DiabeticDick-Unfair Guardianship

Three years ago, I developed a heel ulcer the size of a small blister on the bottom of my right heel. The blister was getting attention from visiting nurses several times a week, but infection set in and I decided to go to a doctor (vascular surgeon) to get it cleared up. The doctor quickly signed me into Parkland Medical Center in Derry, NH.

Unfortunately, during my first few days there, I was given an antibiotic which the nurses said was not compatible with medications which I had been taking routinely. They didn't specify the names of the incompatible drugs, but I suspect that Celexa might have been incompatible with whatever antibiotic they decided to use.

The result was I found myself having some pretty vivid hallucinations(dreams?) which if they weren't so strange, I could have almost believed they were real. my response to the hallucinations varied from depression and lethargy, to a desire to take over the hospital to get my situation under better control. The hospital staff assigned a full time nurse to stay with me for about 2 weeks, until the symptoms (hallucinations), subsided.

During this two week period, my son applied to the county probate court for an expedited, hearing, for a permanent guardianship. It seems that he had read a book on guardianship, and found that it was an easy thing to accomplish if you had read the book.

Prior to my going in the hospital, I had been having some differences with a new counselor who was a nurse practitioner, and she was assigned to replace my previous counselor who was a certified psychiatrist. As a result of our differences, she asked to have a meeting with my children. I was reluctant , but I thought that maybe the kids would give me some moral support in dealing with this disagreeable person. Well, only my son showed up for the meeting, and to my surprise and disbelief, this nurse suggested that I be placed under guardianship orders. I thought she was crazy, or at least unrealistic. How could anyone think that a take charge guy like myself, could ever be considered in need of the protections of guardianship. For the previous eleven years I had lived with my dogs at the same location, paid all my bills, and had money left over from my social security check.

I had always arranged to have the prescribed medications and the insulin which I needed, and took them faithfully. For the past half dozen years, I had been seeing an endocrinologist who was also my primary care doctor. I had been through by-pass surgery, and had never needed a nursing home for recovery or rehab. A couple of years after the by-pass, I wound up with an infected large toe which had to be amputated. During the recovery, they sent me home with a computer operated IV machine for the around the clock antibiotic which was prescried. No one ever suggested that I be in a nursing home, for I was capable of replacing the antibiotic when it ran out, and I could take care of my meals and household chores s well.

I had a small male Schipperke dog who I loved, trained and cared for. The psychiatrist felt that having a dog was neccessary for the prevention of depression, because in my case I had owned a dog for my whole life. So my dog Blackie wa reffered to as my "therapy dog".

The court assigned a lawyer to my case because my son filled out papers which certified that I was "indigent". In this case it meant that I didn't have enough money in the bank to pay for a lawyer. So the court lawyer came to the hospital to talk to me for ten or fifteen minutes. I still expected the guardianship application to be thrown out of court, whether I was there or not. The proposal was so ridiculous.

I was incredulous at the result of the guardianship hearing (which I was not allowed to attend). My son had somehow convinced my doctor that I would be better off not attending the hearing, or having the hearing at my bedside. The guardianship orders went through without a hitch, and I shocked by the surealism of the situation, I was hoping that it was just another ridiculous hallucination.

To add insult to injury, my son gave away my therapy dog, who I had been keeping in a vet's kennel. Before the guardianship was even effective, he canceled the lease on my subsidised apartment for which I had waited , for about three years. He took nearly all my possesions, furniture and clothes to the dump. He kept my expensive camera and lens collection, and without consulting me sold the whole lot for the price that I had paid for my most recent camera purchase. He gave away my Ford window van, which I had repaired using all heavy duty parts, because I knew I wouldn't be likely to afford a new van. All my books, tapes, CD's, and my three computers were given away or otherwise disposed of. My accumulation of possessions of the previous thirty plus years, were irresponsibly disposed of as if I were dead and buried. I am really indigent now, through no fault of my own, I don't even have a dollar to buy a snack at the nursing home.

If there are any readers who are not bloggers but would like to relate similiar, or related experiences, please mail your responses to DiabeticDick; 184 Main Street, Rm. 113A; Fairhaven, MA 02719.