March 3, 2019

On Thursday, February 28th Wayne Transportation picked me up at 9:30 am for my Together for Health appointment for teeth cleaning at 11:15 am. Wayne Transportation is a transportation service provided for seniors and others with disabilites. You have to let them know 2 days before you need transportation to be scheduled in for the day you need transportation. The fee for seniors is a  $1 per ride within Wayne County and outside of Wayne county, it is  $2 each way, for health care visits. While riding in the brand new vehicle, the driver told me his job description and responsibilities. He had to pick up 3 more people before I was dropped off. During that time, I felt grateful to have a safe driver take me to my destination and then another driver pick me up in an older van other to drive me to PT and OT. A third driver picked me up in a old bus after my appointments at 3:00 to take me home. There were 2 other women in the old white bus  waiting to be driven home too. I was exhausted, but knew this was the last time Wayne County Transportation would be have using Wayne Transperation because my transpertation driver would be my personal Home health care giver or my son as needed.

Home Hospice care from Wayne Memorial would be coming to my home the next day in the morning around 10 am. This was my discharge day of PT and OT too. I was taught how to do what physical theropy and personal lymfatic massage theropy with the assistance of my home healthcare givers at my home ,I call my santurary retreat.

I didn’t sleep most of the night. The pain in my back was excruciating. I was up most of the night worrying about what the future was bringing. The next day, the nurse and the social worker come into my room at 10:00 am and I’m still in bed. I’m being evaluated and asked many questions. The nurse asked me, ” Do you know what Home Hospice offer you?” I said yes because while I was going through my breast cancer surgery and treatments in Boca Raton, at the home of my brother and mother, my mother was receiving Home Hospice. My brother and I feared our mother would die within a week. She could not talk or feed herself. She was at death’s door. In nine months time, with the care of Home Hospice, their aids, and the aid of Maria, our five-day-a-week home health care aid, my brother’s 24-hour in-house care giving, with love, and my mother’s resilience, to rebound, because I was there giving her love while I was there through my surgery.

My personal resilience going through this storm of Stage 4 terminal cancer was to face the fear and get all the resources that I could through my insurances, to weather this cancer-storm by getting the hospital bed, the shower chair, rolling table-cart, the multi-utility walker-wheel-chair from Home Hospice. These items are the “Rolls Royce” of home health care supports, as were the people providing them.

Home Hospice provides a social worker, clergy, and after I pass, 13 months of Bereavement services to family members. Father Ed of Grace Church I knew because after my divorce in 2009 my son and I volunteered at Grace Church in Honesdale to help them to prepare and serve their Thanksgiving dinner. Another volunteer Female named Dee Dee that was preparing and serving Thanksgiving dinner was a member of the VFW post 531. I was looking to be of service to my community and became a Lifetime Woman’s Auxiliary member of Post 531 in January 2010. I told the nurse”Karen”, I’m Jewish, but there was no Rabbi in their Home Hospice network.

I am a member of the Congregation Beth Israel in Honesdale and my neighbors  are available to take me to Friday night services when I physically can.

Nurse Karen called in for the equipment to be sent at 12:00 noon the same day. She told me the delivery driver would call back to let me know if delivery that day was possible.

The nurse was now going to visit me 2 days a week, Tuesdays & Fridays. The Hospice aide for 1 1/2 hours three times a week with a bath & shower. My Penn Treaty Home Heath Insurance caregivers Martha and Lisa scheduled for 6 hours a day 5 days a week until I am approved for 7 days a week ,6 hours a day. Nurse Karen asked me, “What coverage will you have during the night? I said ” My Penn Treaty Home Insurance will pay for more hours 7 days a week when needed for the night care.My Maximum daily benefits is $201.90 and have a paid inflation rider of 22% anuualy.

It was 12:30 pm and I called Brian Moffett, a friend from 2015, and asked him if he could bring his good guys to help move my king size bed from my bed room down 14 steps to the lower level and bring up a single bed that the caregiver could stay in as needed at night next to me in my hospital bed.

Brian was in the grocery shopping and as soon as he dropped off his groceries in Small Wood, NY, he and the good guys would be over to move my furniture, 45 minutes away from where he was. That’s a blessed friend.

Martha my caregiver, was watching the way I took control to get the equipment and the furniture changed around in my home.

I knew it was a higher power, you can call the Divine or the Creator, that made all this happen on the eve before the Sabbath.

That first night on my new hospital air mattress, I heard a tapping noise. Then the hard bumps under my physical body from the air moving in and out of the mattress was too uncomfortable to sleep. The Peanut Gallery in my head said””What did you do? What happened to your great big beautiful king size bed?” I said, ” Don’t you remember? We learned EFT Tapping and energy medicine healing, and regression therapy. Just relax. Do deep belly breaths and let the tapping flow through the meridians and you will fall asleep and wake with no pain.”

The next morning, Saturday 3/2/19, Lisa, my caregiver asked me how was I feeling. I said, “Amazing! Because of the hospital medical air mattress” and love from my home health care givers assistance at my home.

Many of my friends have asked me how they may be of assistance and help me through this pain. My friends can help by purchasing my last book of fiction on Amazon titled Conception to Birth: Dreams do Come True, by Michele Schuchman. The cost of the book is $18, of which $12 is my net. This donation helps to fund me with pain medication that is not covered by my insurance. My fiction  book is yours to enjoy.

From the book: Epilogue- “Dreams do come true”

Being alive again, after tragedy by believing in Angels and the Divine, led me on a journey that convinced me dreams do come true as long as you are aware of your true intentions. My intentions of creating the character Grandma Michele the storyteller and listener did come true with this story “Conception to Birth”.

https://www.amazon.com/Conception-Birth-Dreams-come-true

I have learned not to promise anything. I meet people constantly and allow them to know that I have stage 4 cancer and often they immediately want to know more about me. When they ask me about my history, what I’m doing about it, and my current course of action, I say, ” Please read my blog, Grandma Michele.com,the profile on my website ww.self3.com, or Grandma Michele’s Legacy on my website.

I do not have the energy to keep telling my story.” Some people are offended by that and walk away angry. Some people understand that time is the only thing valuable and if they feel that their valuable time is worth reading about me, they will, if not, it doesn’t matter to me. I have intentions when I have enough strength to write a non-fiction book about the gifts from memeories of the pasage of fear. “Faith” is a powerful sorce of energy. This is my final blog until the new book is available.

God Bless