I am still on travel in Alabama, but I did receive some great news. I received a call from a division of the governor’s office. The call was concerning the Medicaid waiver waiting list. The lady calling today has been assisting us by communicating with a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. They have been working to reevaluate Caden’s case to see if he qualified for advancement on the Medicaid waiver waiting list. The news today was that Caden was moved from number 76 up to number 15 on the waiting list. This means that Caden’s nursing care could be funded by Medicaid in as little as one to two weeks from now. This is perfect timing since there are only six more visits covered by my insurance plan. This does not solve our staffing problems, but it lifts a huge burden of worry about where the funds are going to come from after the private insurance coverage is exhausted.

Sherry took Caden to the cardiologist this week. They performed several tests and found that Caden’s heart is working okay. There are couple of items that we have to get clarification on after this visit. I will provide more details later, since the cardiologist could not provide immediate answers to all of Sherry’s questions without looking at Caden’s test results more carefully. For now, it is important to know that Caden’s heart is doing as good as the last visit. There are no immediate concerns about the condition of his heart.

Please keep us in your prayers. We are using a new nursing agency for the first time this week. We hope that this new agency is better able to deal with the staffing problems that we have been experiencing with the agency we have been using up until now. For a while we will use both agencies to fill our need for nursing care. We know that many of you reading Caden’s Page are helping us look for nurses who can work Caden’s case. Please continue to do so. Nurses with at least and LPN certification can be brought on part time with one of the agencies to specifically work Caden’s case. We have been using nursing care from 11pm to 7am. Please contact us if you find anyone interested.

Hank O