Everything Shifted, Plus this Week’s Big Issue

Good morning/evening everyone. Here is the link for this week’s video. You can watch it here.

I didn’t get any blogging done this week. We were gone Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and catch up began on Thursday doing not only YouTube video for the one you are watching but trying to get next week’s done early. Mom’s procedure is next Wednesday.

I’ve been grateful to have some time this week (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) to catch up and get ahead for YouTube, but also to get some things done at home, follow up on things, clean a bit, do our laundry, cook some, and work a puzzle and read a bit too.

Yesterday I had a couple of calls from Mom. She is forgetful about dates and days of the week. She has asked about six times the date of her procedure. She asks me every day almost.

The week has gone well despite my having outings 4 days in a row, most of which was for and/or with Mom. But the last end of the week was my reward to hold on to knowing I’d have rest toward the end of the week. I had not expected George would offer for us to stay home Friday as we had an excursion planned. I was fine with going as we’d put it off all year, mainly due to the time that we have been away with Mom’s dealings this year. We were trying to work it in now that we had finished going through her things but the week’s are really still too busy with her to have much time to ourselves.

So I’m grateful we cancelled our Friday outing and could stay home. It had been the day it was supposed to rain the least but ended up that it was the day it rained the most, so good call not to go.

Yesterday was odd. I got a call from Centennial that Mom had an infection and needed antibiotics from her urine test she did. They said if she had symptoms of the infection they could go ahead and prescribe the antibiotics, and if not they’d have to wait til the culture was back. So I called Mom and added her into the call. She said she did have symptoms. So I asked her to call it into Synchrony which is her pharmacy through assisted living. I’m being careful to just report the facts here and not giving my opinion. My opinion doesn’t really matter here, as I just want you all to know what it took to get Mom her meds through assisted living and here’s the facts. I may or may not have cursed during the process and I almost had a break down of crying because at some point it really did feel like it was impossible, surreal and just flat unnecessary and it had me asking why. Again these are the FACTS – no opinions just the FACTS. Here the phone calls this took.

Phone calls (texts also) it took to get Mom’s meds to assisted living:

• 1:20 call from Centennial that Mom has an infection and needs antibiotics
• 1:23 Added Mom into the call and verified she has symptoms and antibiotics warranted
• 1:30 I called assisted living nurse to verify that if antibiotics called to Synchrony that she will get them soon or did I need to call and have them send to Publix. They verified it would be received that evening and dose would start a.m. Saturday. So I had left it with the nurse at Centennial to be called to Synchrony so we were good. I only needed to call if the change was to Publix.
• 1:47 Rec’d a call from assisted living nurse, no VM left. I said to myself that if they needed me they would leave a message like they usually do.
• 2:03 I got a text from her doctor saying a prescription had been sent to PUBLIX (not Synchrony)
• 2:20 Decided I better return call to assisted living nurse to see why they had called before I called Centennial. She said that the RX had not gone to Synchrony and I told her I had just seen that it had gone to Publix instead and was about to call the nurse and have them send it correctly. She said it had to be rec’d by 5 p.m. and that way they would get the meds that night and then Mom would begin taking them Saturday. She suggested I just go to Publix and pick it up. I told her than I wanted to use the synchrony service as we had time still and I didn’t want to have to get out and go get the meds. Nurse said she was leaving at 4 and that when patients had outside doctors this is what happens. I said that I was going to be stubborn and require Synchrony and the doc to work together to make it happen and push it through because her docs need to learn how to use the correct pharmacy or we’ll be doing this every time.
• 2:23 Called Centennial and told them they sent to the wrong pharmacy. They were shocked and said they would redo it and send it correctly.
• 3:08 I got a call from the nurse at assisted living that the meds had still not gone through to Synchrony yet. So I told her I would call the lady at Centennial again.
• 3:15 Got a text from Publix in Lebanon TN that Mom had an Rx ready.
• 3:20 Call from Mom asking about a bag she wanted from the house to pack her things in for the hospital and I told her I had it at my house and knew she would need it and I’ll bring it to her later. She asked if her Rx was ordered and I told her I had spent all afternoon trying to make it work out. But it hadn’t yet.
• 3:50 Call from nurse at assisted living and the meds are not there and she is about to leave and I should could just go to Publix and get them. I verified if order is placed by 5 even though she is gone at 4 that Mom’s meds would arrive by midnight and be there for in the morning and I still wanted to go through Synchrony as this was the system now and it needed to work. She gave me the back office number to use and said to 3-way the Centennial people and Synchrony people to get it confirmed and taken care of.
• 3:56 Call to Centennial to ask what the problem is and asked if we can 3 way. She said sure and I gave her the number to call. I thought she was going to initiate the call and she thought I was going to call and she said “that is ok I can call” and hung up. (I guess we weren’t doing a 3 way call, and this is where I said a bad word only where I could hear it, but still I said it. How can communication go so wrong. I had specifically requested we do a 3 way call.
• 4:12 I thought enough time had passed for Centennial to call and verify that it had gone through so I called Synchrony as I wanted to verify for myself and it was ringing when I had a call from Centennial so I cancelled the call to Synchrony to answer the Centennial call.
• 4:13 Centennial – she verified that it had been received by Synchrony and that for whatever reason it wasn’t showing electronically but they verbally verified it was received and it was before 5!
• 4:14 I called assisted living nurse to say it was all verified and that Synchrony received before 5. It was a different nurse and she said “ok”. I told her to let me know if there were problems getting it in their night delivery and that I’d run to Publix Sat morning if needed.

From there I proceeded to work on my video and I was about to pull my hair out, scream, cuss, and ask why this needed to be such a harrowing process. But in good timing George came in and said “how’s your day going?” I tried to tell him about the above. And he brought a wine glass and poured me a glass of red. lol Now if we’d been out in Green Hills shopping and eating and all that like we had originally planned, I don’t know what I would have done. I am sure I’d have taken and returned some of the calls, but I wouldn’t have been able to be as proactive about it and maybe I would have just gone to Publix on our way home and picked up the Rx and taken it to Mom, fussing all the way about why Synchrony didn’t work as planned. But it’s 8:42 this morning and I’ve not heard from the assisted living people yet. They were to call if not received. And I’ve not heard from Mom either, so I’m assuming all is ok. I am almost afraid to call. lol.

I’ve decided that our computers are really what is messing us all up. We are all so dependent on them but they don’t always work right. And there are glitches, human inputs, electronic malfunctions, programming issues, security issues, and way too many 3rd party people involved in the processes from point A to point B. It has made even the most simple things complicated. Which makes my being able to accomplish anything a major victory when it’s done.

And this is why I don’t trust anyone. Or anything. It’s just so overwhelming and uncalled for. And it’s not just this, that is this way, it is nearly EVERYTHING in life.

Ok so everyone have a great week and I’ll keep you posted on Mom’s procedure next week. It’s Wednesday where they put the valve inside another valve. I’ve been told this infection will not hamper her procedure.

Ok here’s the vlog again if you want to watch it. Watch it HERE.