Hospice

Ok so I've put off writing about this because, at first I think it was difficult to talk about. But I want to make it clear to everyone that Ted is not dieing today or tomorrow. This all came about because we went to our primary physician and she wanted to know if we have looked into hospice. We said no we haven't and no one has mentioned to us before. I didn't think Ted was ready for it but she said lets just look into it and you can always say no. So she set us up with Hospice. At firt they weren't sure if he qualified because he is still taking chemo. I said I did not need home care because we do everything ourselves. So in the end, after they realized he only takes the chemo for comfort measures. Because it helps with the pain. They agreed it would be good. I guess you no longer have to have a life expectancy of 6 months to be on Hospice. And if you come off of Hospice, you can go back on when your ready.

So what is Hospice going to do for us. Well first they recognized the fact that we fall through the cracks. What I mean by that is that Ted makes too much money on Disability to qualify for food stamps and medicaid. But not enough money to pay for all his perscriptions and bills. (One of the main reasons we started Team Ted) Anyway we have a social worker and she is really nice. Someone who you can sit and bullshit with. We also have a nurse who is nice and she will probably stop by once a week or every other week till we need her more. They are full of the answers that we need and crave. Answers that Doctors are afraid to tell us about. Hospice has also done something that I never thought could happen. They are trying to negotiate with the insurance company to lump all his bills together so that they get covered and we don't have to pay anything out of pocket. The Jury is out on that still so we will see. BUT the best news about being on Hospice is that they are going to pay for our co-insurance for perscriptions. We have crappy insurance on perscriptions and we pay 40%. So now they are going to pick up the tab on that 40%. We pay about $25 for a wheelchair a month because our insurance won't buy it they will only rent it. They are sending one over from the company that they use. So Hospice is saving us about $400-500 a month. Wow. We are so surprised on how this all works. So I guess that Hospice isn't as scary as it sounds. It doesn't mean Ted is not doing well. He actually is doing ok.

We saw a lymphadema specialist they other day and they are going to start massage and hopefully this will help his legs. He is still messing around in the garage and building furniture and loving every minute of it. So right now things are ok. I'm working and it's been a little tough but we are managing. The kids are almost out of school. We are looking forward to summer.

Well I hope everyone else is doing well too. Love to all. Karen