I'm putting two videos in here...the first is the trailer for the documentary that has only been released to medical professionals as of yet. It was released at ACG in Las Vegas and will be released to more medical professionals at AASLD on November 11th. It will be released to the general public after that. The second video is the reaction from the medical professionals who watched the full documentary in Vegas. I am very moved.
Also, the doctor's appointment went well today. We may have actually gotten a doctor on our side! It might take a while, but if we are persistent, Mom will get the help she needs. Please consider buying a t-shirt to help raise awareness and help us keep the caregiver. Remember that 20% of the proceeds help pay for my mom's caregiver and go to the American Liver Foundation. :)
When we got home today, there was a student wandering around the block. He asked us about the ghost stories in our area. At first, I thought he might be one of those ghost-hunter lovers who might spend the night in the "haunted" place to see if the stories teens have made up over the years are true or not. Then he said he was a medical student and taking a journalism class to learn how to communicate with patients when he becomes a doctor. If that's the future of our America, I'm behind it 100%. He shares the name a certain nerdy character on one of Mom's favorite TV shows, and Mom called the character a "lovebug". She told him to listen to patients and be a better doctor than what she has. She told him he even looked a little like the character on TV, but he hadn't seen it. I told him the character is a genius on the show, so he was okay with that. He was very sweet, but Mom was working herself up into a panic again, so I had to get her in the house to lay down and take meds. She invited him to come back whenever he wanted. She was in one of her sweet yet talkative moods. He was very sweet to her and listened and promised he would do the best he could when he's a doctor. He shall forever be affectionately known as "lovebug".
More good news is that the doctor underling that usually yells at Mom's stubborn and impudent behavior was moved today, in a good way. She was sympathetic to Mom and, though I don't think we have her completely convinced that it's not *also* due to mother-daughter strife, I think she at least believes it's not *all* mother-daughter strife. Which means that it's an illness, or many of them, and they need and deserve treatment. So, now:
~buspar's been added to help control her anxiety
~paperwork is going in for the EEG, and we're trying to attach it to the neuro consult referral (the fastest they neuro doc could get us in was a month from now, but it's the best we could do)
~the doctor *thinks* they gave us a referral for a psych eval, but they gave us one for the same psych office she's been to a million times that "doesn't comment on competency or psychosis"...how useless is that? I only realized it after calling the number on the referral, and it was late in the afternoon, so I'll call the office tomorrow for a different psych referral.
~paperwork is going in for a nurse to come out to the house once a week to check Mom's vitals and for symptoms of HE
~the doc wants to see Mom in a month to see if the buspar's working
Also, it appears that the caregiver I fired prior to the one we have now (who is amazing and I will never give her up voluntarily) took advantage of Mom. She manipulated Mom and made her feel so guilty about being fired (though I tried to give the woman 2 weeks' notice...she was so upset that she flew off the handle and yelled at me and then hung up on me...I couldn't get a word in), that she somehow convinced Mom that $500 would be a good "severance" pay. Pretending that caregivers get severance when they're free-lancing and have no permanent job guarantee, that's more than she made in a whole month! But now Mom says she doesn't remember if she actually gave her the money or not. So tomorrow we're pouring over her checkbook and credit card statements to see what she's done. After our brief time with the crappy caregiver, I knew she was emotionally unstable - that's largely why I fired her. But I didn't take her for a thief. I nearly threw up when Mom told me about it today. I just can't believe some humans are so disgusting as to take advantage of sick people like that. I've heard of it happening all the time, and been afraid of it happening with Mom's state of mind in the last few years. But still...I can't even muster enough anger. It's all disgust. I'm going to make sure she didn't give the woman that kind of money tomorrow when we go over her checkbook, but if she did, I'm going to the authorities. I'm trying to focus more on "lovebug" and the positive future that kind of human predicts instead of the disappointing con artist kind of human that the ex-caregiver turned out to be.
Remember that t-shirts are available and would help raise awareness of HE, the documentary, and help us keep the caregiver we have now. Also, my next show is November 14th at Home Again Consignments in Old Town Murrieta. I'll have antiques from Mom's mom for sale, as well as handmade crocheted and knitted items made with love by myself. Many other local venders will be there, including Aneita, who will make authentic Jamaican food and cold tea. Come for the Jamaican jerk sammiches, stay for the craftiness. :)
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