Weekly Update: April 16, 2012

I guess my theme for today to the medical community is “Just Do Your Job”. Seriously. If for no other reason then it’s what a person gets paid to do. Don’t get defensive. Don’t pass blame. Don’t make promises and then not deliver. If wrong, make it right. Okay, so I’ll come off my soapbox now and get to the update. 

• Baclofen. The reduction schedule for today is likely not to happen, but I’m trying like hell to get those responsible moving. Again, the doctor did not send the order or it was never received by the agency. What drives me crazy is last Tuesday I had both the doctor and the agency confirm everything was done. Then on Friday I attempted to confirm it again, only to be told that the order was actually not received! Are you flippin’ kidding me? One thing I know is that NOTHING gets done over the weekend in the medical community. My only hope to get this pulled off today is by flooding in-boxes and voice mails over the weekend in hopes they would be checked. If that failed (which it seems it did) then my hope is that it’s the first order of business for them. I’ll be on the phone trying to get this resolved this morning. Not being staffed on the weekend seems to be an awful business model for a 24/7/365 industry. [Update 9:05 am. Left another voice mail and issued another e-mail to neurologist]. [Update 10:38 am. Neurologist resent order via fax to baclofen agency. Waiting on confirmation from agency. We just might pull this off after all!].
• Nursing. We were left without coverage over the weekend. The nurse we love told me on Saturday morning before she left that she would call the agency and ask if she could pick-up at least some of the vacated shifts. This would mean overtime pay for her and coverage for us. My assumption is she did that (although I won’t actually have the opportunity to ask her until she returns to work). Going on this assumption, it would seem the agency didn’t grant the coverage for Sunday. Why? I just can never imagine they wouldn’t give “gap” coverage. I need to understand their policy here. Is it that they are reluctant to pay overtime or does it need some sort of approval that wasn’t achievable over the weekend? So, it’s back on the phone with them again today. Ugh! To think, one poor decision has reverberated throughout the entire agency. It caused needless work and the eventual involvement of corporate brass. Granted, an awful  mistake, but not beyond repairable yet (at least not by me). Still, I must prepare for the possibility that we are no longer wanted as a case. We met with another agency on Saturday (I like that their management is available on the weekend) and will be on the phone and meeting with several others today. Oh, and my business model statement in the previous bullet point seems proper here too. [Update 8:40. Spoke with Regional Director. Overtime pay is the driving concern at the company level. The regional office can (and has) granted eight overtime hours, meaning we are guaranteed four 12-hour shifts. No progress was made in finding a replacement longterm. I was asked to pursue trying to find another agency (hmmm). I pushed the issue of trying to determine the cause of the nurse leaving abruptly and think it was due to my post, It’s Just Too Much… Too Often!, that made a blanket statement to prospective nurses to expect to work holidays and weekends if that’s the profession chosen.] 
• The Internet is Not Anonymous. On another note (and I know I’ve spoken about this before — it’s in my disclaimer — and many people know this already), every time a person leaves a comment on a blog or even just visits a site, it is tracked by a third-party with what is called an IP Address. It’s akin to a telephone number and identifies the exact location of the device. It is so precise that it can be viewed in Google Maps, right down to the exact latitude and longitude. I’ve been told it’s “scary” that I know how to do this, but ANYONE can without a lick of technical knowledge, just like using caller ID on a phone. Websites, by default, are linked to this information. Any website that didn’t utilize this tool for protection (and demographics/marketing, in the case of companies) would be foolish. I rarely check an IP address — maybe a dozen times in total — but do if I suspect something. If you think about this, it is nothing new. Do you ever watch the show “To Catch a Predator”, because this is used. Ever wonder why you might suddenly start getting spam that is oddly tied to something you were surfing for?  All those people that get busted for downloading pirated music or videos are identified this way. For our household, I have a log file generated from my router telling me every website that every device linked to (which I rarely check anymore, but did the other day to confirm an assertion). I initially set this up to monitor my children years ago, but you might see how this is helpful to make sure our network is secure. My advice is to not do anything in the virtual/online world that you wouldn’t do in the real world.
• RT-300 FES. This has been great! Ryan is making progress in leaps-and-bounds. But yesterday when I switched him from legs to arms the equipment stopped working. An error message popped up that said there was a problem with the internal voltage. To be sure it wasn’t something I did, I re-applied all the electrodes and checked connectivity. It didn’t resolve the error message. I called the number provided for technical support, but it just rang endlessly. Frustrated, I sent an email to the company’s representative that is most able to help. I never heard back and we had to forego the arm session yesterday. Like the first two items, I’ll be on the phone. Once again, see my business model statement. [Update 8:30am. Spoke to receptionist. Will pass trouble ticket to technical support when they arrive and they will call back]. [Update: 10:05 am. Trouble shot with technical support and determined the likely cause is the cable from the unit to the electrodes. One will be overnighted].
• HBOT. Ryan is on an “off cycle” until May 10th.
• Urine Culture. Last Tuesday we sent out a follow urine culture. The (hopeful) good news is we haven’t heard anything yet. My experience is when it grows something out we normally hear within two days or three days tops. The importance of this culture is to make sure the last bacteria that caused Ryan’s UTI is eradicated. It’s not a bug that should be taken lightly.
• Another Senseless Beating. On April 12th I posted about a college student, Trent, who was beaten (see Another Senseless Beating). Much like Ryan, when punched he fell to the ground and struck his head on a raised object. Although Ryan was then kicked and suffered greater damage, it is proof that just one punch can be catastrophic. It’s with great sadness (and anger) that I must let you know that Trent died the following day. I hope the attacker rots in prison.
• Sue’s Post. Sue put out a heart wrenching post, In Search of Answers, on Saturday. If you haven’t, it worth the time to read it and the flood of wonderful comments.
• Landscaping. This topic is worthy of it’s own post, which I will do later in the week. I want to get some photographs together first. We had a friend contact a landscaper to see what could be done to dress-up our patio. Well, it turned out so well that the only way I can describe it is it looks like something in a national park. Another person said it looks like it came out of Better Homes and Gardens. It’s just that wonderful! A sanctuary, really. We took advantage of it right away and had Ryan out for much of the morning and evening yesterday.

Well, it’s time to jump on the phone and plow through the issues. I’ll update this post throughout the day to let you know the progress, so stop back later.