Advocate Advocates - The List of Numbers

You don't need these, the parent has all these. Flip a coin ten times! What are the odds?
What do I need these for...(sniveling brat in denial - grow up!) Even though you are the person others
will call should something happen. But it never does! You say, naw, not me, I don't need this. So why are you
reading this? Flip the coin! Start counting...
You - the house daughter or son - DOES NEED THEM.
Then out of nowhere, after dinner, an outing; the parent gets ill - do you have the document? The
document that gives you, since you are the one present, stepping and fetching - the authority to at least contact
the parent's insurance company, seek out new medical care providers and all the rest.
Got the parents social security number? Do you?

• Call the medical insurance company providers with the parent in the room, because they will need to speak to
• customer service representative and give them the okay for you to have authority.
• Get online and set up the log in name and password so that you can look at the scheduled benefits and other
• medical and health providers available to call upon. Also get yourself set up with Medicare in the same way.

Keep in mind that you will need to have a FILE Folder for each section of the health care. Keep the account
numbers, log in names and passwords - on the inside of the file jacket.

One for each:

1. Medicare
2. Medicare Part B Insurance Provider
3. Eye Doctor
4. Hearing Aid
5. Physical Therapist

And any other Provider

Put the name of the Service on the File Folder Tab, on the inside Jacket -
Copy in the:

1. Insurance numbers
2. Account Numbers
3. Contact Numbers and Address of the Service Care Provider
4. Name of the Specific Person that was your Provider at that Business
5. Start Date of Care
6. Add the end Date of Care
7. Warranties - Expiration Date

And Contact Information on that Warranty should you need to use it.

Run it like a business, and KEEP A SHORT LIST OF CONTACT MEDICAL NUMBERS ON THE
REFRIGERATOR and in your own cell phone when possible. Toss a coin! Otherwise, just wait and let
someone else do it. What are you there for? Then leave.

Exercise - Rolling Thunder

I once wrote that the Wal-mart shopping cart was my exercise training replacement for the future, and
getting my mom 'off my arm' when walking long distances or shopping. Well, the day finally came, it was her
idea, but I did see it advertised for a lesser price just a month before. Yet, I didn't have the guts to buy it and
introduce it to her home front.
It's got four wheels with a little seat, and hand brakes. The basket is optional, but it's not a ride but a
walker-stroller. The joy when she saw it in the advertising pages of the newspaper is just like the four year old
gets who their first baby doll and needs a carriage to tote the baby doll around. Well this is that same thought,
re-worked, and as I said the basket is optional. The price is just around one hundred dollars. Compare that to
the price of the chiropractor with or without a massage, the money for the four-wheeled walker is so very
possible without too, too much pain.
I got the orders that the mom wanted one. Then being shoppers and this had wheels, so it's like an
automobile, so it was a prerequisite to 'test drive' a few models. In my neighborhood, there's a couple of well
outfitted drugstores specific for appliances like this. The mission was on, to hit as many of these types of places
as possible in one day. I really wanted my arm back, full-time, so I was up for the intermittent arm work for the
effort.
There were hummer size stroller-walkers; there were mega-basket walkers. There was the shinbone to
consider, as it would bash into this lower cross bar. So we downsized. Then, 'test walked' with the stroller
with limited testing space. The places were small, well filled with canes, crutches, metal unknowns and plenty
to bump into on these 'test walks'. The mom's stress mounted, based on her navigation versus learning skills.
Now the give figure started with the hand brakes - with the quizzical look from a woman who hadn't
ridden a bicycle in several decades. I looked, and pushed and pulled, and dragged the stroller - voila! The pull
down mechanism at the end of the handles, locked the brakes.
Next...
Then there was the 'test sits', for different butt sizes. Roll and lock the brake and sit and rise, and feel.
Mini, normal and mega behinds, with cushioned and non-cushioned seats, all the while I knew I was saving my
arm and we left, with no purchase to go home and sleep on it.
The next day, with the intention and the money to purchase one walker-stroller with seat and brakes in
hand, I made it to the local drug store to spend a cool C-note, $100 bill. The walker-stroller came out to the car
with me in a box! I have no husband, no gear-head boyfriend. I saw plenty of working models, yet I never
thought to read the advertisement, "assembly required" was not in the ad.
The drive home, in my mind, I thought of all the tools, screwdrivers, screws, and assembly required. I
blocked out a solid hour of time in my mind to complete this project, remembering the saving of my arm for the
effort.
The box came open, it slid out easily. The sum of the parts had no screws, no tools required. The
wheels where wired inside the tubing, and they popped in with pre-set plug-pins. Then I popped the hand
brakes in the same way. Five minutes and I unfolded the stroller to the operating position. A stroller! Then the
seat just flopped down into place on the baby blue roller-stroller. Wow!
Adjust the pin-plugs for height, and we were off down the street. Rolling Thunder! Ya! My arms are
all mine again! Wahoooo!