Unfortunately because she gave me a glimmer of hope, I became quite upset that day. I was fired up and so many thoughts were swirling in my brain. It took some princess music and hugs with Emry to finally calm me down. The next day, I drove to the West Los Angeles VA Hospital to request a copy of my Dad's medical records. Those will take about 10 business days to arrive in the mail. Today is day 6. I sat down and wrote my cover letter for the Doctor because I had to get all the information out of my brain. I was going crazy. My plan is to turn in that letter with a "packet of proof" to the Doctor so that he can be fully informed. Hopefully I will be able to meet with him or speak with him on the phone.
In the meantime, I went through all of my Dad's care plans and doctor's assessments for all the homes he lived in and all the hospitals he stayed at. I currently have 3 different Doctors from 3 different facilities that have stated his diagnoses as Alzheimer's, Dementia, or Dementia Psychosis. These papers do not prove that he died from Alzheimer's, but they do prove that he was on powerful drugs for years because of Alzheimer's. Those drugs combined with the disease are what truly killed my Dad.
I am hoping to find something from the Palliative Care Team at the VA hospital as well. I believe a patient can only be put on Palliative Care if they have a terminal disease. I think that would be very convincing.
While all this was happening, I planted a small garden in the back yard. I am scared to grow vegetables and especially herbs because they always die. I do not have the passion my Dad had for the earth. He was out there every day tending to his garden. So, I started small... 2 Tomato Plants, Basil, Squash, and Pumpkin. Emry says to me often, "Look at my garden, Mama." Maybe she will have Dad's green thumb.
