Winning the Battle against Hospice, but Losing the War

Last Friday we were”served” with our hospice discharge papers, on Saturday I appealed, and today I learned that I was winning the battle against Tidewell Hospice, but losing the war to get my husband hospice care.

“You won your appeal,” said Kepro, the organization charged with hearing hospice appeals.  However…

“You won by default.  Tidewell Hospice didn’t submit their paperwork in time.”

I asked what would happen now and Kepro told me that Tidewell would serve me with another discharge and I could appeal again.  Oh, yay!  Such a deal!

Today, just an hour later, our hospice nurse called to make an appointment to serve us with a new discharge.

I’m so tired.  I didn’t sleep last night from 2 am to 6:30 am.  It’s a bizarre twist of advocacy.

I have to advocate that my husband is dying – is declining, not stable.  I have to make our case for his imminent death.  Somehow if I win, that means others agree.  And that’s good?  I guess so because that means we get more care.

But the reality is he is dying.  It isn’t good.  It’s awful.  How do I mourn what I have to advocate for?  My heart and head are twisted in irony.  Why must my precious stores of energy go to this healthcare hairball instead of caring for Larry?

Larry was a 2 out of 10 today when I asked how he was feeling.  The worst in a long time.  Is it because of all this talk of his death?  Is it because of the antibiotics that were prescribed for his urinary infection?  Is it because his symptoms are increasing and the disease is just progressing so far?

It is hard to focus on living while we have to focus on dying.  My heart breaks for us both.

I am so tired.  I want to give up.

But if Viktor Frankl, the noted author and Holocaust survivor, can find meaning and survive his horrific experience, so too can we survive what we face.

“We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who are being questioned by life – daily and hourly… Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” – Viktor Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning”

Larry and I are being questioned by life.  Daily and hourly.  We work to find the right answer to the problems we face.

So today I went to yoga.  I swam in the pool while Larry sat in the sun.  We went to Off-Key Chorale and sang with others dealing with neurological challenges.  Tonight, we drove down to Lighthouse Grill ,a restaurant on the water, where friends were singing and had invited us to join them.  We listened, we chatted, we ate, we watched a spectacular sunset.  We lived.

I advise any family considering hospice who has a rare disease to be sure they use a doctor who understands the disease and not use the covering hospice doctor who doesn’t have this specialized knowledge.  Had we done this, we wouldn’t be in this position now.  The nurses would have tracked the symptoms characteristic of the decline of his disease, the doctors would have prescribed the medicine needed for his MSA autonomic system failures.  They wouldn’t have been looking for the symptoms of cancer or heart disease that are, of course, missing in Larry.

Tomorrow we will fight again.  We will win the battle to get him appropriate care.  Either we will win our appeal, or we will find great healthcare elsewhere.