This is truly an urgent appeal. Hazel has uncovered costs for vital medical care.
This afternoon, Hazel will have a home visit from her doctor. I have only half the money to pay for this visit. I need to raise the other half in the coming thirty days, before the bill is overdue, to avoid late charges. (Plus I need to continue to raise money for her treatments, and I need to continue acquiring essentials for our home, from normal things we lost to mold and need to replace like space heaters and a microwave, to things made necessary by illness like air filters and a good vegetable juicer, to things that we need because we are now in a house, not an apartment, like a rake and a wheelbarrow.) Most urgent today, however, is the money to pay the doctor.
Hazel can’t go out to doctors’ offices. Being bedridden she has to get house calls. Those are really difficult to get, in this country, at this time.
I could relate the whole horrific history another time. For now, let me just say, before you make suggestions, that we have tried them all. I spent a grueling search, over many months, working with clinics and local agencies, Medicaid and its local HMO administrator, professional caseworkers and invidiviual practitioners, organizations for the disabled, care givers, and fellow patients, in search of any way to cover Hazel’s home visits.
There is no way. We’ll keep trying, but, at this time, the only way for Hazel to receive in-home care is for her to pay out of pocket. And, living on disability, the only way to pay out of pocket is by fundraising. Please, please help if you can.
(Why is there no way? Okay, a brief explanation here. It’s a two-pronged pitchfork that impales us. On one prong, the medical system in this country is not set up to provide in-home care unless you are on dyalisis, for example, or are receiving home hospice care while you die. If you are one of the millions of patients like Hazel who are not actively dying in the immediate future, and are not afflicted with one of a short list of approved in-home illnesses, but can not get out and about, then you’re screwed. On the other prong, if, like Hazel, you suffer from an assortment of multiple illnesses, any one of which would be considered complex on its own, then the home nursing agencies that do allow for visits to a broader range of patients will exclude you because they are not capable of treating patients with such complex illnesses. So no. Really. I’ve tried. Oh, how I have tried. There is currently no way to get Hazel’s care covered by insurance.)
The upside is— well, there are many upsides, actually! One is that Hazel’s doctor, who makes house calls, although they’re very expensive, does her best to keep the costs manageable. House calls are only required annually, since by law her doctor can’t prescribe for her without having clapped eyes on her at least that frequently.
The initial quote for Hazel’s care was $13,246 per month but we have spent, in over one year of care, “only” $7,717. To me, that’s still a lot of money. It’s $7,717 more than we could have paid on our own, out of disability income. But that includes doctor P’s home visits, T the Phlebotomist’s visits to our home, and the lab work from the blood draws T the P performed, and of course many many treatments.
Our main treatment focus for the past two months has been to stabilize Hazel. Immediately after the move, in the beginning of September, she spent two weeks rarely keeping down any food. She was still taking in liquids, and she was able to eat and even digest from time to time, but if this had continued any longer she would have been in hospital or, her preference at the time, dead. She was in so much pain and so lacking hope. and her sleep cycle was destroyed.
There was a turning point, at last, and as I write, today, Hazel’s sleep and eating are much closer to normal, most of the time. Now, we can return the treatment focus to detoxing from mold exposure. Bind the mold, flush the mold, support the livers and kidneys while the mold goes down the drain! (What’s the childhood sing-song, I’m echoing? Oh yes! Wash the dishes, dry the dishes, turn the dishes inside out. One of those things I thought I would grow up to understand, some day, but no, I still don’t know how, or why, anyone would turn the dishes inside out.)
Anyway! Upsides!
- The doctor is making Hazel’s treatment as affordable as possible, so your dollars will stretch as far as we can make them go.
- (And these are not in order of importance, or any particular order) The doctor is really good. She has focused her practice, for many years, on disabling neuro-immune diseases like Hazel’s, plus she works with other practitioners with similar expertise who share their body of knowledge.
- The goal is not to continue house calls forever, but to make Hazel well enough to be able to go out to clinics and doctors’ offices, to get not only this doctor’s care, but the care of other practitioners, from endodontists to neurologists and more, who do not make house calls but whose care Hazel desperately needs.
- House Calls have to happen just once a year, for the doctor to ethically and legally continue prescribing for Hazel. Other visits can be less-expensive Telehealth.
- Hazel is getting the best care and treatment possible under the circumstances, while still resting as much as possible, and when all is said and done, the most vital treatment of all is Rest.
So today, one week before Thanksgiving–as we go into the holiday season which Hazel is completely unable to enjoy since she can’t participate in gatherings, gifts, travel, feasts, even a little special visit from a friend or relation–as we get ready for what in the US is mostly a season of greed, gluttony and celebrating conspicuous consumption, please, if you have any small dollars or big donations to spare, please go to this link and help Hazel, who so urgently needs to pay her doctor, so she can have some hope to someday have a more healthy and happy life.
Her one and only Thanksgiving visit has to be this visit, today, from her doctor. We’ll make it festive by making it affordable, and full of hope.
Thank you!
Help for Hazel 