Question to self: am I learning anything new here?  No.  These are some of the same issues I already faced and answered when dealing my with wife’s mother and brother.  But sometimes life is repetition in service of friends and family.  In other words, it’s a new learning experience for my mother and sister.  Let it be so.  You, kind and patient reader, may learn, too, and thus these blog entries will help others in need when emotional stress runs high and logic has taken a holiday to warmer shores.

Medical inquiry answered as written by case management [imagine “sic” in the right places and “sick” in the write places]:

Hello Mr. Hill. I will answer all of your questions to the best of my ability. I forwarded this onto the attending physician and you may end up needing directly talk to him again.

1. We have a Senior Psychological Examiner on staff that performs cognitive testing. These tests require active participation and often patients with aphasia have difficulty completing the items needed for accurate testing. Upon your father’s last admission, he was seen by the examiner and I will provide you a copy of the assessment. Further assessment may need to be made as speech or more basic communication skills develop. Speech and Occupational therapy will also be working with your father on cognition during his hospitalization at the rehab hospital.

I spoke to the attending physician about the diagnosis of FTLD and he said this may be followed after his rehab stay, possibly by a neurologist as it will require more testing.

2. The attending physician said he will continue medication began at HVMC.

3. Your father’s history and physical is in his chart for both his admissions and I would be happy to provide you with a copy. Inside this document is the diagnostic results preformed at HVMC which includes an EKG and an echocardiogram.

4. I would be happy to assist your mother in the completion of paperwork to acquire the long term disability insurance.

If you would like we can plan a family conference where we can sit down with a nurse, a Speech Therapist, an Occupational Therapist, a Physical Therapist, and the Psych Examiner. You are also free to invite the VA Social Worker that I have been talking with- or anyone else that you feel may be of value in attendance.

If there is anything else I can do I would be more than happy to help.

My sister will now step in and get involved, as she wants, to answer lingering questions.  Our mother’s health is of concern here, too, while we decide where to best put her husband (and our father) to spend his last days in the least confusing, most comfortable place before he finds eternal rest, whenever that may be.

The saga continues…