies in its past 2 state inspections compared to the AZ average of 14 and 5 complaints compared to the AZ average of 4.

They are about to have another complaint filed. Unfortunately, they are the only facility in Tucson that the state insurance would accept and pay for with trach care.

 I'm not afraid of them.  What's the worse they can do to me?  Have me black-balled from working as a nurse here.  That's already been done back home for me daring to file a Workman's Comp claim for my freak injury.  They won't get a cherry there..  I highly doubt anyone there has the clout to pull it off.  There's other towns and states with the same climate as here.  Tucson doesn't have the market cornered on dry climate conditions.  Besides, D has been talking about heading further west at some point to San Jose.

*knock, knock*  Did you make it this far?  If you have, I hope I haven't offended you.  Just venting and telling like it is, because that's how I roll.  I'm not afraid to speak my mind, even if it gets me trouble, I have the satisfaction of saying my peace.  Thanks for dropping by.  I'm off to copy and paste my WIPW post back into place.

Feels Like A Hostage Situation

Really, it does.  I'm writing this Wednesday night, so those of you following this saga will read it Thursday, at some point.  Maybe. Really depends when you come around.  I don't want my venom spewing off onto my FO Fiber Friday post. 

*Banging my head on the wall* ARGGH!!!  *deep breath* Ok, so last week they said, this past Monday or Tuesday.  Then they changed it to Friday.  When I spoke to the care provider case manager, he said the weekend.

Today, as in Wednesday, shortly after I posted, back up to the nursing home.  I'm told they are in conferences all day.  I'm a persistent sneaky little shit.  When I headed to the bathroom, I saw the social worker coming down the other hall.  He saw me and stalled like he was going to change direction.  So I turned around and went back to D's room.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the social worker head into his office.  When he came back out, guess who he ran right into?

I cornered him, expressed I'm a very patient person, but my patience have worn thin and I'm sick of feeling like I'm being avoided and brushed off.  He said, they were starting the next conference but they would see me afterward.  I said, I hope so, because if not, tomorrow won't be pretty.

Let me explain the course of his day.  He wakes up between 5:30 and 6am.  At my insistence he has a CNA come stand there while he gets up, walks to the bathroom with his walker, comes out, washes his face and hands, brushes his teeth.  Then gets back into bed to do his bed exercises.  It's at my insistence because I told him if does it by himself, falls and crack his damn skull, I'll come to the hospital and crack his skull a second time. Safety first.

He dresses himself. Sweats or shorts, t-shirt and footies. Then at some point he goes down to the gym for PT and OT.  They don't have a set schedule.  Maddening.  All the nursing homes I worked at had a schedule.  He does leg exercises with 5 lb weights.  He can now walk 150 ft with the walker and 20 feet without before he desats. (His blood oxygen lowers to a dangerous level). He then goes back to his room for lunch and wait for me to call to let him know when I'm leaving to come up.  He then has a CNA watch while he gets out of bed into the wheelchair and pushes himself out to the front patio to wait for me.  My friend is so impressed on how he's out there for the past week, every day.

We go back in and I'm the spotter for all his moving abouts.  Dinnertime, we go out in the dining room and sit with the other couple.  The wife took me back and forth these past couple days while my friend was in San Diego.  Since I found out I could, I get a guest tray and have the yucky, nursing home dinner with him.  Maybe the cause of my bad stomach last week, could be nerves, possibly a virus.  I just know it hurt so bad, I was tempted to call an ambulance when the pain woke me from a sound sleep for several nights.  I'm all better now, thankfully.   

So, we're sitting in his room, waiting for the three stooges.  The case manager from the provider calls on my cell.  He said he had just spoken to the nurse case manager there at the home and it's set up tentatively for Tuesday now.  They don't do discharges on the weekends and PT supposedly hasn't released him yet.  D has spoken to everyone at PT and they tell him, he is ready to go home.  I'm so pissed, I can't contain it.  I tell him I sick to death of the double talk I'm getting and well a few other things, I can't remember, but it wasn't nice.

So, I tell D the news and head outside to have a smoke.  Sometimes, I just got to lest I do something...... and prison orange just ain't my color.   I see the social worker out there on his cell phone.  He comes over to tell me the stuff was supposedly finally ordered and he will come home tentatively on Tuesday.  I told him how, I just talked to the other guy and frankly, I mad as hell about their double talk and hem hawing around.

I went back into the room and D had me give his shoes, which he put on himself.  Then got himself up to the chair and wheeled himself down to the nurse case manager's office to confront her about her double talk. She ducked into a patient's room and he waited for her outside.  When she came out, if she thinks he let her have it, I'm telling you, he held back.  If he's still there next Wednesday, she'll find out what kind of fit he can throw. He did let her know on no uncertain terms how pissed he is and how much he hates feeling like a hostage. It's all arbitrary nonsense and double talk.  He feels like a prisoner and doesn't know what his crime is, much less the sentence.

There is a few beds empty there at the nursing home.   When we first arrived to the nursing home, the guy in the next room was bed ridden, had to be fed all his meals.  He was scheduled for discharge to home on a Friday, but it was delayed until that Sunday morning. Back when D was in ICU, one of the nurses told me it was feast or famine.  That is was the season of feast, because no sooner did a patient leave when another one was taking their place.  However, come summer, it's famine and the nurses hardly get regular hours much less overtime, because there are so few patients.  They are slower to release them to the regular floor.  Read into that what you will.  I think I've made my suspicions clear.

If you've read my rantings this far, well, bless your sweet little heart.  Thank you for dropping by.  I think I'm going to write next Wednesday's post on Monday night and just have it scheduled to post Wednesday morning.  If you don't see a "He's Home!!!" post on Tuesday and a pre-written scheduled post on Wednesday, you'll know I'm probably sitting in the Pima County Jail.  You know if any of you want to take pity on me and raise and post my bail.  That or I'll be sitting in a corner, rocking and pulling my eyelashes out.

I told D, I've done all that I can, I've pushed and pushed.  I throw my hands up. That dead mule came to life long enough to dig a hole in the ground, pour in quick drying cement and sticks it's feet in.  For me to push anymore, would be, well.... beating a dead mule, stuck in cement.  He's going to have to take over from here and do the pushing with people who need it.  Show them, he's ready and wants to come home, NOW!

He said the first thing he's going to do is go back to the last of my blog posts he's read and catch up.  He's already preparing his guest post in his mind, after he catches up with all he's missed with himself.  He wants to be home and use his own computer to do that.

WIP Wednesday

These weeks seem to get longer and longer.  Right now, I feel like Bootsie chasing her tail on the old cat tree we had.  First up, the fiber stuff.

This is last week's picture of the sock, because that's how I've gotten, no where.  Can't get the printer to work, so I'm working off my laptop and I've just been too tired to drag it up to the nursing home.

The tank top, I'm just making it up as I go along, because that's how I like to roll.  Amazingly, my flowers haven't burnt to a crisp yet.  We've been having some strange weather down here.  Saturday, it was 94F with a dew point temperature of -10F.  I didn't know the dew point could even go in the negative.  Needless to say with a 115 degree difference it was dry as....., well, I don't know what.  The fires have started in the mountains.  Yesterday, it had cooled off to the upper 70's and the same today.  I'm going to enjoy it.  The weekend is supposed to go back into the high 90's and we'll probably not see 70 or 80 again, until late October.  Once it hits 100, that's it.

The tank top is a fingering weight cotton/rayon that I dyed awhile back.  I'm hoping to have enough yarn here.  There is another skein in my stuff that is in my daughter's storage back in NY.  At least, I hope it's still in her storage.  I haven't heard from her in awhile and I'm getting concerned as she didn't call or leave me a message on FB for my birthday or Mother's Day.

I knitted three repeats of the strawberry pattern and the rest of the way up is going to stockinette stitch with waist and breast shaping.

I'm almost finished with the second ounce of my friend's merino silk.  I clean a little then reward myself with some spinning.  Or more often I reward myself, then clean.

It's pretty fine, as in thin, spinning.  Not so much because she said she liked the fineness of lace weight, but more because I'm just that damn tense.  I can only picture reading and thinking, "oh no, Denise back away from my fiber.  I wanted lace weight not cobweb."

That's all for the fiber.  It's been quite a week.  I don't know where to start.  Quite surprised I'm not bald, from it all.  You know how I've been comparing this journey to a marathon that I haven't been told how long it actually is.  It feels like a 500k race, maybe longer.  The runners are at the final mile, deliriously staggering on, that's me.  Except this last mile is all uphill and I'm pushing a wagon with a broken wheel and a dead mule attached to it.

Since my last post, what I've been dealing with make the Keystone Cops and the Three Stooges look intelligent, professional and well organized.  Last Wednesday, I arrived a half an hour before the meeting was to take place, so I could help him shave and look like a normal civilian and not a nursing home resident.  The three stooges met me in the hall and said they had to do the pseudo meeting right then, in his room.  I say, pseudo, because it's really like making a dream list of what would you do with a million dollars.  In other words, they're taking their time about acting on it.

The insurance hadn't been approved yet as the intake lady was still waiting for the paper from his job.  Thankfully, Thursday, before she left for her three day weekend, she took verbal confirmation from them over the phone, as they said it would still be several days before they would get to the actual paperwork.  She approved him right away.

Friday afternoon, their contractor left me a message on the answering machine as to who the case worker was and his direct line.  Meanwhile, I'm cleaning like a mad woman.  The nurse case manager said it he could come home tentatively this Friday.  Haha. (sarcasm)

Monday, I call the provider case manager and get his voice mail all morning.  That afternoon I go up to talk to the nurse case manager and ask her if she started ordering the stuff as the insurance was approved and in the computer.  She said, no, because she didn't know who the provider case worker was.  I said, it's this guy, now get on it.

At a few minutes before four, the provider case worker calls me on my cell and says he doesn't have the case file yet.  So, he's pretty evasive at answering my questions and says he'll contact the nursing home in the morning. That he should probably just transfer the case to an at home case manager and not mess around with it himself, to make things go faster.

I'm a doer. I have a problem with delegating and this is why.  When I delegate something to someone else, I expect it to be done in a timely manner.  I hate having to constantly go back and make sure the person did what I asked them to.  I might as well just do it myself.  In this case, what is left to be done I wish I could do it myself.

Tuesday, yesterday, I go to the nursing home and head right for the nurse case manager's office.  No, she hadn't been in contact with the other guy.  No, she hadn't ordered anything because she hadn't talked to the guy yet.  Well, if he's transferring the case, that's just going to make this take several days longer.  Excuses, excuses.  So she calls and leaves a message with me standing there and sets me back to bugging him.

He calls me back right away in D's room and says he's been playing phone tag with the nursing home.  He's a little more familiar with things now, and asks if I would mind taking care of D at home for free until they get me certified.  No, I don't mind at all.  The nursing home said, I couldn't do that, but I'm going with what the provider says.  He's says it's possible to get D home this weekend and they'll just have the at home case worker come out next Monday or Tuesday.

I go back down to the office at the nursing home and tell the nurse case manager, who says ok, I'll call him right away.  D and I wait an hour and head back down to her office.  This is where they are dodging me.  Every time I see her or the social worker there, they are busy with something else and will come to the room when they are finished.  Which they don't.  Then when they see me in the hallway they turn and go in the other direction.

Today, they are in those pseudo conferences all day.  That will be the next excuse.  I wouldn't mind so much as I know things take time, if they didn't look so disorganized and just hem hawing around coming up with yet another excuse and another delay.  Then they are going so far as to borrow trouble, worrying about my electric bill, phone bill coming due again at the end of the month with me no money coming in.  Their delaying things is just making that worse and let me worry about the damn bills, thank you very much. (that's to them.) The electric bill is only 45.00 dollars and 30 days behind and the phone and internet went up another 10.00 from last month.  If he comes home, things will move faster for  me to be certified and paid, plus I would finally have the time to list stash for sale.

 I just wish I had the money to go out and buy the oxygen equipment, wheel chair, walker and other things myself.  So I could tell them to....... well, I'm sure you can figure that one out.

He has to come home at some point.  They can't hold him hostage to their oxygen and equipment forever...... I hope.

That is another week in my life.  There is more to it that has happened but I can only type so much.  I'm headed out to push my broken wagon with the dead mule up that hill.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hopefully, I'll post Friday with the BFL/silk skeined out and yet another saga.  Maybe, I'll be near the top of the hill.  Cross paws.

WIP Wednesday

Another week gone by.  I  have some great news at the end. First, we'll start with what's fiberly.

I'm going for a garden shot while we can still enjoy my flowers before they burn up.  It's one o'clock in the afternoon here and already 96F/35.5C.  Supposed to get up to 98 today, it will probably make it. Just going to get hotter from here on.

I'm using the pattern Lacy Cable Knee Socks with Fleece Artist merino that the wonderful Nikki sent me in a care package.  I've started the second calf increase.  It's almost finished, then will start right in on the second one.

I finished spinning and plying the BFL/silk.  Will post a picture on Friday.  So, I started on some merino/silk that my friend from Phoenix brought down to me when she visited while D was in ICU. (too lazy to look up that post.)

Since I have a ton of handspun yarn, not too much fiber left in the stash though.  I told her after I spun it up, I would send it back so she could knit something with it.  She said she had planned a to spin a laceweight.  Sadly, she is currently wheelless.  Also is a faithful reader of my blog. *waves*

I wish I knew how to use the macro mode on the camera.  Don't know where the book is that came with it.  This is the single next to a strand of size 30 cotton.  I'm taking my time to do my finest spinning both in quality and thinness.

Here it is plyed back on itself next to the stand of cotton.  There is four ounces here, which I split in two, then split those two in half again, making sure they all went from top to bottom in order.  I should get around 850 to 900 yard minimum, I'm trying for 1000.

 Since it's too damn hot to think about knitting a sweater, much less wearing one, I've started a tank top.  Not much here to show.  It's another one of those just start knitting and make it up as I go along.  The yarn is a cotton/rayon from Henry's Attic that I dyed in peach, pink and lavender.

The New Moon was last night, so that means it's TUSAL time.  Just a strand or two added from the cross stitch I started last week. Not much more was stitched on it to be worth another picture.  My ort jar pictured between my candles on my freshly dusted stereo.  It needs a doily there.  I thought I should hurry up and make one before D gets home and clutters it back up with cd's.  However, there's not enough time for that.

The great news is at three o'clock we are having the official discharge planning meeting.  Hopefully, sometime next week, he will be home!!!  They said it could be as early as Monday or Tuesday but more likely later in the week.

They need to get a hospital bed, wheel chair, walker, commode, shower chair, and oxygen concentrator plus who knows what all else in here.  Glad we have a two bedroom.  Which means I need to clean out his office enough to fit the bed in. Feels like I'm opening my skilled nursing center right in the apartment.

I have a ton of cleaning to do in a very short time period.  My stomach has been in agony since Sunday, I'm sure it's just nerves.  However, it slows down my progress, which adds more stress, more stomach pain. Just a viscous circle.

In other news, remember my little birds?  Two of the boys thinks it's fun to stand on either side of the door and lift it open.  They've gotten is as high as an inch.  Just enough for one of the other's to think it's a good idea to fly out.  Four cats, not a good idea.  I've put a bread tie on it for now, but they just chew right through it in a day.  I'll have to find a small lock to put on there.  Boy, can they chew up some bird seed.  Walmart up the street stopped carrying the bird seed so now I have to go up to Target and they charge almost twice as much for less.

Cristy from Turtle Girl's Blog said my place reminds her of the show My Name Is Earl.  This morning I heard one of neighbors upstairs in the courtyard yelling and swearing.  It seems, as witnessed by the developmentally disabled woman who lives across from the laundry room, that someone climbed over our stone wall at 2:30 in the morning, did their wash, then defecated in our washers.  WTH!?! I don't know what the manager is going to do about the washers, but he said he's putting a lock on the laundry room door.  Meanwhile, I have three loads I need to do.  It never ends around here, I'm telling you.

The lady who's been taking me back and forth needs to go back to San Diego on Monday and will be back on Wednesday night.  So, I have to figure out transportation for those days again.  No way I could get lucky enough for him to come home on Monday, you know.

I think these two have the right idea.