03/4/2013 Monday

Ok, so mom does not have a doctor, only the assigned skilled nursing home doctor and he seems to be stretched too thin. So, my assessment of her condition is: dementia caused by the stroke, aphasia caused by the stroke, incontinence caused by the stroke, since 12/29/2012 when Palomar hospital threw about her dentures she has not eaten much of anything and has lost 20 pounds and counting; so she is starving to death now and her organs will soon begin to shut down and she will die.  Her mental capacity is very limited and it’s almost impossible to have a conversation with her. I am deeply saddened by all of this but realize about 90% of it is beyond my control. All I can do is continue to police the staff at the Skilled Nursing Facility and look for a new room for her in another place where she can have a little privacy and dignity in which to spend her last days on earth.

I have no report on my mom’s condition today. I did not go see her. I spoke to the spiritual person from hospice and the social worker and got a voice mail from the RN.

I reviewed the notice I got denying the reconsideration from the CMS (Maximus) and they did not even address the issue of the impact the missing teeth made in her health. It feels like they are in cahoots. There is one more appeal I can make but why? I will do it anyway.  The SNF asked for an expedited reconsideration. Did that have any impact on the results? We’ll never know.

I am contacting the local news investigative team today. No one else seems to care, they may not seem any story here but I think that the public needs to know the details of what the consequences are from our healthcare system and that it’s beyond our ability to do anything about it.