Health Care:Changes for Worst

I haven't been posting for a while due to the devastating developments in my personal life. My wife, my friend and partner in life was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer that has metastasized into tumors in her spine and brain. Because of her advanced condition, there is nothing that conventional oncology can do. She came home to me on Thursday July 17, and the prognosis was that she probably would not last the weekend. But I tried a few alternatives that seems to be working, although the results are minuscule, she is still with me today.

So I would like to discuss the challenges I face, not from the cancer, but from a health care system that has already pronounced her dead and encouraging me to let her go. Truth be known, I have been grieving now for two weeks, and have made peace with that. But she wants me to continue to fight for her. I explained that she will still suffer from the pain, but she insists that I have to help her get better so she and I can renew our vows next June for our 25th Anniversary.

All ofthe medications that were prescribed by her primary care doctor are being administered via hospice service. I explained before signing papers that she wants to fight the cancer and they agreed not to interfere with that, but cannot (by law) participate in anything that the doctor does not direct. But while they made promises to keep her comfortable, they have done just the opposite, pushing and rolling her like a potato sack and after she is in agony from their rough handling, they load her up with drugs.

I am using a cancer therapy that I discovered through research and friends advice. I am also working frantically to rebuild her immune system which has been decimated by the drug HUMIRA. Just today I discover that one of the drugs she is taking for inflammation is also an auto-immune suppressant. The excuse is that it is necessary for her comfort, but it agitates her so much that we are both up most of the night.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no Constitutional law that allows anyone in health care to choose when someone needs to die. It has always been my understanding that health care is about "caring" for one's health, not destroying it. From the beginning of this ordeal, it has been one medical miscue after another. If anyone out there knows the law well enough to advise me on this, please do contact me. While I am focused on saving my bride's life, I do want to hold accountable those who did not perform enough preliminary tests before giving her immune-suppressants, and the misdiagnosis of lung cancer as spinal arthritis.