A Reflection on Health Care Cost

I hope you all sense the peace I feel with Sabine's stemcell transplant. It has been two years now since we descended upon the world of healthcare -- which prior to that time was our annual physicals!

In this "quiet time," one reflects sometimes on other things. Sabine, for example, was thinking about our health insurance. She did some checking around and noticed that there is a $2 million "cap" on our policy with Group Health Cooperative in Madison. Hmmm, $2 million sounds like a lot of money -- except when you are talking about medical care. The next thing she did was to check out how much we had spent these past two years and it turned out to be about $360,000! Well, that sounds like it should last -- or will it with costs ever increasing. Some more chemotherapy, another stemcell transplant and some hospitalizations and we could be nearing the "cap."

But what I think about is this: what do folks do who weren't lucky enough to work for the government for twenty years like Sabine did? How would we have paid for the cost of her treatment so far without insurance? I suppose we could have divested, sold our home and property, and rented an apartment.

We would still have our retirement income and a roof over our heads. And it would be okay. But how many other folks today don't have insurance or an income? What do they do? Live out of their automobile? At least until it gives out?

So as Congress debates health care along with funding a war I am just a little confused. I am proud of my country and I want it to continue not only to be a country I am proud of but a country in which we all have pride. A great nation takes care of those who live within its borders. Quality healthcare should not be available only to those who can pay for it. A program for universal healthcare in America is simply the moral and ethical thing to do!

Christmas Newsletter from New Journey Farm

Christmas at St Peter's Episcopal Church, North Lake, WI

New Journey Farm in Blue Mounds

Christmas News -- 2009

Ye gads! Another Christmas newsletter -- and time for a review of the past year at New Journey Farm in the rolling hills of Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. As the newest member of the Couper-Lobitz menagerie, it is my duty to make this year’s annual report.

First is the category of MEDICAL! I, joyful and thankfully, report that Sabine’s stem cell transplant last spring seems to have been successful (after all, she now has hair and I just saw her shoveling snow last week!). Sabine and David continue to be active in the Madison Multiple Myeloma Cancer Support Group. Sadly, they lost two of their group members during the year.

I also see them maintaining their exercise regimen – power-walking the hills that surround the farm in the summer and snowshoeing in the winter. Along with cycling (they now have a tandem) and health club visits in nearby Mount Horeb, both of them seem to be in pretty good health. Recently, they took Tai Chi lessons and I expect that this will be David’s 5th or 6th martial art.

Sabine’s mother, Charlotte, recently came home from undergoing a knee replacement (she was not too happy about the nursing home stay for rehab services.) She made it home in time to cook for all of us at Christmas. Quite frankly, I miss her hair brushing and hope she can come down and see me. I am a little jealous, because I heard that Mocha got to visit her when she was doing her rehab work in Mt. Horeb!

David is finishing up his two-year project on the police book and recently retained an editor to put finishing touches on it. They expect to have a “polished” copy to present to an agent by early summer. David feels that the book (some 400+ pages) will give him closure with his police career and send him forward to then write about the church! He and Sabine continue to worship with our local Lutheran parish in nearby Mazomanie and David occasionally is asked to lead worship and preach in the immediate area. (I think he likes doing that!).

Sometimes on Sundays they are late coming home from church. I have heard them talking about a second church they attend nearby made up by the “nones;” those who say “none” when asked about their religious denomination. This “church” they call “The Church of the Cinnamon Bun” or, for those more liturgical, “The Caramel-rollians.” I have heard them say that this “congregation” assembles on Sunday mornings around 10 o’clock to converse, drink coffee and enjoy a home-baked cinnamon bun or caramel roll at a local business. That’s where they met their good friends and neighbors Frederika (who taught Sabine how to knit) and her partner, Bonita.

Some of the things David and Sabine have done this year involve camping two weeks in Glacier Park with friends Andy and Kathy, getting together with David’s old friends from his days on the Minneapolis Police Department, Art and Grace Maxwell in Red Lodge, MT, fishing in Iowa with Sabine’s sister and husband, Ken (who have wonderfully helped out numerous times during Sabine’s illness), and going to a Broadway play in Milwaukee along with their usual trips to the American Players Theater, an open air theater near Spring Green, the Madison Rep (until they sadly folded), and saw talented friends in “The Music Man” held in the Ringling Brothers Theater in Baraboo. Sabine says there's no such thing as too much theater!

They also traveled to Hutchinson Beach, Florida, in February where they were joined by kids and relatives, and spent a week in Milwaukee at the Pfister Hotel when David was called as an expert witness. Sabine was the featured speaker at the local “Relay for Life” which raises money across the nation for cancer research. They also taught a seven-week marriage course at New Heights Lutheran Church in Mazomanie. Grandson, Ben, along with family members, Peter, Tammy, Samantha, and Hannah, came down for a summer visit and Peter, Ben and David went for a 50 mile “3 Generation” bike ride in the hill country (Whew! They sure looked tuckered out when I saw them!). In October, they spent a long weekend at Pinecrest near Iron River with friends Ted and Barb Chesney, Dave and Gretchen Considine, and Steve and Duffy Krug. They also experienced their first snowfall of the season that weekend.

There were visits from Sabine’s sister, Barb, and hubby Ken during that tense time of the stem cell transplant (they really couldn’t have done it without them!), along with summer visits from daughter Yumi (whose smiling face meant everything), and Sabine’s brother, Rainer, who always brings a trusty hammer and saw to make farm improvements – including those to our pen. Sabine's long-time high school friend, Shirley, stopped by with her new beau, Ron, and Sabine and David were happy to see them.

As is the case, our Christmas this year will be on a sliding scale from December 18th to the 25th. I expect to get ear-rubs from their daughter and son. Sarah and Joshua, who live locally, along with pets from nieces and nephews from Missouri and Illinois, daughter Sumi and her family (husband Scott and daughter, Taylor) from New Jersey, daughter Yumi (who will soon be deployed to Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division where she serves as an administrative officer to a medical unit) and their son Matthew and his daughter, Gracie, who will be coming from sunny California and experiencing snow for the first time.

This is a blessed time of year. My relatives made room for the Christ-child when he was born and we carried him in Jerusalem while walking among the palm boughs.

Love and peace to all,

Buckpasser (“Bucky”)

(Who was adopted after our donkey Mauritz passed away earlier this year)

Winter Comes -- Snowshoes On!

Sabine and I are getting ready for Christmas (though I resist early preparation for the Great Feast Day because I like to celebrate the liturgical time of Advent); but Sabine usually wins out as you can see her getting her mother's tree up and it's only the 2nd Sunday of Advent! Sabine's mother, Charlotte, recently had a knee replacement and has been in the Mt Horeb Nursing Home for the past two weeks undergoing some intensive physical therapy. She comes home today. I joked with the nursing staff that we would leave her in the nursing home unless they promised us she would be able to cook!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we received a ton of snow -- about 1.5 feet worth. Only our neighbor Bob's John Deere tractor with front end loader was able to move this heavy snow. But after shovelling out the geese and donkeys and pathways, we spend the rest of Wednesday in front of our wood stove.

This morning, we broke trail in the woods with our snowshoes and got a great aerobic workout!

We expect a bunch of relatives during Christmas week (actually 4 Advent!) and will have to have two Christmas celebrations. Son, Matthew and his daughter, Gracie (who has never seen snow!) will be coming from California along with our daughters, Sarah (Wisconsin Dells), Sumi (husband Scott and daughter, Taylor) (New York) and Yumi (Fort Drum, NY) and son, Joshua (Verona, WI - near Madison). Joining us also will be cousins Teak and Kelly with children Seger and Malea and Kim and sons, Jared and Jackson! Whew! It will be a Merry Christmas!! That's about 15 people over the week plus Sabine and I and Sabine's mom.

I will no doubt undergo some anquish as Army Capt. Yumi heads to Afghanistsan in early 2010 with the 10th Mountain Division. (Now I really want this war to end!).

We continue thrice weekly visits to the dialysis clinic in Madison to get Sabine's arm in shape for "buttonholing" which will enable us to dialyze through access points in Sabine's arm and rid ourselves of the tunnel catheter in her neck.

The miracle of the stem cell transplant continues and Sabine's strength (and hair) increase daily. We will be seeing more of the family in late January and early February when we visit Florida in our trusty camper.

So... life is good. Enjoy every day. Carpe diem! That we all would be able to fully live everyday as if it were our last. Blessings to each and every one of you this Holy Season!

[You can read some of my spiritual reflections at: http://christinyouchristinme.blogspot.com/]

Three Months!

Here's some pics from Dr Sheehan's office and the dialysis center as we start developing an access in Sabine's arm and rid ourselves of the tunnel catheter in her neck!

Yesterday was Sabine's second post-transplant meeting with her oncologist/hemotologist Dr Sheehan at the University of Wisconsin Cancer Clinic. He reviewed her blood work and checked her out. After doing all this, Dr Sheehan announced, see you in three months!

Thanks be to God -- his mercy is everlasting! What a journey we have had during the past 23 months! And what wonderful friends we have. Thank you, again!

At Wisconsin Dialysis Center

We're baaaaak! Yep, at the Wisconsin Dialysis Center again to take another step in our journey. We are returning to the Center three times a week for the next six weeks to develop and access port (fistula/"buttonhole") in Sabine's arm. When this is developed (matured) we will be able to do our home hemodialysis through the vein-artery connection that was surgically put into place earlier this year.

The benefit of using a fistula in her arm versus the plastic tunnel catheter she has had in her neck for almost two years will be enormous because we will be able to remove the tunnel catheter which is always has the danger of becoming either clotted or infected.

Other than that, Sabine's cancer numbers (those nasty lambda light chain proteins) are behaving themselves and she is now, after the second series of blood tests post stem cell transplant, still within normal ranges. We see Dr Sheehan tomorow for the second check-up since the transplant. Thanks be to God, all remains well and we are both looking forward to a great Wisconsin winter with lots of snow!

A Poem for Fall

it’s a sunny-crisp
quiet
november day
has everyone left?
our morning chirpers
flown south
our friends the sandhills
florida by now
the pond peepers
silent
we mulch leaves
put away lawn furniture
stack wood
drain faucets
the furnace man
and chimney sweep
come and go
yes, it’s sunny-crisp day
as winter
quietly
methodically
walks south
tree by tree
and we
in respite
walk our woods
then to read a book
snuggling
by the wood stove
touched by
radiance.

A Happy All Hallow's Eve

We continue to enjoy this blessed "interim" period in which the cancer does not dominate our life with medical appointments, chemotherapy, and the constant barrage of lab tests. We attended our church's "Trunk or Treat" in Mazomanie. The adults dress up and park their autos in the church parking lot, open the trunks and wait for the kids crying, "Trunk or treat!" We are happy to announce that we did not have to put any of the children in our trunk.

The next picture portrays a "boys afternoon out" on Friday. My friend Jeff and I got together at his house and after some heavy discussion that solved the world's problems, we took a motorcycle ride around the Blue Mounds area. (Jeff has TWO big bikes!). It brought back a lot of memories of motorcycles in my past -- from teenager dirt track days to getting rid of my last motorcycle when I went off to seminary, having decided God saved me enough and I wasn't taking anymore chances!)

But the real exciting event of the weekend involved trusty wonder dog, Mocha, who ran into a fence or some sharp object on our morning walk in the woods and received a nasty gash in her chest. We had to make an early morning "ER" run to the vet that morning. Thanks to Dr Williams (another Dr Williams is Sabine's GP) being in his office in Mt Horeb, we got her stitched up. Then we had to go to Goodwill and select an appropriate shirt for her to wear so she wouldn't take out her stitches! (You can't see it clearly but it is a cheerleader's top with sequins attached!).

So we are enjoying this calm in our life. In a couple of weeks we begin the "buttonholing" in Sabine's arm. The surgery went well and her arm has healed quite well. This will involve driving into the Madison dialysis clinic three times a week until the sight is developed and we can use it for home dialysis.

We hoping for a winter with lots of snow so we can do a lot of snowshoeing and skiing!

And a Happy All Saints' Day to all of you who have been saints to us!