Two months exactly since the day of Sarah's heart surgery. We launched this blog to pass the anxious hours - 8 of them - while she was in the operating room. So much has happened during the following three weeks in the hospital and the succeeding five weeks at home. There were days in which two blog posts could not cover all that was happening...and now it has been a week since I have had any news to report.
On Tuesday and Thursday last week Sarah returned to her job at the Disability Rights Center of New Hampshire where she is the office assistant. Only for two hours each day, but she seemed to tolerate that very well. The big news for her at the DRC is a new (much needed) copying machine that she will need to master. She was so happy to see her friends at work and to return to her usual Main Street haunts. The plan will be for a gradual return to action culminating in some walking to work once the spring weather is well-established.
This coming weekend Sarah hopes to make the trip to Westborough, MA, to see Levi. This involves the Concord Coach to South Station in Boston and then the train out to Westborough. She is looking forward to Levi's new apartment and plans to work on her writing during the times that Levi has to work. She'll need to manage her medications including her Coumadin each day, but so far, she has taken that easily in stride.
Today we finally received the CoaguChek XS home monitoring device to allow Sarah to measure her INR test of blood clotting at home. This is the test that is used to be sure she's on the correct Coumadin dose. As you might recall, obtaining the device has involved a lengthily excursion through the corporate underbelly of our health care system with multiple hand-offs, communication failures, and steps involved. But, today a very pleasant and helpful nurse trainer arrived at our house and spent 90 minutes showing Sarah and us how to operate the device in order to measure Sarah's clotting. Sarah did the entire procedure herself including the finger stick to obtain a drop of blood -- twice. We learned that her INR was a little above our targeted maximum so we will report this to her cardiologist and probably lower her Coumadin dose a bit tonight.
We have received many billing summaries from Sarah's insurance company (Cigna) for multiple services that Sarah received during her hospitalization and afterwards. Some were small, and some fairly large. But, the mother of them all arrived last week for the hospitalization itself - the days in the ICU, the days on the regular floor, medications, devices (e.g. 1 pacemaker - $9700.00), use of the operating rooms - all adding up to a hefty sum (think complete 4-year college education). Just to add to our on-going fun with the health care system, this particular form said "You will pay: $Hefty Sum" and "Cigna will pay: $0.00." When I regained consciousness, I remembered (see last week's blog) that Sarah had been "terminated" by Cigna on February 25th due to some missing paperwork. I have been assured that this will be straightened out, but it still makes me a little nervous. I can certainly see how health care debts have become the most common reason for American's to file for bankruptcy!
On Tuesday and Thursday last week Sarah returned to her job at the Disability Rights Center of New Hampshire where she is the office assistant. Only for two hours each day, but she seemed to tolerate that very well. The big news for her at the DRC is a new (much needed) copying machine that she will need to master. She was so happy to see her friends at work and to return to her usual Main Street haunts. The plan will be for a gradual return to action culminating in some walking to work once the spring weather is well-established.
This coming weekend Sarah hopes to make the trip to Westborough, MA, to see Levi. This involves the Concord Coach to South Station in Boston and then the train out to Westborough. She is looking forward to Levi's new apartment and plans to work on her writing during the times that Levi has to work. She'll need to manage her medications including her Coumadin each day, but so far, she has taken that easily in stride.
Today we finally received the CoaguChek XS home monitoring device to allow Sarah to measure her INR test of blood clotting at home. This is the test that is used to be sure she's on the correct Coumadin dose. As you might recall, obtaining the device has involved a lengthily excursion through the corporate underbelly of our health care system with multiple hand-offs, communication failures, and steps involved. But, today a very pleasant and helpful nurse trainer arrived at our house and spent 90 minutes showing Sarah and us how to operate the device in order to measure Sarah's clotting. Sarah did the entire procedure herself including the finger stick to obtain a drop of blood -- twice. We learned that her INR was a little above our targeted maximum so we will report this to her cardiologist and probably lower her Coumadin dose a bit tonight.
We have received many billing summaries from Sarah's insurance company (Cigna) for multiple services that Sarah received during her hospitalization and afterwards. Some were small, and some fairly large. But, the mother of them all arrived last week for the hospitalization itself - the days in the ICU, the days on the regular floor, medications, devices (e.g. 1 pacemaker - $9700.00), use of the operating rooms - all adding up to a hefty sum (think complete 4-year college education). Just to add to our on-going fun with the health care system, this particular form said "You will pay: $Hefty Sum" and "Cigna will pay: $0.00." When I regained consciousness, I remembered (see last week's blog) that Sarah had been "terminated" by Cigna on February 25th due to some missing paperwork. I have been assured that this will be straightened out, but it still makes me a little nervous. I can certainly see how health care debts have become the most common reason for American's to file for bankruptcy!
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