We’re Still Alive, and a Few Good Finds

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida  (high 82, low 65)

I apologize for the boring post, but this appears to be our life now. 

We’ve been back in Florida nearly two months, but it feels much, much longer.

People used to say to remark to us, that we really knew how to “do” retirement, and that we were living the dream.  Well, that’s no longer the case. 

We had to leave Georgia earlier than we had planned because my mother had some sort of an event, which seems to have affected her brain.  The doctors did not find any evidence of a stroke, but we have our doubts.  There is definitely some dementia. We are here in Tampa helping to care for her in her home and are trying to keep her out of a nursing home as long as possible.  She needs someone with her 24 hours a day.

We had some long time family friends that moved to Tampa for a job,and were staying with Mom. We had hoped it would be a win-win situation, but it turned out to be too stressful for all concerned, and especially Al and I. They gave up on Florida and are moving back to Nebraska. They were good to Mom though, and she will miss them, but the stress level for my brother, Al and I will go down.

A few weeks ago, Mom started on a new medication for dementia. The doctor was less than enthusiastic about it’s effectiveness, but we have found it to have helped her a great deal.  It can’t stop dementia, but can delay its progress, and that’s good enough for us right now.

Mom has a long term care/nursing home policy with John Hancock Insurance.  Per the policy, she has $120 a day benefit for either nursing home or home health care, but getting the claim set up has been a nightmare.  Many, many phone calls and tons of paperwork and then dealing with incompetent people.  I can’t tell you the amount of stress this has caused.

Over the years working as an injury adjuster at USAA, I dealt with a lot of other insurance companies and I never dealt with one with such poor customer service.  I would never buy any insurance from John Hancock.   I am seeing the benefit of having a nursing home/long term care policy, though, and we’re very glad she has it.

So….. If you have a long term care or nursing home policy, don’t expect to be able to file a claim on your own when you are older and in need of help.  Dealing with them has been very stressful in a situation where we are already under a great deal of stress.

After many, many aggravating phone calls to John Hancock, they have finally agreed to open a claim for Mom and pay for home health care.  We have to choose one of their authorized providers.  I  finally settled on Visiting Angels, after many phone calls to other companies.

Visiting Angels have been pretty good, but there have also been some issues there, which has not helped our stress level.  

We found a few things that help us care for Mom.   One thing is what is called a “gait belt.”  Its a heavy duty belt that you put around the unstable person’s waist.  It allows you to hold onto the person when you are walking with them. Simple, but effective.

Another thing is a home camera. We bought one called a Nest Cam. It has a wide angle lens, complete with sound. You can log onto the website and watch  remotely.  You can watch and also talk to someone through the speakers on the camera.    It has a great wide angle lens with night vision.  When Mom gets up at night, I can see her and I tell her to sit down on the bed,and wait for my brother to get into the room. We don’t like her walking unattended.  It freaked her out a little the first time I spoke to her over the camera, but now she’s used to it.    :)

It’s a great way to monitor the caregivers and make sure they are taking good care of Mom, and yes, they are aware of the cameras.

We also bought one for the motorhome.  If you have animals you worry about, it’s a good way to monitor the temperature in the event of a power or air conditioner failure.  

Here is a link if you are interested.  Nest Cam.  There are a lot of ways this great little camera could be helpful.  We got ours for $169 at Home Depot.

You have to have the password to log onto your camera, but you can see what the camera sees from wherever you are. It’s quite a great invention.

 

My brother recently found another helpful device for elderly people, in case you find yourself caring for an aging parent.

It’s a Kerr Fall Prevention system.  We put a special pad on her recliner and another one on her bed.   When she moves too much, or gets up, it sets off an alarm.  There is a remote you can take with you in the house, so you don’t have to be in the same room.  It’s been very helpful because it lets you know as soon as she gets up, and doesn’t depend on you noticing movement,  like  with the camera.  We have slept a lot better since we got that.  Before, we kept waking up and looking at the camera in her bedroom, which didn’t allow for much sleep.

If you have elderly parents you are caring for, we’ve found these items to be extremely helpful.

We are not going to the Keys this winter.  We have our Rv lot rented for January and February, and are still working on December, March and beyond. If you know of anyone wanting to rent a RV lot in the Keys, let me know.

I guess there are worse places to be stuck for the winter than Tampa, Florida, but we will certainly miss our little piece of paradise in the Florida Keys.

I have been trying to keep up with blogs, but have fallen behind in reading and responding.  I hope you all are enjoying your winter travels, wherever you are.

We’re Back in the Tampa Bay Area

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 88, low 72)

 

We actually got back here over two weeks ago, but we’ve been so busy, I haven’t had time to update our blog. More on that later.

Here are some pictures I found from last Halloween and the snow we got in Blairsville.   I’ve been sad that we’re in Florida and missing the beautiful fall colors.

The higher the elevation, the more snow accumulation.

Al standing by a snowman someone had made.  Can you see it?

It was a far cry from the 88 degree temperature we felt this year here in Tampa.

 

We are back at  Quail Run Rv Park, where we keep a site so that we have a place to stay between the mountains and the Keys and that is available should we need it in an emergency.  With Mom’s poor health, we always need a place to stay on the spur of the moment, and it’s not easy to find rv sites in Florida in the winter.  In fact it’s not  too easy in the summer either as more and more people are becoming fulltimers and staying in Florida.

 

Our friends Barry and Stephanie have a neighboring site here at Quail Run. They are still working.  They recently bought 5 acres in  Murphy, NC which is about 30 minutes from our site in Blairsville.  They have made a beautiful RV site on their acreage.

Our other friends,  Suzanne and Heidi, also have a site here. They keep their 5th Wheel here for the two days they work in Tampa. They are mostly retired and live on Anna Maria Island.

Heidi and Suzanne wanted to come up to Blairsville so we found a rental Rv site on the river at our park in Blairsville.   Their intention was to look for a cabin to buy while they were there.

All three couples were to be up in the mountains together at the same time.  We looked forward to showing Heidi and Suzanne our wonderful mountain paradise, and the six of us having some fun together.  And Smores!  Heidi and Suzzy know how do do smores right.

That certainly didn’t work out as planned.

We passed Heidi and Suzanne on I 75 going north as we were heading south.  We honked and waved at each other as we passed.    Boy was that depressing!  :)

Once we got back here, we had to watch Barry and Stephanie as they packed up and drove away heading to our beloved mountains.  Boy was that depressing. 

We were happy that they were up in the mountains enjoying the wonderful fall weather and spectacular color, but we were jealous!

So……Heidi and Suzanne arrived back yesterday, and Barry and Stephanie are coming back today.  It will be a lot less depressing without having to see those empty Rv lots!

The good news is that Heidi and Suzanne fell in love with Blairsville, and our Rv park, and bought a beautiful riverfront lot!  They tried to buy the lot we rented for them but that guy wasn’t selling, so they bought the lot next door.  Yeah, I guess we chose a good lot for them.

Before they left, they made plans to build a cabin and put in a concrete Rv slab and driveway.  They hired the builder and as soon as they close on the property, things will move forward.   They certainly accomplished a lot in two weeks.

 

As for the reason we left Georgia earlier than expected.  It was because my Mom has been having some health issues.  We thought she had a stroke, but the hospital has run all sorts of tests and says she didn’t.  They confirm she has some brain shrinkage (normal with age) and some dementia. She has declined a lot in the past year.

We don’t feel comfortable leaving her alone, so we’ve been dividing the time between Al and me, and my brother. 

I’ve been dealing with John Hancock Insurance.  Mom has a long term care policy with them, which will pay for home health care, but they make you jump through hoops to get that started.   You cannot call and report a claim like most insurance companies.  You call, they send you pages and pages of paperwork to fill out, you send it back, they send you a written confirmation they received it, you jump through more hoops and then they give you the name of a company that handles their “preferred providers” and you have to deal with them to find a home health care worker that is authorized by John Hancock.  BUT…. until a nurse comes to the house and personally verifies the policy holder needs home health care, they cannot authorize the care, nor will they confirm the company you chose (which you choose from their list) will be authorized and that you will be reimbursed for what you have already spent.

Sound confusing?  Welcome to my world.  

I think is it pathetic that an insurance policy that is geared for a elderly person should be so difficult to navigate.  In fact, I think it’s criminal.   My Mother never in a million years could have navigated their system. Maybe that is the point.

I am a retired Insurance Claims adjuster and I had difficulty dealing with them.  You can bet I let my opinion be known.  I worked for USAA Insurance which is mainly for the military.  We understood our Insured’s specials needs and bent over backwards to help them as many of them were back and forth in war zones and had very immediate and special needs.   We never would have made them go through what John Hancock has made me go through.  

So, in case you’ve been wondering where we’ve been or what we’ve been doing, now you know.

We don’t expect that we’ll be able to get down to the Keys this year, and plan to rent out our Keys lot.  If you know anyone interested in staying in the Keys for the winter, let me know.   We’re renting January and February out for the entire month starting the first of the month, but we will break up December in weekly increments.    Yes, I know it’s expensive.  It’s the Keys and the Keys are expensive. 

Florida Keys Rv Lot for Rent

 

….dreaming of being in the Keys…