Palliative Care & Long Term Care Insurance
Visitors: At this time, family members are visiting from SoCal and nearby. We do not want to tire Mom out too much. Thank you for your understanding at this time. Mom is a proud person, and never wanted anyone to see her sick...so, thank you for your thoughts and prayers...
Mom had a bad morning. She still has the NG tube that is providing her nutrition, but, she threw up this am. They wanted to put another tube down her nose temporarily to "suction" out when needed...but, Mom refused.
The Palliative Care team met with us this morning. They are reviewing Mom's medications and will be stopping any meds that do not contribute to "comfort" and providing the meds to enhance comfort. We have moved Mom to a private room and have removed her NG tube. Since she is now in a private room, Dave is able to bring his two children (ages 4 and 1) to visit for a short time. My kids are older (11 and 9) and I was able to sneak them in earlier.
Palliative care (pronounced pal-lee-uh-tiv) is the medical specialty focused on relief of the pain, stress and other debilitating symptoms of serious illness. Here is a website that goes into more details on Palliative Care. Click here: Palliative Care
We are now weighing the options of bringing Mom home with hospice assistance...or going to a extended care facility with hospice. Mom started saying today that she wants to go home.
(Connie, did you work at Hospice after the hospital? Do you have any "connections"? Would Mom know any of the Hospice caregivers? After all those years @ the hospital...you think we should be able to have some "influence"....)
Long Term Care Insurance - okay...now for those of you who have Long Term Care Insurance....please call the Customer Service phone number and find out if you need to have a "3rd party authorization" on file in order for your kids to obtain information about your policy.
I am jumping through some hoops to find out what coverage Mom has...they won't even tell me that. Then of course, I spoke to a CS person who does not know what he is talking about and I thought I needed a Power of Attorney that was filed with the courts....the saga is ongoing...but, I will call tomorrow to see if the Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare that we faxed to them is sufficient. Once that is cleared up, I can have Dad fill out the 3rd party authorization, that has to be sent to the house in Salinas, then MAYBE I can talk to someone regarding coverage. (No worries Mr. Schwefel...I will let you know if I need any additional information)
posted by Sheri @ 9:55 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Sheri, I'm sorry but I worked with the home care part of VNA, not Hospice. I did know the ones in administration but now they have retired. I did have VNA Hospice for my husband. Regretably, I was disappointed because he was in a skilled nursing facility that I was not happy with mainly because of the lack of sensitivity of the staff. CHOMP has Hospice and I know that they have a facility where the patient can receive care or they can help the patient and family at home. With most of the skilled nursing facilities, some of the patients can be noisy and most are understaffed. Sheri, my thoughts are wandering but I just thought of someone who might be able to help since she is still working. Bev Ranzenberger (Erickson), used to work at NMC but now is in administration at SVMH--831-757-4333. Bev worked in ICU with Joyce and also in administration. She can probably have one of the nurses who does discharge planning direct you to the choices that are available. Let me know if I can help and I'll be thinking of how else I can help. Connie
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