Thursday, September 11

Today was nonstop therapy for Tommy. He was a little tired because one of his buddies, Craig, was discharged last night to his home, and the nursing staff threw a little party for him. Usually, Tommy is in bed by around 7, but by the time they'd had their cake and milk, it was a good hour later. Speaking of discharges, during the afternoon I met with Pam, the finance person at Ren rehab--now that Tommy's own discharge is approaching, I must get a firm handle on the next chapter of Medicare hell. I could immediately see that this will be another "interesting" challenge when she began a sentence, "We can't skill a person if..." "Excuse me," I interrupted, "Did you say skill a person?" "Yes," she said; "Am I confusing you?" "Uh," I said. "I've never actually heard skill used as a verb..." She was patient with my many questions. I have learned that, among others, there are the Romance languages, the Indo-Tibetan languages, and the Healthcare languages.