Part 5, The End of the Letter A

(continuation of letter)

Some people choose to consult an attorney regarding financial matters pertaining to this disease.  Much of the care that Alzheimer’s disease requires is not covered by Medicare or regular health care insurance, so it is important to see that financial assets are structured so as to best serve you and your mother. {Thank goodness Mom had a retirement pension.  I’m pretty sure that paid for all of her care at Aegis as well as for what she needed before that.}

It is also important to make sure that you have the legal authority to act on your mother’s behalf.  The simplest way of doing this is to obtain durable powers of attorney for health care and finances, which you have in place.  {I got a copy of Mom’s Advance Health Care Directive in December 2005, when I was named as “successor Health Care Agent” after Cathy.  The document was filed with Kaiser Martinez.  At that time Kathy, Mom’s “California State registered Domestic partner, was designated as Health Care Agent with Power of Attorney for Health Care.} 

Because you have indicated your interest in being I the U.C. Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program, a number of opportunities are available to you.  You may be asked, from time to time, about your willingness to have your mother participate in a research study.  This may include the testing of new drugs for the treatment of dementia, psychological studies, experimental brain scans, or other studies.  You are always free to accept or decline these offers.

We hope that our evaluation was helpful to you. We remain available to provide you with further information and advice as you may need it, so please do not hesitate to call.

Sincerely,

John Olichney, M.D.

Neurologist

Cc:  Kathy Loss {who should have gotten the original, not the cc}

This thorough, compassionate-sounding letter was so in contrast to the feed-back session following Mom’s interview with a really kind, gentle doctor, Dr. Ha.  Here’s what I wrote in my abbreviate journal:

Tuesday, March 01, 2011 Up around 12:30.  Got back to essays around 1:20.  (What was I doing till then?)  Stopped working on them around 3:00.  Slept with Battle Hymn of theTiger Mom, much of which I missed before. Had to deal with plagiarism in ESL 150.  Went home and made mushroom and spinach soup for Mom and Kathy, but it wasn’t as good as before.  Took them zuppa inglese and cucumber-watercrest sandwiches instead.  Left for PH at 11:30.  Got there at 12:15.  Suzy arrived around 12:40.  We three took Mom to the U.C. Davis Alzheimer’s clinic in Martinez.  Nice Dr. Ha.  Blunt-Talker other doctor.  Mom seemed so fragile—agitated and a little lost but a figure to be reckoned with!  Whole session (plus wait while doctors conferred) was 3 hours.  Got home and more or less collapsed.  In a longer account in a letter to Jonathan, I describe the Blunt-talking doctor.