Thursday, November 12th, 12:55pm

I'm back at work, and this is the first moment I've had to give an update.

Ken called this morning around 6:30am saying that he asked for 2 Percocet and only got one. I called the nurses station, and they were able to bring him another one.

Then he called back around 7:00am, saying that the pull-cord that activates the light over his bed has broken, and he can not turn off his light. I contacted the nurses station, and they said they knew it was broken, and have called an electritian to come and fix it. I asked them if they could just pull on the chain that hangs about 2" on the bottom of the fixture (the pull-cord was tied to this chain) and go ahead and turn his light out. They said, "Oh, yea, I guess we could do that. I'll go do that now."

Then he called again around 7:30am and said he was to tired to do his therapy today, and he wanted to have them canceled, and wanted to know why this keeps happening to him. He couldn't sleep the night before because his roomate had the TV turned ALL THE WAY UP. He called the nurse, then nurse turned it down, and the roomate turned it right back up when she left. So he didn't get any rest that night either. So, needless to say, he was quite distraught (sp?).

I contacted our Case Manager this afternoon, Tracy Ward, and explained those situations to her, and all of the other ones that have happened to us. (I had been speaking with the Charge Nurse, but I guess that was going no where). I told her that Ken has become afraid for his well-being there. He can't communicate with the staff, and his needs are being overlooked or ignored. She appologized, and told me that she would call the Director immediatly, discuss this with her, and that the two of them would visit with Ken right after that to help re-assure him of his safety and apologize for the errors that have been made.

Goodness!

Also, it turns out that Ken would rather have a professional watch him at home during the day while I am at work instead of Bill and Helen since he will require someone with good strength to help him move and such. Cigna says that they will not cover it since it does not require a specialized skill, so this one is going to have to come out of pocket. Tracy gave me a list of companies that offer these services (Nuture Care and Home Instead) and I will contact one of them to see if they can assist us and how much it will cost.