Tuesday...sleeping baby girl

I got the numbers of the people I needed to call at Kaiser yesterday. I couldn't get it together to call them. Everytime I tried the circuit breakers would go and i'd start to nod off. Since I was driving to see Sara at the time I decided maybe I just wasn't ready.

On the way I did get a call from ContinuingCare-Kathy. She is a supervisor for the department and decided that due to the complexity of Sara's case and discharge arrangements that she would handle it herself through the remainder of Sara's stay in Walnut Creek. What a relief. It has gotten so hard to continually train and retrain discharge planners on the details of her case. This woman has taken it upon herself to become intimately familiar with those details.

She said that while I push on K-SR (Kaiser Santa Rosa) that they would continue trying to get Sara home. Good plan.

She also had more questions for me regarding Sara's benefits. She wanted to know about Sara's StepMom and the Kaiser, about the MediCAL, her SSI, etc.

Later, while I was actually at the hospital, she called again. This time, it was about caregiver training. Up for the next change/hurdle? NOW they say they want all of us individually trained and signed off on caring for Sara. So, now I need to get Team Sara the info to call in and schedule times, etc. They also want (at least) me to do a 12 hour solo shift with her - doing everything.

I will talk to Kaiser Santa Rosa today. If we can get her moved to there then the potential nurses from Maxim can meet her. When recruiting for caregivers, we have a MUCH better chance of nurses wanting to work with Sara (even with the lower MediCAL pay) if they've had a chance to meet her. And with KSR not wanting to have her there until we have nurses staffed we have the classic catch-22.

Team SARA (family caregiver team): Look for an email later today after I get the details of what they want each of us to do.

Circle of Friends (Sara's close friends): I'm putting up the shelves in her room this week. Her room will be ready for people to come by and help decorate starting this weekend. I'm also sending all of you her email address. She'd love to hear from you and she's working hard on responding - even short responses. She is getting much better on the computer. Before long you all will be chatting like before.

Tower of Time: On behalf of Sara I would like to give a huge THANK YOU for the collective donation from the artists. The donation has been set aside specifically to purchase a new interface for her computer that will allow her to try and get back to her artwork. She is very excited about it. You'll see her chatting online before that time comes, but she knows that she'll get there. Donating the proceeds from artwork commission sales (ranging from $5 to $50) the ToT family has raised over $1000 for her.

Creating artwork has been one of the greatest joys of her life. Sara started drawing very young and has volumes and volumes of sketchbooks of anime characters and original artwork.

When I came in last night she was sleeping. So pink and peaceful. With the exception of the surroundings and the tube in her neck you wouldn't know anything was different with her. I like to see her rest. I know that in sleep the brain is allowed to heal, and in dreams none of this exists...