June/July/August/September

<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>   |   <A HREF="id269.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2011 January/February"><U>2011 - January/February</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id271.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="March/April/May"><U>March/April/May</U></A>   |   <B>June/July/August/September</B>   |   <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>June/July/August/September</I></div> <div> <B>Wednesday, June 9, 2011: </B> Met with the social worker at Beth Israel and they are going to send Lonnie home with a home health aid that will come in 5 days per week for 4 hours per day. This will not be covered by Medicaid and when I talked to company they explained that it would cost about $2000 per month and can last as long as he wants it.  Lonnie insisted that he does not need that much time and I tried to convince him that he can cut back if he is doing well at home.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Wednesday, July 20, 2011</B>:  Today I got a call from the Beth Israel social worker and Lonnie is somehow eligible for Medicaid. I am not sure how this happened since everyone said that he is not eligible (in NYC you cannot earn more than $770 per month and his SSI is more than that) and I still have the paper work which Lonnie signed but did not want me to submit for some reason. With Medicaid he can have a home health aide up to 6 hours per day 5 days per week. He is still insisting that he only needs 4 hours per day.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Tuesday, July 26, 2011:</B>  They called me yesterday from the hospital and asked me if I could be there when Lonnie comes home tomorrow. I told them I was in DC and could get there but it would be at 3PM. The ambulance was bringing him home at noon. I called Bob and he said he would be around. I called the hospital back and told them to call Bob and tell him what time. They never called Bob until they were downstairs and Bob was in the shower. Lonnie got out of the ambulance and walked up the stairs and waited in front of his door for Bob since he did not have key. </div> <bR> <div> I arrived at about 2:30PM and Lonnie was home. He was glad to be home but apprehensive about how he was going to do. He is quite unsteady on his feet and can only get along with holding onto the walls or using a walker. I went out to the store to stock his refrigerator. The visiting nurse was supposed to come today but they called to postpone until tomorrow. The home health aid would start the next day. I wanted to get him enough food to last until they came but not longer since I told him he needed to get out everyday to exercise and he should not buy a lot of stuff. </div> <bR> <div> I installed the air conditioner back in his window. It had not been installed for over 4 years because he thought it was too expensive to run. He asked me to put up a curtain on his bedroom entry way so that he would only air condition the bedroom. I told him he should not do that because I thought it would be a hazard for him going in and out of the bedroom. Later he told Bob he was mad at me for not hanging the curtain and that I had refused - he did not tell Bob my reasoning. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Friday, August 5, 2011</B>: Called Lonnie today and he seemed fine. He likes the home health aide and knew a bit about her background which means they were talking. He told me that she needs to work more hours - she is only there for 4 hours per day. Lonnie said he does not need her for more hours. She may leave and look for another job. I tried to tell him that Medicaid would pay for up to 6 hours and it does not cost him anything. He does not want to do it. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Thursday, August 11, 2011</B>:  Lonnie had a doctor's appointment today and he went by taxi with the home health aide. On the way home they took a taxi to the bank and then Lonnie wanted to walk home from the bank. It is about 6 blocks. He fell down after 4 blocks and she had trouble helping him up so she wanted to call an ambulance. Lonnie told her not to but she did anyway. The ambulance that came was from Beth Israel which Lonnie hated - bad food, rotten people, etc. He told the ambulance driver that he would walk into traffic and kill himself before he got into the ambulance. They had him sign some papers that he refused to get in ambulance and they helped him up and followed him the the apartment as he walked. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Tuesday, August 16, 2011</B>: Lonnie called me!!! The meds must be working. This is the first time he has called in awhile. He has fallen in the apartment a couple of times but has managed to get up. He feels that he is making no improvement in his leg strength and balance. He claims he is doing the exercises - a physical therapist comes twice a week - and is out everyday. I do not believe that. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Monday, August 29, 2011</B>: I got two phone messages at the Kensington house. They were from old friends of Lonnie's trying to reach him. Toby is a friend from when Lonnie used to hang out at the Phone Booth, a bar on Second Avenue that is no longer there. Jan and Al, his friends from West Virginia also left a message. I called them both, gave them an update, and told them to call. I called Lonnie after and asked him if it was OK to give out his phone number - even though I had already done it. He said it was OK.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Thursday, September 7, 2011:</B> Lonnie was fine. Has put on a bit of weight. He says it is from eating too many bagels and pizza - there were two pizza boxes in the apartment. Still unsteady on his feet but managing. There is some concern that his Medicare/Medicaid will run out next week and he will be without the 5 day/4 hour person who comes. (Bob likes her very much.) Told him to call the private agency that we were negotiating with before we learned that he was eligible for Medicaid (which he may not be??). He does not want to use them because they are too expensive.  Bought him burritos for dinner from his favorite place. He needed some cranberry juice so I bought one bottle - cost in NYC corner market $6.59!!! He asked me to remove the air conditioner from the window where I had put it when he came home. He only turned it on once - too expensive to run and there will be draft in the winter. I removed it and it is now the repository for all his socks. Lonnie must have about 100 pairs of socks - no exaggeration.</div> <bR> <div> Trip home was interesting. Took the train at 9PM. We got about 50 yards from the Union Station platform when the lights and AC on the train went out. Train glided to a stop at 12:10AM just short of the station. We were first told that a wire was down in front of us and that the power to all the tracks were out as well as all the power in Union Station. This proved to not be true since trains were seen coming and going on both sides of us. They changed the story to just our track had no power and electricians were on the way to fix the problem. They then told us that we were going to be pushed into the station by a diesel that was on its way. . We remained on the train in the dark until about 2:30AM when they pulled up along side of us the train that was coming from NYC after ours and built this bridge of steps going first down almost to the train tracks and then up to the train next to us. Everyone had to go to the Cafe car where they were doing the transfer. We all had to negotiate the steps to transfer to the other train.  AS you can imagine some of the older folks with bags had a hard time on the steps. They also had to transfer all the luggage that had been checked - I guess some people do check luggage on the train. The people on the other train were clueless about what was going on. They had been held at the New Carollton Station for one hour because of our train's problem. The metro was long gone and the line for cabs when you get in normally on the 9PM train, about 12:30AM is quite long so the regular train riders know to rush to the cab line. This time there were the equivalent of two trains getting in at a time when no more trains arrive. The cab line was long but I had moved to the very front of the train when we switched trains so I was close to the front. The only people who beat me were the ones who ran and I was not going to do that. I arrived home just before 4AM.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>