The home health nurse looked at me carefully before she said it. Loretta had been listed as the primary contact since March. I asked why nobody had told me. She said the paperwork had been submitted by my husband, and the form named Loretta as his medical power of attorney. I asked to see the signature. It looked like mine at first glance, but the date made my stomach drop. I was out of town that entire week. The witness was a receptionist I’d never met, and the address beside my name wasn’t ours. It was Loretta’s.
I confronted my husband that night. He admitted Loretta had been helping him with the paperwork. He said he was tired of having arguments between us every time his mother wanted information about his appointments. I reminded him that I had been taking care of him for two years, driving him to every appointment and managing his medications. He said he appreciated that, but Loretta was his mother and “needed to know what was happening.” Then I asked why my name was on the signature line. He said the nurse had misunderstood. I put the form in front of him and pointed to the witness section. The witness had signed the same day my husband had taken me to my daughter’s house.
The nurse called me the next morning and said she’d found another document in the file. It was an emergency contact form from March, and it contained a handwritten note: “Do not contact spouse unless absolutely necessary.” I asked who had written it. She said my husband had initialed it. Then she told me the power-of-attorney form wasn’t the only thing he’d changed. The hospital’s records showed that Loretta had also been added as the person authorized to receive his medical information, speak with doctors, and make decisions if he couldn’t. I asked whether the authorization could be reversed. She said yes — but there was one problem. The original form had been notarized, and the notary had already uploaded a copy of my supposed identification.
