My brother had colon cancer. 15 inches were removed. 18 of 26 lymph nodes that were removed had…read morecancer. He underwent 2 rounds of chemo. Then they stopped for about a year. He moved from appleton to mauston. I bugged him to get checked out to see if cancer had returned. We had UW -Health docs. The oncologists were great. The cancer had spread to lymph nodes . More chemo, then a brief pause between rounds. Meanwhile he gets pneumonia and gets an antibiotic from mile bluff medical ctr. The leftover chemo in his system reacts with antibiotic as best they can tell. Shuts down his his kidneys and liver. He is unresponsive for 24 hours. The hospital puts him on comfort care as they expect him to pass within a day or two. He wakes up. Makes a miraculous recovery that stuns the UW liver and kidney docs. He spent a month in hospital and couple months in rehab. His kidney and liver numbers improve to near normal but liver and kidney docs warn full recovery of those organs could take months or years. He finally goes home. MRI says cancer has moved into lungs but still very small. We see oncologist who is hopeful he can still be okay for awhile but recommends we activate hospice for when the time comes. Unfortunately, we did not understand what that means SO LISTEN CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU PUT SOMEONE IN HOSPICE THAT ISNT IN IMMEDIATE THREAT OF DYING! My brother had gone home from rehab. Was getting stronger, walking more. We had plans. He wanted to go to waterpark, boating, and work on a bus he was converting to a camper. But hospice took over his medical care. CONPLETELY! Two hospice docs that had never seen my brother started deciding what his medicines were going forward. My brother has had problems with blood clots in his legs. They tried to take him off blood thinner. I said NO WAY and explained he would get blood clot. They changed other meds. Their goal was different than ours. Ours was to continue to get him stronger so he could have some quality time. Agrace's goal was to make him comfortable prior to dying. They took him off NORCO for pain and put him on 15mg morphine twice a day which basically knocked him out sleeping too much. I complained. They said cut pills in half and take as needed so he takes 7.5 every 4-6 hours. In a 2 week period he went downhill rapidly, his previously damaged kidneys and liver shut down. He gained 20 pounds of fluid in less than two weeks. I talked to the nurse that had been seeing him a few times per week about his liver and kidney damage from a few months earlier. "Oh we didn't know about that". Really? His extensive medical records weren't transferred to you or your two docs didn't bother to read them. SO KNOW THAT THEIR GOAL IS TO EASE THEM TOWARDS DEATH NOT KEEP THEM ALIVE. They canceled his liver doctor appointment that he had. They don't want him seeing any other doctors. They don't want any blood work done. It's just make sure they have no pain even if that is causing them to die early. I blame myself because I didn't know that that's what being in hospice meant the liver doctor said it would make things easier when the time came because he was already would already be enrolled and somebody would be checking on them on a weekly basis. He didn't say that they would completely take over his care not wanting to see other doctors not want to do any Bloodwork and would switch them to morphine which I believe shut down his already damaged liver and kidneys that hadn't fully recovered even though the numbers looked good full recovery was supposed to take six months to a year or more. He had time left. The cancer was not wildly out of control at that point but the morphine I think ended his life. Would I put him on hospice again knowing what I know? NO FUCKING WAY! His nurse was nice. I think she was a good nurse and she was obviously sad that he passed. So that's my good comment about AGRACE. The bad - two doctors who made decisions about my brothers care without knowing or understanding his complete medical history from the previous few months since last October when he went into the hospital, having reacted from the antibiotic and the chemo. Two doctors who never ever met him or saw him made his decisions. Understand that if you put somebody in hospice, you lose a lot of control over what happens to the person. And I say that because I made his medical appointments for his liver doctor, his oncologist, his primary care doctor they canceled his liver doctor appointment. I'm sure they would've canceled others if they had been on the schedule. Don't put somebody in hospice until they are close to death.

These people are the most unbelievable, compassionate, caring giving people I have ever met. They…read morejust helped my mom through her final weeks at her memory care, and they are better by far than the help she had there and the other homes nothing about her memory care because they are one of the best but none of them have the love and compassion of the Agrace team. They also admitted my dad into their facility in Fitchburg his last week and the care and bed side manner again was unbelievable. I don't know how these people do it. They are the strongest and caring individuals. I can't say enough. Thanks, you to the Agrace team you're the best Sincerely, Dustin Pauls