Letters to the Nevada Senators Regarding Brother's Hospitalization

July 27, 2023

Las Vegas Offices: 333 Las Vegas Blvd South Suites #8016 & #8203, Las Vegas, NV 89101

Reno Offices: 400 South Virginia St. Suites #902 & #738 Reno, NV 89501

Washington DC Offices: 520 Hart Senate Building Office Washington, DC 20510
                                        713 Hart Senate Building Office Washington, DC 20510

Hello Nevada Senators Cortez Masto & Rosen ~

I am sending you both my recap of my schizophrenic brother's latest hospitalization ... one of MANY hospitalizations & stories of his mental health care in the last several years ... one of hundreds in 37 years of mental illness ... 

I pounded this out over the last couple of days and I am asking you to please read the story. I started the bullet point format so I could get it out of my head, so I just continued with it …

It describes the HELL I go through with my brother's mental illness in the mental and medical health systems, never mind the hell he goes through ... The system is broken.

My brother is a 100 % service-connected, disabled Veteran ... I am grateful to the VA for all their help. I do not know what we would do without them ... but even they are part of the problem. The Story I outline in my recounting of the last 3 months, does not include them so much, but they have similar practices and confusion within their institution that we have experienced in last few years ... 

The government is spending millions of dollars for my brother’s care … thought you might like to know … when, if he received the proper care in the first place, we would not be having this conversation … The story is set in California, but this happens in Nevada as well … same same … 

I find it easier to tell the story and have you get the picture ... there are more stories, and more pictures, but let’s start somewhere, shall we …

We need reform and change … we need to start a conversation … please grab a cup of coffee, sit down and I implore you to read the insanity of the mental health world we are held hostage in …

Thank you for your time and attention to this very important, necessary, and timely message.

 
Yours in Sanity,

Sara E. Green AKA Fluent in Crazy

This is the letter Included:

SO, recap of my schizophrenic brother, Stuart Green’s, Hospital stays in the Fresno Hospital System.  

The Saga Begins End of April 2023

11.      Coming out of a Las Vegas, NV, VA Hospitalization … comes home, grabs the car and takes off for Cali – rolls through Santa Monica but heads North …

22.      Found acting out at a Burger King in Chowchila, CA … demands the cops show up – taken to the hospital probably already had low blood sugars concerning his diabetes. He leaves his car there.

33.      Goes to the Medical Center/Hospital – I am notified in a voicemail on April 29 by Terry’s House to see if I want to come stay at their affordable family lodging for my loved one across the street … What? Who is this? I almost blew the VM off because I get 100s of marketing calls as my number is public. Thank God my intuition told me to follow up on this call, as I had no idea where Stu had been for the last week. I call the Fresno Medical Center to find Stuart there.

44.      Medical center social worker Arva Parker calls to get the history of my brother. I am triggered by this as I am asked so many times about all of the history behind my brother’s illness … more about that later in the story … I am short with Arva and she is patient with me … very professional. I eventually am able to get her the info she needs … she tells me where he was picked up by the cops so we can locate the car.

55.      I finally speak to Stu in the hospital for one night and he is going to be transferred

66.      He is transferred to the Behavioral Health hospital psych ward, but no one tells me, so when I call the Medical Center looking for him and to get the info as to where he went, they say he’s not here … don’t know where he is …

77.      Stu calls and leaves a voicemail to tell me where he is, and leaves a voicemail with address included, or I would not have known where he was transferred to … he is still out of his mind …

88.      Arva Parker helps me to get the POA in place for both the Medical and the Behavior sides of the hospitals … Angel

99.      I fly to Fresno and take an Uber to Chowchilla to get the car before it gets impounded. I get there at Midnight. I stay the night and try to see Stu in the morning, but visiting hours are at 4pm and I need to get on the road. I feel it is a gift from God not to see him right now. I am very busy at work and the trip is a bit of a hardship, but in a way a welcome break from my stress. I drive the car back to Vegas.

110.   Stu & I ignore each for many weeks … we need a break from one another … the journey has been intense and exhausting up until this point … again … still … always … he resents me trying to take care of and ‘controlling’ him … I do my best to give him autonomy, but he is like a child and needs help constantly … in fact, one of the first things he said to me when we talk again, is he is moving to California to be on his own and take care of himself, but he needs my help to do it! Ha! par for the course …

111.   Social worker at Behavioral, Mr. Booghos, says they are taking care of the diabetic wounds on his feet, changing the dressings and soaking them in Epsom salt daily and trying to balance his mental health (he had Osteo myelitis in his feet – very serious – so the diabetic sores on his feet are a big concern … could lead to amputation)

112.   LV VA MHICM Case Worker Claudia is calling and talking to Mr Booghos to send a med list of what Stu has been on. (MHICM – Mental Health Intense Case Management)

113.   Stu gets transferred back the Medical Center due to edema in his feet and a cold he has, Mr. B tells me he went over there but when I call to find him, the Medical Center says he is not there he must have been discharged … confusion ensues …

114.   I get a call from Gloria – Medical center social worker … she is trying to get information about my family history as I am running out the door to go to work at 9am – how did Stu end up there? What’s his diagnosis? Any history of mental illness in the family?  Caught off guard, I am triggered by having to answer these questions for the 200th time in 37 years, to a medical staff/personnel worker … nothing like waking up and having to recount the family insanity to a stranger for breakfast! I am short with her too … she takes it like a champ as well … I apologize for my frustration and she is very graceful with her professionalism.

115.   Gloria says she needs the POA – I tell her she has the POA … no she doesn’t

116.   I get a hold of Arva again and ask her to help get the POA to Gloria, she does and calls me back to tell me I need to say I have a POA, or they will not let me talk to Stu, who IS there, just under confidentiality due the sensitive mature of his condition … ARVA = Angel

117.   Over the next few days, I am not getting answers as to what exactly is going on with Stu and every time I call, they say he is not there, when Gloria is telling me he is … the nurse is supposed to call me to tell me his condition, but she does not … I do not know what is happening with him and where exactly he is and why they are hiding him from me and everyone else too!

118.   I decide to go for a visit to see exactly what is going on with Stu – This is now Mid-June.

119.   I drove all day to get to Fresno from Vegas … Texting Gloria that Stu is there at the Medical Facility … when I arrive, they tell me he is not there … I tell the receptionist that he is there, and I will be seeing him as I have a POA … she makes a phone call and checks with the unit he is on and they allow me to come up … yea, thought so …

220.   I go to his room and the nurse at the door tells me I need to check in with the front desk and they will decide if I get to see him … I assure her I WILL be seeing him … WTF?!

221.   I get into the room he is strapped down, pissing all over himself and they are cleaning him up … I ask why he can’t just get up and go the restroom … nope … too angry & unpredictable … they don’t give him a urinal to piss in with his hands strapped down, so let them clean up the mess! Their call …

222.   He has a 24/7 guard/staff member at the door because of his psych diagnosis

223.   He had Rhino virus (common cold) under ‘no contact’ status so that had to be cleared up before he could go back to Behavioral Health center and his feet were being tended to – no infection

224.   He told me he had divorced the family but was willing to take us back. We sat and watched a movie – family night, with me bundled in a full hospital gown, gloves, and mask due to his no contact status … crazy!

225.   I fight to get his “do not announce” anonymity status removed so friends, family, his VA caseworker and myself could contact him and would not be told he is not there … I asked who had put that on there in the first place? Standard procedure … never has that happened with any other hospital in 37 years where his admission is cloaked so no one knows he is there. It is finally removed a week later …

226.   Sent back to Behavior Health – still out of his mind

227.   He has a new social worker Tom Ellsworth, who I called several times, never did get a call back ...

228.   Dr. Yazdi-Nejad starts to call and confer with me regarding his meds and his condition … she calls several times and is very helpful … I ask if she has received the med list Claudia the Vegas VA case worker had sent … nope … so it gets sent again … we are trying to use meds that would be available at Las Vegas VA hospital/pharmacy, or he will be switched over when he gets back to Vegas … best to try to keep him on the same med list if possible or he will need more hospital time to get even/balance out … she calls me for several weeks in a row and I think we are getting somewhere but he does not seem to be getting better on the calls where I speak to him…

229.   By now, after our hiatus from speaking to each other had ended once I had visited him, the stalker dialing resumes. Up to 5-6 calls a day for months on end … I usually I will answer one call every other day to see how he is doing & tell him I love him … To guard my sanity, I cannot do more than that, but that does not stop him from calling and leaving messages anywhere from 4am – 10pm.  This puts an enormous amount of pressure on me that you cannot imagine unless you have been through it … Maybe that has happened to you … challenging … I become a bit numb to it …

330.   Dr. Green calls and says she is the new doctor … we talk several times over a couple of weeks …

331.   I go to visit him again – it is now mid-July. WORST VISIT probably ever. He is out of his mind still. I get a full shake down at the front desk of my person and possessions. Heatwave outside and they make me go back to put my purse in the car when they have lockers that would fit my purse, which I needed to use any way because I refused to leave my expensive phone in my hot car. I am escorted to the unit. The TV is blaring in the common area room we get to visit in. A Staff member is nearby, about 5 feet away, listening to our every word and staring at us … NEVER has that happened before … unnerving to be under such scrutiny.  Another patient continually invading our space and needing to be redirected by the staff member …  I asked if this was the only place we could have our visit … yes. I suffered through, regulating my breathing as I have learned to do to calm me down, feeling like I took a gut punch. FUCK!

332.   I ask to see his feet … they are undressed with open wounds, signs of infection. We have been fighting to save his feet for 2 years from diabetic sores that barely heal and then he winds up in the hospitals (plural) again and his feet condition goes down hill as they treat his psychosis, but not his feet. I tell them all, social workers, nurses, doctors, but then new social workers, nurses and doctors come onboard and have no clue how serious his foot condition is. I would have to be in contact with every shift, at every hospital in order to keep up with making sure his feet get taken care of. Let’s calculate that for a minute … this should be fun’ … I have not made this calculation before … lets say a 30 day stay, 3 shifts, say an average of 2 staff members per shift, doctors, nurses, specialists, social workers, intake nurses, etc … accounting for days off, so different people coming on board, sometimes a nurse will get transferred to other patients or take a day off or go on vacation … but probably the same nurse at least 3 or 4 days a week so 2 per the 3 shifts + coverage for anomalies … let’s say in a 30 day period about 10 nurses, 2 doctors, 2 social workers, so 14 people I would have to talk to, in order to make sure his feet are being taken care of because I cannot count on them sharing information. Too much hustle and bustle of the big machine to pay attention to small details. Ok lets also consider that my brother has been hospitalized about 10 times in the last 2 years … so that is about 140 people I need to talk to about BOTH his feet AND his brain … not to mention his normal doctor visits with the VA which includes: Psych, endocrinology, foot care, wound care, general care, the home health care, case workers, including all their office staff, care giver, intake nurses, (OMG don’t get me started on Intake nurses … they get all info and yet you still have to repeat everything you just said to the doctor!), there are a few others as well, that ALSO change periodically given their schedules and lives … so in 2 years’ time, probably about 200 people I need to inform what is going on … I cannot count on Stuart’s skewed version of events and information to convey the proper information. He is not capable of briefing them with a credible history, he makes stuff up in his psychosis that is not true, but he thinks is true. 200 people … impossible … yes … so discouragement & hopelessness ensues … not to mention who has time for all of this? Recounting again and again and again … getting triggered as this is traumatic! WOW, I totally went off … but you need to know … back to my original point about his feet in this institution … I speak with the nurse; she says he has been uncooperative and takes the bandage off. He thinks there is a bandage there that is under the skin because he can feel it, but it is actually his tightened skin from the swollen redness, possible infection, he is feeling. He says he leaves the bandage on until the next dressing … in other words … his feet are not being attended to and I am losing the fight to fight this fight anymore. (Please read Fluent in Crazy Dec 8, 2022 … all of the entries actually, to get a better understanding … My favorite entry is L2K AKA Legal 2000, Nov 10, 2021 … might want to start there and read forward …) I have one HUGE story from Christmas Eve 2021 as of yet, untold, as much of what I write is gut-wrenching and hard to write in the first place … so it takes more guts, and time, a limited resource, to write it all out …

333.   His mind seems to be getting better … I assumed Dr. Green was made aware of his meds list, but I found out … nope … again … she is not aware of the med list … but he does seem to be getting better … presently, I do not know if the meds he is on in Fresno will be available from the VA when he returns … sometimes I have to step back or it will drive me crazy …

334.   This is one hospital stay, or four-in-one as the case may be, he was sent from Medical to Behavioral, back to Medical, back to Behavior (just found out today, 7-27-23, he was back in Medical this weekend for his feet and back to Behavior so six-in-one) … this is VERY typical in his hospital stays … being bounced around from hospital to hospital… different Doctors & nurses, in each hospital, on each unit, that change regularly, all of them have their own idea of what meds will work. different social workers and personnel. It does not matter how many times you get the med list into someone’s hands, it will be lost, misplaced, not forwarded, not cared about. Etc … Staff calling to ask Stu’s whole history as if the first 14 people in the same hospital did not take that info down already … this is ridiculous and will drive a person mad who is actually sane! This is inanity, truly.

335.   July 27, 2023 – I spoke to Nurse Esmerelda today regarding Stu’s feet …. He went to the hospital on Friday and got some antibiotics (so they were infected as they were undressed … ) and they treated his feet … his feet are improving now … I had given it to the God Zone – The God Zone is when all human power has been exhausted and there is nothing more that you can humanly possible do … then it is in the God Zone because He is the only one who can make a miracle happen, or do the impossible … With God all things are possible … I had to hand it over or lose my own mind …

336.   Not sure when they will release him, but it will be a big job getting him back to Vegas and getting him settled in … I will need to hire a new care giver as the last one was not entirely a good fit, get him re-established with all of his VA health care appointments, home health care for his feet until they are healed again, groceries, errands, etc … my stomach tightens again just thinking about all of it when I have a busy life too … how do I fit all of this in? God Zone … He will make a way where there seems to be no way … One day at a time … We would not have to reestablish his care and routines if he had been given proper health care I the first place … I know everyone makes mistakes, but some ‘Oops’s cost more than others … again, not financially … or maybe that too, but the government is paying for it all, so “who cares” right?!

337.   This is one hospital stay of many and some of the others have been worse! Needless to say … this system is crazy and needs to find another way to operate … we can not keep saying … “oh, that’s just the way it is … oh well …“

338.   As of today, July 27, 2023, Stu has now been in the hospital for 3 months, being bounced back and forth between facilities, still not balanced and all courtesy of the US government … they pay for it all … how much do you suspect the cost is? My guess is about $400,000-$500,000 and this is only one of his stays … I estimate in 2021 my brother Stuart cost the VA/US government about $1,000,000 in hospital stays and possibly about the same in 2022 … I think that Is conservative. It was probably more.  How many other veterans did the VA spend that much money on for similar reasons?

339.   The system is broken … how do we fix it?

440.   We need a centralized data base system to put all the pertinent information into: Medication list, diagnosis, patient history of what works and what does not work, family history, family contact, etc … a code for authorization, either pre-established or enabled by the patient and or their authorized family so all medical personnel have access when granted authorization … It sounds simple, but I know it is very complicated to get something like this established, but maybe it could work to help patients, their families, the cost, medical staff … we need to start this conversation … many, many people cannot or are not able to speak up about the frustrations of the medical system … I can and will … I hope we can find a solution together …

441.   I know there are HIPAA and other laws in place regarding all of this for patient confidentiality, but I think the ‘cost’ of confidentiality in treatment, and I am not talking about financial, can sometimes be too high in relation to not getting proper treatment due to lack of information being shared about the patient in question.

442.   As I sit and write this, I am being contacted by a former general physician’s assistant demanding information about what is going on with Stu & getting text messages regarding his upcoming appointments at the VA that I need to cancel … more time consumption … my brother is a full-time job … and I have a full-time job! I am single … the only one bringing in money into my household … yet the time I spend on my brother, to ensure his health care, is astronomical … I somehow make it work but I know the average person has no shot at it … I am not average so Thank God for that! There are no other family members to help … My parents are gone, and there is no one else in the family who wants to deal with it … so it is me … and if I did nothing, Stuart would be homeless with no feet …

443.   HELP!!!

444.   Please contact me for more stories of insanity to drive home the point that we need to change some things in the mental health and medical world and for more information that may help you to approach how to help change the things that need to be changed. I do not have the answers … but I do have heart, courage (aka balls), stamina and the will to want change things … I want to help in whatever way I can … Let’s start with a conversation …

445.   I gave them my contact info on this line … Sara E. Green

446.   More info & background at Fluentincrazy.com

447.   Thank you!

448.   God Bless you …