Jim and Brad playing some ball at his new home.
I have wanted to write this piece for a while but I haven’t wanted to offend anyone or hurt anyone or cause hard feelings. So, I write this with the understanding I am not trying to call anyone out for offering us suggestions or trying to help our family. Just the opposite. I am writing this particular piece in the hopes of EVERYONE reading it and understanding the gap and the disparity of assistance for many, many families in need of help. If you care at all about our society as a whole, you will read what I am about to write.
First of all, thank you to everyone who has sent in suggestions. I appreciate you taking the time and making the effort and in some cases, doing quite a bit of research. Now, let me speak freely without the worry of being taken the wrong way.
Stop. Stop telling me that I just need to make one more phone call or fill out one more form.
I have. I have filled out every form known to man. I have made call after call after call. Many times while Jim sat helplessly, just feet away, listening to me repeat our story, his story. His burdens on our family and feeling the guilt he so wanted to avoid are now seared into my mind as something I threw in his face over and over while trying to find the answer that has alluded us and continues to do so. I have gone online and researched. I have spent hours and hours and hours (you really wouldn’t believe) just trying to find an answer. I think I have worked harder and spent more time, energy and filled out more forms than I did in all of my years of college combined. I have always believed in my heart that we would have help. I have always believed that when the time came, Jim would be taken care of and I know he thought the same. We both assumed I would just keep working and it would all work itself out. We were wrong, wrong, wrong.
Jim is 53 years old and a 23 year veteran of the US Air Force.
Our children are 11 and 14.
We are middle class.
Jim had Tricare Health Insurance benefits when he retired from the Air Force, which also covers myself and our children.
After being out of work six months due to his Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease disability, Jim applied for and obtained SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) This is a program Jim paid into with every paycheck he received starting at the age of 14. It does not come close to replacing the income he was earning while working, but it most certainly keeps our family afloat.
After two years of SSDI, Jim was automatically switched from Tricare to Medicare. Medicare is a health insurance program. It is not a program that provides Long Term Care for people with Alzheimer’s Disease. It covers doctor visits and hospital stays, just like any other health insurance program.
I work out of our home as an independent contractor. I have also just started a part time job this week in the hopes of helping with Jim’s care.
I applied for Medicaid for Jim in July. You cannot apply until you need this program. So, even though we knew the day Jim was diagnosed many years ago we would eventually be applying it was only when he needed more help than I could provide that we could fill out the mound of paperwork, meet with Social Service workers and start the process. This is something I strongly believe needs to be addressed and changed. But, I will save that tirade for another day. We were turned down for Medicaid. Not because of our income, but because Jim does not qualify medically. He does not need “skilled nursing”. He does not need someone to monitor his blood pressure or blood sugar. I promise…I am not making this up.
We have gone to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hampton, Virginia many times. I was told each time there was nothing to help us. His disability is not service related and he is not 65 and he makes more that $26,000 a year. I went back and I called. I have been desperate trying to find help. I have sat and cried, feeling like a forsaken child of the country I have always loved and been proud to call mine. Nothing. No help to cover his care. We did qualify for the 30 day respite from the VA this summer which was a Godsend. For this, I am very grateful.
I couldn’t understand why others making suggestions of different programs he will or he should qualify for has bothered me so much. I know that each person who writes to tell me that the VA will help or Medicare will help or Medicaid covers their uncles care means well. I know when you write with your stories and your suggestions, you are trying to help. Unless you can actually make a program start covering Jim’s care, please do not tell me what I am doing wrong anymore. That is how I take it. I shouldn’t, but I do.
Recently I was talking to a good friend about this. I told her I understood people were trying to help because they care and they want to help our family but with each sentence saying there is help out there if I only would do this one thing, I was hurting more and more. I couldn’t figure out why. Why would it bother me when I know I had done everything and I know their intentions were good and genuine?
“Because it is a sore, raw subject for you Karen. You still feel like you have missed something and you also feel like there should be and is a program to help if you can only find it. Each message reminds you that the system is failing your family and it makes you feel like you are too.”
And there it is. I struggled to understand something that she layed out before me to make perfect sense.
I agree with all of you: There should be help. There shouldn’t be a need to have a charity page asking for donations from everyone under the sun to take care of Jim. It was a most difficult decision to do so, but I cannot take care of him the way he deserves. I cannot change his diaper and help him shower and help him all day long with finding something to occupy himself. I was failing him and our family. But this is not anything that qualifies for help. Needing assistance with eating or hygiene does not entitle you to receive help with your loved one. We don’t fit into a black and white box and therefore there are no possibilities of going outside the box to use common sense to help. Either you fit the criteria or you don’t. We don’t.
I have met with our State Senator, staff representing our US Senator, social services, Medicare and Medicaid representatives and VA representatives. Nothing yet. There is a slight hope we may receive some benefits from the VA, but my attorney (who completely rocks) and a local reporter and our US Senator haven’t been able to make it happen yet. But, you never know. I am still optimistic, but now with a much clearer sense of probability.
So please understand I have put more effort, energy, time and hope into finding this solution that must be out there somewhere than I have put into anything else in my life. It is like pouring salt on a wound when you tell me I haven’t done what I have been trying so very hard to do for months now.
I appreciate your belief in our system, as I have always had your same beliefs, but sometimes, we are all wrong. Please keep writing me and if you genuinely have something that you have found that can help our family, please share as I am hoping there really is assistance available. Otherwise, please start a conversation with your friends and neighbors. You may be surprised to find they have been through this same process. And if you are so inclined, please start advocating for a change. It will be too late for our family, but others coming behind us, which could be your family, need us to stand up and demand all of our citizens be cared for and treated with respect and dignity. No one should lose their homes, their life savings or their own health in a land that prides itself on prosperity.
Jim, Frances and Brad. April 7, 2012. Jim’s 50th birthday.
