Pardon Me While I Steal Some Sleep...

I've been away a while.  I'd love to say I've been just too busy, but for the most part I'm just so tired.  It's been a long year and I'm really looking forward to January 1, 2013.  Next year certainly can't be worse than this year has been.

The Joint Commission complaint reached it's conclusion (however I'm not allowed to find out specifics of their findings) and the Human Rights complaint has concluded.  In the latter complaint I was assured by the hospital that they had made a mistake regarding Guardianship and had retrained most of their staff to ensure the issue would never happen again.  I asked what happened to the very rude Mr Gromewald and the doctor who made more mistakes than one should be allowed in a lifetime and I was told I could not be privy to any HR issues.

I'm irritated, but ready for this chapter to close.  I'm hopeful that Dr Fox got smacked upside the head by his colleagues and has learned from his mistake and that someone permanently removed that stupid laugh from Mr Gromewald.  If they didn't I'm sure I'll find out and then will make sure they understand their mistakes.

Now I'm focused on trying to get that blasted house sold and find time for something other than Guardianship/Conservatorship work.  But I'm getting worn down.  My husband is looking into a job opportunity out of country.  My first thought was "what am I going to do about mom's medical care," but now I've decided that I shouldn't put my life on hold.  If my husband takes the job and we move I'll figure out the rest.

This comes at a time where I'm getting hassled by family again.  Some say I do too much and some complain that I didn't listen or wait long enough for them to do things.  I did what had to be done and I make no apologies for it.  The past several years have been hard, but necessary.  There's nothing else I could do differently and still live in my own skin.

Election season is coming up and I want to remind everyone to please look into what candidates care about and their records on important issues.  I won't tell you who to vote for because we all have different priorities.  I would like to point out a really well done article from this month's issue of DAV Magazine. In it there is an article posing questions to both President Obama and Governor Romney on key issues that specifically relate to the military.  One portion of it deals with Mental Health.  I encourage you to read it.  Obviously I'm concerned about Mental Health, but also Veterans' Issues since my husband is a disabled vet. The article does address Mental Health and the candidates responses really told me the understanding they each had on the issue.

I hope that everyone reading does their homework and votes for what's important to them.  And I'm really hoping whoever wins makes Mental Health Care and Health Care in general a priority.

My mom is slowly improving.  At least health wise.  She's been doing better mentally, but as her physical health is improving her mental health is sliding back a bit.  I'm hoping we can stay on top of it and avoid any more hospitalizations.  With the money situation getting dicey I really don't want to pay any more hospital bills (especially from bad hospitals).  But the good news is that my mom finally got through the Medicare Donut Hole.  Her scripts went from $800+ a month to $300+ a month.  We get a break for a few months anyway.  Come January it starts all over again.

And it Continues...

I'm still working on the complaint to the facility my mother was hospitalized at in June.  Turns out the VDH doesn't take complaints on Psyche facilities.  It goes through the Human Rights Committee local to the hospital.  The way they work it is: they take my complaint, forward it to the facility, the facility investigates itself (and I expect will find no fault in themselves) and then I have to file an appeal.  No facility should be allowed to investigate itself.  That's just ridiculous.  And to top it off they forwarded my complaint to the very person at the facility who lied to me when I called.

Thankfully I found that out this morning when I called for the email address to send the more complete complaint I wrote up for the VDH.  I was told that the complaint would then have to go to a higher up official at the facility.  Sad thing is that the guy who was part of the problem is on the Human Rights Committee Board.  Now I know this complaint will go no where. But I have to go through proper channels before I can sue them.

The guy in question called for more information this morning and when I informed him he was part of my complaint he had the audacity to laugh at me.  That and his condescending tone tells me he isn't taking this seriously and figures I'll just go away.

It is now my personal mission to make sure he loses his job and is living out of a cardboard box.

My mom, meanwhile, is still suffering the effects of her stay.  She isn't delusional, but is horribly depressed.  Her mood is flat and she lays in bed all day.  She only gets out of bed for meals.  She didn't even show interest in the chocolate my brother brought her the week before.  Chocolate never lasted more than an hour in her hands before. I really wish there was a way to just take her off all her meds and have her somewhere she can't hurt herself or others.

It's pure fantasy and just manages to make myself more depressed.