No Barkeeper in sight. I'll pour my own wine. Let's see - Barefoot Pino Grigio or Naked (Grape) Pinot Grigio? June 15 As I mentioned in an earlier post, my mom slipped again and, this time, fractured her hip. July 12 After almost a month in the hospital cheering everyone up with her positivity and gratefulness, they released her into my custody. The hospital case worker referred her to the community case worker who I haven't spoken to yet. An occupational therapist is supposed to come to the house (please, soon) and recommend bars put in certain places around my mother's downstairs washroom. She won't be going upstairs anymore. I rented a hospital bed for the living room. Even though I haven't talked to the community case worker, the personal support workers (PSWs) came right away. They have names like Aman and Jasbinder and Lakhvinder. They are lovely. The come in the morning and help my mother bathe and get dressed. They might straighten up a bit and then take off to their next appointment. The only problem is my mother is up at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. and they tend to come around 10:00 a.m. Today, I managed to get one to come at 7:00 a.m. It was a good day. This is all covered by the province. They also sent home two pieces of equipment free for a month: a commode and a walker. The physiotherapist was at the house last Friday. The PSWs usually call the night before, but the physiotherapist called half an hour before coming. He did an assessment and gave her six exercises to do three times a day to build strength in her hip and legs. For example, stand on your good leg, raise your bad leg and hold for five seconds. Repeat 10 times. My mother obeys and cooperates but has trouble remembering what to do. I have to lead her through this. She's also incredibly funny. One of the exercises is squats. The instructions say, "Slowly bend your hips and knees, then stand up tightening your buttock muscles." She squats down 1-2-3-4-5, and then stands up loudly saying "And tighten your buttocks!" Then she laughs and laughs. The first week for me was all improv. I had no idea what I was doing. My mom had been living independently at 91, but at the hospital they suggested that she needed "supervision" going forward. Siblings checked in from far away, but it looked like I was the supervisor for now until something more permanent could be arranged. Now, I am organizing some paid helpers to come to the house an hour after the PSW leaves. They will help her with exercises, meds, making lunch and then help her into bed for a nap. I'm putting together a schedule from now until August 20 when my older sister is coming from three time zones away for two weeks while I'm away. My younger brother will be back from a trip and he and my sister can contemplate longer term plans. My mother's wish is to be able to stay in her own home where she's lived mostly since 1962. As some of you know, I live in Canada. The only bill I saw was $45 for the ambulance. That's the only bill I will see for surgical, medical, and 28 days in the hospital. The level of care my mother received is available to all Canadians. She does not have any personal health insurance plan. Her plan is The plan. Not only that, but she agreed to participate in a research study that was looking at what would happen if people suffering from hip injuries were fast-tracked into surgery and operated on within seven hours, compared to those who were put into the normal surgical stream and waited 12-24 hours for an operating room, anaesthetist, surgeon, etc. to be available. Those in the study had a 50-50 chance of getting fast-tracked and my mom won the lottery.
My wife delivered a baby for a client last week. She's on Medicare. She is poor. She is also a rape victim and she has been homeless. There are about six different insurance companies that administer Medicare in our state. Five of those plans pay us exceptional dollars for delivering a baby. One of them pays us zero dollars. She was on the zero dollar plan. She was able to switch to one of the other five... effective July 1. She delivered the baby June 29. We made zero dollars. Our state requires us to administer vitamin K shots to all women unless they refuse it in writing. Medicaid reimburses us $3 less than it costs us to purchase vitamin K shots. As most of you surmised, I live in America.As some of you know, I live in Canada. The only bill I saw was $45 for the ambulance. That's the only bill I will see for surgical, medical, and 28 days in the hospital. The level of care my mother received is available to all Canadians. She does not have any personal health insurance plan. Her plan is The plan.
I am troubled by the American health care system. As good as health care is, Ontario now has Doug Ford for premier (brother of the now dead, crack-smoking former Mayor of Toronto). He is cancelling renewable energy projects and taking both our sources of energy and high school sex ed curriculum back to the last century. Oh, Canada. Oh, World.
This whole thing makes it easy for me to see why people struggle to have empathy for Trump voters. When hydro rates don’t go down and other bad shit happens I’m going to feel empathy for people who I know didn’t vote for him. The idiots who thought ford would solve their problems though, when their rates go up I don’t think I’ll be able to refrain from rubbing their faces in it. Mostly because they are the reason my actual friends will struggle. It’s like seeing all the trump voters losing their jobs over the tariffs, I can’t feel bad for them when they did something that hurt people I care about.
I couldn't believe Ontario elected anyone with "Ford" for a last name, but maybe that's because my awareness of Ontario politics comes from liberal Toronto musicians.