Some progress yesterday-- literally "Whaddya DO all day". Even if it's only banging away on a keyboard and talking on the phone, it feels better than waiting for people to call and trash my optimism.
After four months with minimal detectable progress on our guardianship & conservatorship petitions, our lawyer said that she'd been led on & stood up by her usual psych consultant.
(Really? How's that feel, eh?) She called a new psychologist who's interviewing Dad next week. She'll have his report by early August, she'll file the petitions by mid-August, and we should have the court appearance in late September.
The lawyer earns $275/hour and we're already over $1800 of e-mails, phone conferences, and interviews. But the real value is in knowing how to get things done and who to call to do it.
The psychologist earns $250/hour. His evaluation will first be used for the guardianship & conservatorship petitions, and then will probably bolster our long-term insurance claim. His fee is estimated to be around $2000-$2500.
This psychologist is doing a 30-60 minute "functional assessment" to charm Dad into demonstrating various tasks like making a phone call, writing a check, or cooking a meal. The doc understands that people can put up a good first impression so somehow he's going to engage Dad long enough to get past the facade and see how impaired his cognition really is. This evaluation is usually more than enough justification for the probate judge to approve the petitions (especially when the family's working together). But if the psychologist (and perhaps the lawyer) don't persuade Hancock that Dad's symptoms meet the terms of the LTC policy, then we'd have to step up to the neurologist. I bet neurologists earn more than lawyers or psychologists.
These professionals are worth every penny for the legal authority to keep Dad safe, even if he may someday feel otherwise. They're worth every penny on a ~$300K LTC claim. It's not worth haggling over $275/hour for a few days' work (plus client education) when you're paying at least $214/day at the care facility for years.
Of course at $250/hour I want to make sure these pros are adequately briefed and prepped. I sent the psychologist a four-page bio of Dad and his latest behavior/concerns, along with PDF scans of his last five letters (three years) showing how they've degraded. Hopefully the doc understands Dad's references to certain 1960s events or people and doesn't need 30 minutes just to realize that he's getting fooled by a really good first impression. Perhaps the doc has been around long enough to have seen all this before.
It turns out that Dad's on Lisinopril for blood pressure, so taking medication properly would impact one more ADL. (I can't tell whether Hancock's aware of that medication.) Oddly enough when Dad started his BP treatment three years ago the Lisinopril knocked him for a loop-- two weeks of nausea & narcolepsy before he gave up and asked the doc to try something else. Dad's been on Fosinopril since then until he was hospitalized. Maybe the latest Lisinopril dose is different or maybe his physiology has changed.
In the meantime the care facility helped me sort out the latest billing status so that I could send them another $10K to keep them going for another six weeks. (Hancock may reimburse this.) I may have also persuaded the care facility to help me break Dad's apartment lease by printing my draft text on their letterhead as a medical excuse. That would save us another $4500 over the lease's remaining six months, so I'm happy to pay the care facility's fees (if any). So far the care facility has been the best part of this whole experience.
My brother finished cleaning out Dad's apartment last weekend. It could've been a lot worse-- only two bedrooms and no hoarding behavior. Two truckloads to Goodwill and a big yard/Craigslist sale. He brought home a couple antiques and a stamp/coin collection to appraise. He's finished sorting all the files & memorabilia and says two boxes (three cubic feet each) should arrive here in Hawaii this week. (I'm glad he saved me a Mainland trip!) I've canceled nearly all the utilities and Dad's personal-property insurance but the electric/gas will have to wait until the property manager agrees to break the lease. Dad's mailbox was totally empty, so apparently we've been getting all the mail that's been sent to him.
I called Dad's neighbor to thank him once again for keeping an eye on everything. This is the guy who lived next door for over two years but only met Dad once. Matt was coming home from work at 11:30 PM Saturday night to encounter Dad staggering down the steps in pain from his ulcer-- getting ready to drive himself to the hospital. Matt saved more than one life on the road that night by driving Dad to the ER.
What you might do is thank your brother regularly with gift certificates (books if he likes those, or meals if that is better, etc.). This cost is minor compared to the greater cause.
I think my brother and I each feel that our division of labor is giving each of us 65% of the benefits...