An Attorney’s Personal Journey – Jenny’s Story
Jenny: [00:00:03] He was diagnosed with a cancer that involved the lymph node here near the ear. And so he had gone to UC Irvine for a procedure to do some drainage. He was transferred to a rehab facility here in Long Beach, and at the time he moved to rehab, we knew that he possibly was not going to be getting better. And he kept saying to me, ‘Jenny, Jenny, I want to go home. I want to go home.’ And he was in this facility, and I couldn’t work with the nurses or the doctors because I was just a regular person. I know I’m an attorney, but I couldn’t get them to pay attention and respond to his request to go home. And so, I sat here in my office and I said, ‘well, what do I do?’ So, I called Machelle. And so that was about ten in the morning, I would say, on a Tuesday. By that afternoon, she and I were at the rehab. And because she has a nursing background and she’s a geriatric care manager, she was able to go right up to the front desk and tag me around like I was a little child and say ‘here.’ And we went to the nurse, and we found the charge nurse, and we said, we would like to check him out today and he would like to go home. So, by that afternoon he would be released.
Jenny: [00:01:20] The ambulance came the next morning, and we were able to get him home. And it must have been less than 24 hours. And he felt now at peace. He was just relieved to be home. So, I had done my job to get him home, to be happy, and then Machelle’s job was to provide the care that my husband and I could not do. I don’t think without Machelle’s help at Keen Home Care, I could have gotten him home. And that’s what Keen Home Care does. They have very good caregivers. They’re very strong in and of themselves, like Machelle and Ginny. They do a good job. When they were caring for my father, I was out of the country for part of it and something was happening, and she was able to text me, and I was able to text her back and we were able to solve the problem even though I had been away. When I see somebody like Machelle, I consider her a Mary Poppins. Do you ever watch the movie? She comes with her umbrella opened and just solves all the problems. So, in the medical field and with end-of-life and nursing care, sometimes she’s that Mary Poppins. Call her to have her come in and figure out what she can do and offer their services.