How’s everyone doing? This will be my last post of 2022! I have had a really long and difficult year this year but I have to believe that 2023 will be a much better year. I have faith that 2023 will be a better year. I have a blog post coming after new years that describes my goals and hopes for this upcoming year so stay tuned.
I have had a much better week this week if I’m being honest. There hasn’t been a whole lot going on other than dealing with life in the bed. I have my bad moments but overall I haven’t had as many bad moments.
I have called the Neuromedical Center in Baton Rouge where I went in August to start the process of fixing my nerves in my arms. They were supposed to be ordering a CT with contrast to see why Dr. Dowd done surgery on my neck instead of going to my elbows in first place. I never heard anything else from them. Life had gotten crazy with Tanner leaving me and my pressure sore that I hadn’t even thought about it. When I called I told them that I hadn’t heard anything back about the test and they said that they saw where it was ordered but that it was strange that no one had called me. She went ahead and scheduled me an appointment for January 27th to see the doctor and put the order back in to get my test. I know that this doctor is trying to figure out why my neck was worked on instead of the problem but I really wish that they would just fix my elbows and wrist first. The pain wouldn’t be so bad or at least we could try to fix it before it’s too bad that it can’t be fixed.
I have also gotten further with purchasing a pressure alternating chair cushion. I have been researching this type of cushion because it does the same thing that the mattress that the hospital uses to help keep the pressure off my butt. There’s honestly not a lot of options for a pressure alternating cushion. The company that I found is called The Ease Seating System. My cushion has been approved by the state! So now that it’s been approved the company can now start working on making the cushion. Of course, my cushion is not a standard size so it has to be special made so it will take a little longer to get it to me. I’m really hoping that I will have it for the ride to the Covington hospital, that is if they don’t take me by ambulance. I can’t honestly imagine that ride all alone with the EMTs. I know I’ve had to do it before but I don’t want to have to do that again. The last time was the time I had sepsis after my mitrofanoff and ACE surgery. I almost died during that stay…
Friday morning I went to wound care in Alexandria. We had to wait an hour in the waiting room before we got into the back. They put me in a small room with a vent that had bandages over the vent because it was so cold. It was just like the normal appointment, we done the Macsonix machine. When the doctor came in she opened the entrance of the wound up because it had gotten so small that there wasn’t really room to put the packing in the wound. She done this without any type of numbing cream and then looked at me like I was nuts when I went to crying because it hurt. I really do believe that the doctors believe that just because I can’t move that I can’t feel anything from the neck down. This is definitely not the case. I felt every slice she made. At the end, she discussed the muscle flap surgery. She talked with the surgeon, Abigail Chaffin, who agreed to do the surgery as long as we get prior authorization for the surgery and the six weeks recovery stay in LTAC long term care facility. According to them, my Humana insurance does not like to cover the recovery care and without the proper recovery the surgery will fail. So I have to get some type of authorization numbers to both of them before Dr. Chaffin will do surgery. The doctor wasn’t sure how long that would take and the lady in the office wasn’t there. It will be Tuesday before the office reopens after the new year. The only other option she gave me is to drop my Humana and just go back to regular Medicare part A and B.
When I got home I immediately called Humana to try to see if I could figure out what was going on with the authorization. The lady with Humana was just as confused as I was to what the doctor was wanting because she said that the doctor doctor has to send in the request for the service and then they will authorize it or not. She went ahead and told me my benefits to the plan and done an address change for me before we got off the phone. I don’t really know anything about insurance so a lot of this stuff goes over my head. I really need to learn all of this stuff but I honestly don’t know where to start. If you have any helpful information please let me know in the comments. The more I got to thinking about it, my Humana is a Medicare Advantage Plan which means that they cover everything that Medicare covers plus more so how can dropping my Humana help? This is the type of question I will have to see what the nurse at wound care has to say.
For New Year’s Eve Mallory and I decided to go to Kelly’s house where we roasted weenies, marshmallows and popped fireworks. I was drinking some type of gator or jungle juice. It was a lot of fun and much better than spending it alone in bed. I couldn’t stay all night because of my wound. We left and came home around nine and I was asleep shortly afterwards. My pain level and the alcohol mixture had me tired and my belly hurt.
Until next week…