Hospice

The radiation continues through Monday the 4th, and seems to be helping reduce my back pain. I keep vacillating about driving the Porsche down to San Diego, but in truth I think the Highlander is a much better choice, even with two drivers. We’ll see. Amy and I will take off Tuesday one way or the other.

Had a good conversation with a Providence Hospital hospice nurse this week who answered a lot of my questions. “But wait”, you say “Isn’t hospice that thing you do right before you die? Isn’t this a bit premature?” And the answer is “Yes”, but there is more to it than that. I met someone in Bend (a hospice volunteer and grief counselor) who said most people misunderstand hospice and wait too long to take advantage of it. So I decided this is a good time to lay the groundwork so I don’t make the same mistake.

It is, admittedly, care you undertake when there are no curative options open to you and life expectancy has dropped to six months or less. For me that’s if the IL-2 doesn’t work, which we’ll probably know about sometime in November. It’ll take a note from Dr. Margolin that says my check-out time is nearing to become eligible, but Providence hospice can supply an impressive amount of support and services. For me the most important is 24 hour a day on-call nursing help and pain management. Plus social services and faith based support that I don’t think I’ll need but could be helpful for the kids. I’m glad I’ve made the contact. It’s good to have Amy, Andrea and friends, but even better to have trained professionals to take part of the load when needed. I’m also glad, once again, for my insurance which will cover it pretty nearly 100% at this point.

In the meantime I’ve got lots of time to have fun, and intend to take advantage of it. Right now I think I’ll go on line and see if there are any cool last minute deals on cruises to Alaska.. Sometimes when you are able to just jump on the boat at the last minute you can get quite a deal……