Star Crossed Interlude: Road Trip!

https//ww.gofundme.com/f/help-lindsey-recover-from-a-stroke

On March 26, we scooped Lindsey up from skilled nursing, drove over to say goodbye to Acorn bungalow and get the doggies settled in the car, and then we hit the road. Spokane and the nearby area we are staying in is a 5-hour drive. Bob (my brother-in-law) and I caravaned with me sticking to his bumper like a fiendish tailgater! Lindsey was my navigator and did a great job alerting me whenever Bob used the turn indicator. For the most part, it was a great adventure for Lindsey.  He was stout hearted about leaving his home of 17 years and moving to the other side of the state to be near family. Early in the drive, Willow climbed into the front to sit on her Poppy’s lap. This was sweet, for a few minutes and I smiled to hear Lindsey saying, “I love you!” to Willow and petting her; he had missed her so much the 4 months he had been away from home in the hospital and in skilled nursing! But a fidgeting beagle is impossible to manage for someone with the use of only one arm, so a quick pull over, re-install the hound in back and eastward ho! The pass was very rainy, and I stuck like a tick to Bob’s trailer bumper. We lived to tell the tale and continued on to enjoy the sweeping landscape of crops, wind power fields, clouds, and soaring hawks. Lindsey spotted wildlife, rivers and generally reveled in the beauty of nature. He had some discomfort at the last bit of our trek, but after we got him inside My sister greeted us with a delicious homecooked meal which Lindsey enjoyed. This is the next leg of our journey of recovery for Lindsey. He is now in a home setting, and we are getting used to a routine which keeps us very busy all day (more on that later.) We are grateful to Tina and Bob for their heroic efforts on our behalf. We are grateful to our friends on social media and our GoFundMe community for your likes and donations, I am grateful that Lindsey is a survivor, that he is motivated and is willing to do the work to live his best life in the next step of our journey together on the path of recovery.

Star Crossed Interlude # 9 Red Tape

Star Crossed: Red Tape

https//ww.gofundme.com/f/help-lindsey-recover-from-a-stroke

Here you see a photo of a veteran doing his civic duty and voting. Because he had a stroke and his dominant hand was paralyzed, I helped him register his “new” signature with King County Elections.

Lindsey’s insurance company had denied Lindsey’s coverage without any notice to stay in skilled nursing. We scrambled at breakneck speed to create a safe and healing environment for him. Although we attempted to appeal the denial, we faced the reality of a huge unexpected medical bill, thanks to this insurance company that drops people from coverage right when they need it.

Before I go on; in the end because we were lucky enough to get a supervisor who knew how to do her job and had human compassion, she spent 3 solid days advocating for us, were finally got coverage for some of the time we needed. As it was Lindsey was still discharged a week earlier than we had said we needed.

The irony is that when we followed up with insurance on March 1^st we were told “not to worry, he IS covered, the denial was sent out prematurely.” So, imagine my shock and dismay when I followed up to see when the approval letter was coming and to be told that the case had, in fact, been denied; it was deemed medically unnecessary. The policy coverage stated he was covered for 120 days, and we got half that. At that point, Lindsey had only been eating solid food for 2 weeks, he couldn’t sit up without heavy assistance and had a complicated medication schedule.

Several days of being bounced around and put on hold on the phone and headaches later, we were back to square one; scramble to set up a safe place for Lindsey to heal. Thank goodness when we called the next day, we asked for a supervisor right off the bat and got the help we needed. I wish this update was more cheerful and positive, maybe in the next installment it will be because yes, there’s more!

Our homeowner’s insurance sent us a letter threatening to cancel our insurance unless we got a new roof. This assessment was based on an aerial photograph. They gave us very little time. When I appealed, we were basically ignored and dismissed, so we reported them to the insurance commission and found a new insurance company willing to work with us. Now, because we complained, our insurance company is sending me surveys and offering to re-instate us. I sent them a copy of my appeal letter explaining that my husband had a stroke and told them if they want to improve customer service, to have some compassion for customers. I told them I would never recommend their company to anyone.

This double-header insurance fiasco put us back weeks in packing and preparing for our move. It is stressful to have a loved one suffer a stroke, to do hospital visits every day for nearly 4 months. It is stressful to pack up a household to move across the state. Heck, life is stressful! The double insurance issue not only caused me to miss several days at work, but also pushed me to retire several weeks earlier that I had wished to. The extra stress of failure at both ends of insurance coverage when we needed it the most cause me and my family an extra level of stress and hardship.

I will say that Lindsey is in stable condition and ready to start on the next part of his story. I only wish we could start this chapter without the stress and drama caused by heartless insurance companies.

Please help Lindsey recover from a stroke, large corporations will let people fall through the cracks, but communities of compassionate and generous people and make all the difference in the world.