Sunday

I can be with Roger today as long as I stay masked and gloved.  Why, are they afraid I'll give him a disease??

Today's blood counts show that the leukemia cells have increased again.  There may be some signs of the T-cells doing something...but what?  It seems it's a case of too little, too late.

Roger has had enough.  He wants to go home to Missoula, but the trip is complicated by the large quantity of oxygen he would need to get there.  An ambulance is a possibility, but if he is going directly into hospice care, our insurance won't pay for a 530 mile ambulance ride. 

This is surreal.  We have been having some matter-of-fact conversations about what will and won't happen, what can and can't happen, interrupted by the occasional perky nurse or nurses aide bouncing into the room cheerful and oblivious.  You would think such a personal and intimate conversation between a man, his doctor and his wife could be left uninterrupted, but no, perkiness intrudes.  You would think that in his final days a man could make decisions about where he wants to be without consideration for what the insurance company will pay for.

Tomorrow we will have a meeting with the team to discuss practical considerations and hopefully to make a plan to go home.