2011 - January/February

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=50 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="0ab0ce82egerdp.png"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=95 BGCOLOR="#CC99CC" TEXT="#080000" background="0aa265f1ezuady.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Hynda and Nolan's  Rome and Other Adventures</B></FONT><B>  </B><B> </B><B>|   </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hynda and Nolans Rome and Other Adventu"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id237.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Lonnie Chronicles"><U>The Lonnie Chronicles</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id238.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2010 May/June"><U>2010 - May/June</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id240.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="July/August"><U>July/August</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id243.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="September/October"><U>September/October</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id266.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="November/December"><U>November/December</U></A>   |   <B>2011 - January/February</B>   |   <A HREF="id271.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="March/April/May"><U>March/April/May</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id298.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="June/July/August/September"><U>June/July/August/September</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id241.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Bad Bus Trip"><U>The Bad Bus Trip</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=385 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFF33" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>2011 - January/February</I></div> <div> <B>Thursday, January 20:</B> In talks with Lonnie we learned that he is still in PT and thinks he can go home. He first wanted to go home by January 10<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT>, then January 17<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> and now January 24<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT>. I have been trying to work with the social worker to get him some home health care through Medicare. We are working with the same social worker from the first visit. The last one got promoted so we are back with the original one. I got a call from a Home Health company who talked about Medicaid but Lonnie would have to give up all his $$$ and live on the balance they allow in NY for Medicare which is $787. He could not pay his rent, feed himself, etc for that amount. We agreed to try to get him 4 hours a day of help for 5 days a week. Medicare will pay for this for up to 9 weeks if the discharge is written correctly. This is what they did wrong on the first discharge and I have no confidence they will get it right this time. I am trying to convince Lonnie to let them discharge him the first week in February when we will be home from Florida and in New York to help Ruth with a jewelry show she will be doing in NYC.</div> <div> Bob visited Lonnie today and called me about the visit. He tried to talk Lonnie into not going home next Monday but waiting until I get back to DC and can come to NY and also until the home health care is in place. Lonnie's answer was `F*** you and Nolan'.</div> <div> <B>Friday, January 21</B>: Called Lonnie about 4 times today and each time it went directly to voice mail so he has turned his phone off.</div> <div> <B>Saturday, January 22: </B>Lonnie answered the phone today. He sounded like I woke him up. I told him that I had talked to the Social Worker and she was going to call the home health care agency, that it would take a week to set up and that I thought he should go home on Monday the 31<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >st</FONT> of January when I get home and can get to NY. He told me that he was in a hellhole and that he should not have answered the phone and hung up on me.</div> <div> <B>Monday, January 31</B>:  I made it a point not to talk to Lonnie all last week. I had no idea whether he would just walk out of the hospital on last Monday, January 24<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> or wait for the social worker to arrange things for when we were coming. I did talk to the social worker and she was working on getting him home this week. I finally called Bob and learned that he had seen Lonnie in the hospital Saturday (29<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT>) and Lonnie did not expect anything to happen and he was in for life. I called him Sunday to tell him we would be up on Monday (31<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >st</FONT>) and it looked like he would be coming home on Tuesday.</div> <div> The Queen's daughter had a booth at the NY International Gift Show and the Queen was going to help her. When we got in the Queen went directly to the Javits Convention Center where the gift show was and I went to Roosevelt Island to see what was happening. I got a nice greeting from Lonnie and as I entered the Health Care nurse walked in. I had told the social worker that when they dismissed Lonnie in August they had written out the discharge like he was fully able to take care of himself and that meant that under Medicare he was not eligible for  help. I stressed that they needed to write the discharge in a different way. This time they said he was demented and when the Visiting Nurse came in she had no idea that he could respond by himself to questions so she asked me everything. Of course, this made Lonnie very angry since he felt like she was treating him like a child by ignoring him and talking to his `parent'. Fortunately, he said nothing much while she was there but after she left I explained to him that the reason she was not asking him things was because she thought he was demented. At one point she did ask him the day of the week and he did not know but I do not blame him since being in that environment would cause anyone to lose track of the days of the week.</div> <div> We were now set up for a visiting nurse for three days per week and some physical therapy also. The social worker came into the room at that time and I told her I would come tomorrow and take Lonnie home in a taxi. She told me the ambulance was paid for and that is how they wanted him to go home. I asked if I could ride with him and she said there would be another person in the ambulance and it would be against insurance regulations. I was to just be at his apartment and wait for him.</div> <div> Later that night I met the Queen and Ruth and a young lady who was helping Ruth at the booth. We had a nice relaxing dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant on 2<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >nd</FONT> Avenue not far from Lonnie's apartment.</div> <div> <B>Tuesday, February 1</B>: In the morning we did some shopping for Lonnie. I had asked him to give me a list of things he would like in the house when he got home. Hynda left for the gift show and I waited for Lonnie. The ambulance was supposed to pick him up at noon and I figured that it could take them at least an hour to get to Lonnie's apartment even if they dropped him off first. I sat and read my book. I had told Lonnie to call me from the ambulance when they left the hospital. I did get a call from him at about 12:30 PM from the ambulance and he said they were waiting for the other passenger. </div> <div> Lonnie suddenly appeared at his apartment door after 4 PM. It seems that the other passenger was going to Brooklyn and the driver thought that Lonnie lived on East 10<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> Street in Brooklyn - not Manhattan!! Lonnie got a tour of Brooklyn today. I was set to go down and help him since the streets of NY were still covered with snow and also had lots of ice on the sidewalk from the morning ice rain storm. He did manage to negotiate the sidewalk with the use of his walker which the driver had carried upstairs. </div> <div> I had prepared some water for boiling pasta, garlic bread from his last bit of foccacia (spelling??) bread from the freezer (remember this..) and some cut up fruit for dinner. After he was settled in and realizing that he had not eaten anything since breakfast I told him I was going to cook pasta for dinner and asked him which of the three pasta sauces he wanted that I had gotten that morning. He said `Why would I want pasta. I can always make pasta. I want an Acapulco Burrito from the Mexican Restaurant on 1<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >st</FONT> Avenue.' So off I went to the little restaurant to get him dinner.</div> <div> Upon my return Lonnie had obviously explored the apartment. I was bombarded with the following for about one hour:</div> <div> You have gone through every draw in this apartment and misplaced things and I do not know where anything is.</div> <div> What did you do with all my pills? (We had indeed thrown out all pills that were dated over TWO years ago - estimate these to be about 4,000 pills.) They were my backup and they were what was keeping me alive. What will I do without my backup?</div> <div> Why did you pay my rent on time? I told you that I always pay late and they do not deserve to get paid on time. (This came after I told him that he could start paying his bills now and I did not have to do it.)</div> <div> What did you do with the foccicia bread that I had in the freezer? (The bread had to be several months old and it was covered with freezer ice. I had used some to make the garlic bread and got rid of the rest.)</div> <div> Where is my TV? (Lonnie had an old TV - analog - and I could not find a converter in any of the local stores so I got rid of it and got him a new flat screen one. When he went back into the hospital in September and they told me that he was going to die and was going into hospice I returned the TV - he had it less than a month.) I told him that I would go out and get him a new one. As an aside - he claims that he never watched TV in the hospital and having an analog set meant that he has not watched any TV at home for many years.</div> <div> After he finished eating I left to meet Hynda and Ruth for dinner again. I brought in his laundry on my way so that we could pick it up in the morning.</div> <div> <B>Wednesday, February 2</B>: Today we went to Lonnie's apartment with breakfast and to wait for the visiting nurse, who will do an analysis, decide on the days and times and make an assessment about physical therapy. We picked up the laundry on the way and negotiated the very slippery icy streets. When we entered the apartment, Hynda asked Lonnie how it felt to be back in his apartment. I must say that up to this point he very rarely vented in front of Hynda - it was mostly directed at me. He said - this is no longer my apartment - it is your apartment and Nolan's apartment - you have changed everything and I do not know where anything is.</div> <div> The visiting nurse was supposed to show up at noon and we called her at 12:30 PM. She said she was downstairs and was waiting for another nurse who she was going to train. About a half hour later she called to tell us that the other nurse had slipped on the ice and was in the hospital. The nurse came up and interviewed Lonnie, took his vital signs and they decided she would come on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. Physical Therapy would begin next week. She then asked about his prescriptions and Lonnie told her that they were all in the bathroom. Her mouth dropped open when she saw how many drugs he had. She also noted that some of the bottles had dates that were two years old. She instructed Lonnie that he was not to take any old drugs. </div> <div> There was a bag of drugs that Lonnie had brought home from the hospital and I had asked him if was going to talk to the nurse about these and he said no. Fortunately, she noticed them and asked him about them. He told her that the hospital did not know what they were doing and he was not going to take any of them. She went through them all and discovered some that she considered very important and Lonnie again said he was not going to take them. She immediately called Lonnie's primary care doctor, described the situation and the told Lonnie that his doctor said that he must take the pills.</div> <div> We told Lonnie that based upon what the nurse was going to do he would need to call Elaine, the woman who cleans for him every two weeks, and ask her if she could come once per week to help him shop, cook, clean, etc. He said that he could not afford her once per week. (Not true.) When we were leaving we met Elaine coming out of another apartment on the street and told her Lonnie was home and he would need help. We asked her if she would call him knowing that he was not going to call her.</div> <div> When we left I asked Lonnie if he wanted us to come up next week and help him get to his doctor's appointment. He said that he did not want me to come up and I can now get out of his life and leave him alone. </div> <div> <B>Friday, February 4</B>: Lonnie called today and asked: “Where is my f***n pasta pot?” I told him that after he said he did not want pasta I had put it away in a lower cabinet. That was the wrong place he told me. He also said that Elaine had stopped by and had taken his laundry in and picked it up for him.</div> <div> <B>Thursday, February 10</B>: Lonnie did make it to his doctor's appointment this week. Bob helped him down the steps, carried his walker, and they managed to make it to a cab. Bob has also done some shopping for him. Lonnie says he is not making any progress and still has a problem with his balance. The physical therapist was coming later today.</div> <div> <B>Monday, February 21: </B>The first thing I did when I arrived was to go out and buy Lonnie a new TV. When I went to Best Buy where I got the other one I saw that they had one TV with open stock that had been returned. I thought it was the one that I had returned in August and the price was only $129 - I had paid $199 for the unopened box in August. I also stopped by Verizon, TMobile, AT&T to see about getting him a USB modem for getting Internet at his apartment. They all wanted a minimum contract of 2 years. At Best Buy they were selling CLEAR and they required no contract - it was month by month with a one month cancellation fee. I set up an account for Lonnie. I also went out to Haveli and got an Indian dinner for Lonnie and I to eat. I set up the TV after dinner and with no cable was able to get about 65 channels - some in HD. Of the 65 about 45 were either Spanish or Chinese. . I took the computer back to the hotel room with me to set it up. When I left I took his laundry and dropped it off. </div> <div> <B>Tuesday: February, 22</B>: Today I had to pick up Lonnie's pills. Elaine was there to clean and she also picked up the laundry. It turned out that the TV was missing a few parts so I had to bring it back. The only ones there were new ones so my deal was gone - but when I went to the desk the girl at the desk managed to get me a sale price on the Best Buy website that was for $159 so she still saved me $40. </div> <div> I tried to five Lonnie a computer lesson but he was not interested. I showed him just how to get his email but he refused to try to do it - just looked at me doing it.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>