I’m in the midst of a six-day road trip, piggybacking a visit to see my mother onto visits with new and potential clients in southern California. In addition to spending some time with mom, one of my objectives was to assemble and copy supporting documentation for her Medi-Cal application. I’ve come to realize that in this day and age, my mom is one of the fortunate ones. She has Medicare coverage through Kaiser’s Senior Advantage program and an excellent Medicare supplemental plan also through Kaiser. As such, she pays only $10-15 (copayments) for each physician visit, diagnostic test, or medication in addition to her monthly supplemental insurance premium. Nevertheless, it adds up – to the tune of $150-250 per month. We’re applying for Medi-Cal as a stop-gap measure, in case she requires in-home or nursing home care that are not covered by Medicare.
The Meds
Saturday morning, I helped her with a weekly ritual – the counting and sorting of medications. Like an increasing number of people her age (83 in April), my mom is now classified as a person with multimorbidity. In addition to four separate vitamins and minerals, she takes another six medications AT LEAST once a day and Ibuprofen as needed for pain. She has high blood presure, deteriorating hip joints, a bad knee, arthritis, mild osteoporosis, and is battling repeated flare-ups of gout. The number and frequency of the pills she takes is so bewildering, they have to be sorted by day and time so that she doesn’t accidently over or under medicate herself and end up in the hospital.
The Sorting System
I’ve spent the last two days thinking and musing about my mom’s situation. This morning, I saw a link posted by a friend of mine on Facebook. It’s an article about multimorbidity that you may find interesting – particularly if you have loved ones approaching or in this season of life.
I don’t have any special insights or advice to pass on right now. I’m still in the process of working through my feelings. I was talking with my wife yesterday, telling her that I was ready to come home. I thought this feeling was related to the fact that I was spending five nights in four different places and expending a lot of “relational energy” along the way – something that really taxes an introvert like me. However, in the midst of writing this, I realized that visiting my mom and seeing everything firsthand has made me melancholy. As a fundamentally positive person, it’s not a place I’m very familiar with.
This is such a vivid example of the compelling need we have for personalized medicine that takes a systematic approach to the patient. The silo’ed approach – while benefitting drug companeis – clearly hurts the individual. Ugh!!
We often see the suffering of our loved ones in articles, TV magazine shows, third removed stories of friends dying of lung cancer, breast cancer, or a host of a mirad of ailments and the brevity of life’s journey brought in front of our face. The suffering that touches not just the aging parents or aunts/uncles but the loved ones. The emotional toll is a paired journey as well. My other friend Mike is saying good by to his aunt as there is nothing more modern medicine can do for her. Let us keep those loved ones in constant prayer not only for those in the physical pain in the winter of their life but also those who hold their hands along the way.