'I can't do it anymore'

Susan Spicer, the Aneta, N.D., grocery store owner who won a battle with Medicare/Medicaid a couple of years ago over disability coverage of medicine she needs to stay alive, has placed her store on the market.

"I can't do it anymore," she said. "I can't be on my feet 12 hours a day. My doctor said you need to get out of there."

Spicer was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer in 1991 at age 36. She has neither a colon nor a small intestine. While she can eat and drink, the beverages run right through her, without providing any nutritional benefits.

Doctors have prescribed Perenteral Nutrition IV treatments-to maintain adequate caloric intake-three to five times a week for the past dozen years.

Spicer had received monthly disability payments for more than a decade. That now amounts to about $700 a month. She also shoveled snow for neighbors to earn money to pay her heat bills.

"It wasn't much, but I got by," she said. "And my treatment was paid for."

Then, in fall 2006, she bought Stone's Market, the only grocery store in this Nelson County community of 280. She borrowed money from friends and relatives.

"If somebody didn't buy it, it was going to close," she said back then. "And I could use some extra income."

Then, late in 2007, the government determined that her combined income from self-employment and disability of about $1,230 a month exceeded the maximum monthly income to be eligible for benefits.

In late 2007, she reduced her medicine to once per week, because Medicaid refused to pay for the treatments, calling them "supplemental," even though her doctors said she needed the treatments to stay alive.

She lost 25 pounds in three months, dropping to about 120 pounds.

At the time, one PN IV treatment per week cost her about $850 a month, according to pharmacy records. The recommended three treatments per week cost about $3,400 a month.

In April 2008, she faced bills of $62,000 for her treatments.

She grew frustrated and weary of the administrative battle.

"It's like they want you to give up," Spicer said at the time. "I don't have the strength to continue this on my own."

After news spread about her plight, Aneta-area businesses and residents started a fund, which was used to pay for her treatments.

She appealed to North Dakota's congressional delegation. Other people from around the region pitched in, too, even offering free legal representation.

Then, one day, the bills stopped arriving.

"I've been getting my medicine, but I don't get billed," she said Tuesday. "My doctor said the best thing I did was talk to the newspaper."

Life has been anything but comfortable for Spicer and her family.

In January, fire destroyed the Aneta home of her son, Mike. He and his family now live in Hatton, N.D.

Late last week, burglars broke into her store. Someone threw bricks through a window a few days ago.

Spicer takes it in stride. A potential buyer plans to visit the store later this week.

"It's a good business," she said. "That's what I thought when I bought it."

But the timing is right to sell, for her personally.

"I've got to get my priorities straight," she said. "I have no spare time for me. It's time to quit. But you can't say I didn't try it."

Reach Bonham at (701) 780-1110; (800) 477-6572, ext. 110; or send e-mail to kbonham@gfherald.com .