Community Update for week of 1/9/2023

January 19, 2023

Update to residents on 1/10/2023

Next Coffee Hour

tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 9:30 in the Fox & Fell or attend by Zoom or watch on KOTV. Zoom link: https://kendal-org.zoom.us/j/83441685533

Power Chairs, Scooters and More (Matt Baloun, COTA, Therapy Manager)

Power chairs, scooters, and motorized mobility devices, when needed, are a huge benefit to your everyday life here at Kendal.  We in Therapy are big advocates of prolonging your mobility throughout your everyday life with the least restrictive devices that are available to us.  We typically like to introduce the use of powered devices to alleviate the stress of managing the longer distances around campus. Thankfully, there has been an increase in affordable power scooter and chair options available.

However: ALL Kendal residents must be assessed, fitted, and cleared for safe use by the Therapy Department before purchasing and using any assistive device, including rollators, Power Chairs, Scooter, etc. This is a Kendal policy. Use of an assistive device that has not been properly assessed and fitted by the Therapy Department puts yourself and others at risk. We have had residents spend hundreds of dollars and more on mobility devices they have seen advertised online or on television, only to find out the device does not fit properly and/or does not meet their specific need.

Please utilize the expertise of and include the Therapy Department in assessing your need for the most appropriate assistive device, so that you can make fully informed decisions. We want to ensure your safety and that of others with the right fit and proper handling. Please feel free to reach out to me or anyone in the Therapy Department with any concerns or questions at mbaloun@kao.kendal.org or 440-775-9816. Thank you!

My experience buying covid tests that Medicare paid for

(Shared by Sharon Furrow):  I wasted time trying to buy at-home covid tests at Drug Mart before finally learning that they are not participating in this program. They told me I had to get them from CVS instead.

On the CVS website it says that if your insurer/payer for the tests is Medicare, you can’t order them online and have to go to a CVS store in person.

I went to the pharmacy desk at the Oberlin CVS and they were quite helpful. They had my Medicare number in their system as they came to Kendal last fall to deliver our booster shots.  It took about 10 minutes for them to process the paperwork and for me to sign. Then I was handed the 8 tests I had requested with a receipt saying I had paid $0. 

CVS has the Binax tests in stock, which I’m familiar with, so I got those.  We can get 8 each month.

Annual Medical Deduction Letters

This is that time of the year to remind everyone that Kendal will be issuing the Annual Medical Deduction Letters for the Residents’ 2022 Tax Year prior to the end of January 2023. We are currently working with the Actuarial Firm on completing the work necessary for that information to be distributed. Stay tuned.

Velvet Turtle at Kendal

We thank all residents who have been working with the new Salon serving Kendal residents. Marion, the owner, is working with all sorts of ways people are making their appointments including a direct call to the Salon. Here is the link for the salon’s scheduling application: https://www.vagaro.com/thevelvetturtleatkendal

Their phone number for their location in the town of Oberlin is: 440.774.4248

Girl Scout Cookies

Once again, Girl Scout Cookies are available through Esme, a member of Oberlin Girl Scout Troop #50439. Esme’s goal is to sell 500 boxes of cookies. You can buy cookies for yourself, or you can purchase cookies for donation to Oberlin Community Services’ food bank.

How to order cookies: Take a look at the flyer (on the bulletin board and at the Front Desk) detailing the different varieties of cookies, pricing, and allergen information. To order by phone, call Girl Scout Esme at 440.787.5802 to place your order by February 5th. Orders by phone will be delivered in late March to Kendal.

Or you can order online using a credit card at https://DigitalCookie.GirlScouts.org/scout/esme725899

NOTE: If you place your order online, be sure to request the “Girl Scout Delivery” option. This way, you will avoid a shipping fee (cookies will be sent to Esme who will get them to Kendal.) If instead you choose to have your cookies mailed to you, there will be a shipping charge. The direct shipping order deadline is March 26.

Still have questions? Contact Kendal resident Dorothy MacIntyre. Thank you for supporting Girl Scouts (and Oberlin Community Services) in this time-honored way!

Scam Alert

Toni Merleno, Risk Manager

Here is a recent email received by a Kendal resident. Don’t fall for things like this! The sender was trying to trick the person to click a link, which would enable them to know your email address and possibly other information. In this example, you can also discern that the sender’s email address is in Russia (“@ru.is) and they refer to funding you with bitcoin.

On 1/9/23, 11:06 AM, “Kristján Vigfússon” kristjv@ru.is > wrote:

Good day,

Your account balance is currently funded with 159 BTC details below

User ID: 43142585; Password: Unstopable12$

Ensure to confirm your balance

Thanks,  Support Officer.

Other Announcements

Promising news about treatment for Alzheimer’s

(shared by Marvin Gordon-Lickey) a medical article (not reviewed by Kendal staff): https://firstwordpharma.com/story/5694047

And a poem for you today – about forgetfulness!

(Shared by Phyllis Gorfain)

“Looking” by W.D. Snodgrass

What was I looking for today?
All that poking under the rugs,
Peering under the lamps and chairs,
Or going from room to room that way,
Forever up and down the stairs
Like someone stupid with sleep or drugs.

Everywhere I was, was wrong.
I started turning the drawers out, then
I was staring in at the icebox door
Wondering if I’d been there long
Wondering what I was looking for.
Later on, I think I went back again.

Where did the rest of the time go?
Was I down cellar? I can’t recall
Finding the light switch, or the last
Place I’ve had it, or how I’d know
I didn’t look at it and go past.
Or whether it’s what I want, at all.

“Looking” by W.D. Snodgrass from Selected Poems: 1957-1987. © Soho Press, 1987. 

COVID News/ Statistics

Governor Mike DeWine’s regular COVID Press Conferences: https://ohiochannel.org

Bivalent booster success

(Shared by Don Parker): Embedded in a general discussion of COVID in 2023 is the following encouraging information: 

• Recent studies find value in the boosters. One study looked only at adults age 65 or older, finding that the bivalent booster reduced the risk of hospitalization by 84% compared to someone not vaccinated, and 73% compared to someone who had only received the monovalent vaccine.
• Another study of adults found those who had gotten the bivalent were less likely to need COVID-related emergency room care or urgent care.  
• In a Dec. 21 report in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took plasma samples from people who had gotten either one or two monovalent boosters or the bivalent to determine how well they worked against the circulating Omicron subvariants BA.1, BA.5, BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, and XBB.  The bivalent worked better than the monovalent against all the Omicron subvariants, but especially against BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, and XBB.
• That is good news indeed.  Here’s the link to the whole article: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/986429?src=WNL_trdalrt_pos1_230104&uac=325325HK&impID=5061534#vp_1

New variant XBB.1.5 is ‘most transmissible’ yet, could fuel covid wave

Washington Post  However, quoting the article: “The more this virus circulates, the more opportunities it will have to change,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on covid-19, at a Wednesday news conference. “We do expect further waves of infection around the world but that doesn’t have to translate into further waves of death because our countermeasures continue to work.”

“Even though this thing is continuing to evolve, if you take a step back and look at the big peaks, they are not as ferocious as let’s say Delta in the last half of 2021 or the early BA.1 omicron wave,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “Robust population immunity helps communities withstand new variants.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/01/08/new-covid-variant-xbb15/