Dear Abby -- re: Kaiser Web health manager and ACCESS

Oh Abby, I had the easy day today.

I remember visiting potential facilities when my mother needed care for Alzheimer's. Never an easy day for anyone. I'm so glad that you found one that is a good match for Bill's needs... and yours, too. You must take good care of yourself.. for the long haul!

My mentor, Dorothy Smith, was in Claremont. She was confined to a motorized wheelchair and had to use the ACCESS handicapped bus to shop or visit friends or go to medical appointments. At that point in her life she was too weak to stand up out of the wheelchair and pivot to sit down in a car -- or vice versa.

I hope that the facility you liked offers use of an ambulance style station wagon for transportation to the Kaiser dialysis facility. That would allow him to rest back and forth, but I have a hunch that the plan to release him after he can "sit for three hours" has to do with being able to survive transportation back and forth to dialysis.

Those ACCESS busses only cost a dollar or two per ride, which is great - however - even if appointments are made way ahead, sometimes the dispatcher needs to be reminded again on the day of the appointment.

Once Dorothy used ACCESS to go to a tea party in Claremont. After the party Dorothy told her friend she was fine waiting alone; the bus would be there any minute. But instead they had forgotten her trip was to be a round trip. She didn't have a cell phone and was not strong enough to yell for her friends to hear, and she couldn't negotiate the stairs back up to their home. After two hours she ended up taking her little motorized chair along the side walk toward Claremont to a business with a ramp so that she could phone ACCESS.

Maybe there is such a thing as a wheelchair that could allow Bill to lie down if he ever needs to wait too long.

While in the cardiac chair, it helped to remind him to exhale fully before breathing in. He tended to pant from pain. Hyperventilation led to feeling he could not breathe. Bill Prinzmetal's blog was very helpful for me.. I knew to go looking for the nurses early and far and wide -- to make sure he got help to get out of the cardiac chair.

By the way, a traveling nurse was assigned to Bill today -- and Henry was assigned two doors down. He seemed to delighted to see me again- as if he wished he'd been assigned to Bill. The nurse was lovely, but she hadn't seen a cardiac chair before, so she asked the head nurse help and that lady was clueless, slaming Bill into perpendicular position immediately upon putting him in the chair. I exclaimed that you had helped him get into position slowly, but then my attention was on helping him breathe- and they disappeared. (Maybe you can ask the Ombudswoman about that shift assignment on Saturday?)

I left you a note on the door to the bathroom, and some little ear plugs. I gave ear plugs to Bill, too, as I left. He thought that sounded like a good idea....

My note is about the Kaiser on-line "my health manager" web site that allows family to email doctors directly and to view lab results immediately, if patients just sign a request that family have access. Please ask a Social Worker assigned to Bill, or someone from Member Services, to help Bill get a password, etc., and a permission blank allowing you access to his medical record. It's one of the best things about Kaiser Permanente.

I won't be able to visit again until April, so I'll check the blog to keep up to date

Peace,
Julianne