March 3, 2011 - 9:30 PM

Sarah and I drove to the medical center at Dartmouth this afternoon, and the vascular surgery nurse practitioner examined the wound in Sarah's right upper thigh where the infected clot was removed on January 12, the day before her heart surgery.  There is still a half inch in diameter and half inch deep open area in the middle of the wound.  It "tunnels" about a quarter of an inch to the north but doesn't connect with a second, smaller open area in the wound.  The nurse practitioner did a good job of probing the wound (happily, Sarah took a bit of her pain medication during the drive up to the medical center) and a great job of talking to Sarah, the patient rather than to her Dad.  She concluded that the wound was healing, just slowly, and prescribed an ointment that contained iodine and a compound that cleans out debris from a wound (this is called debridement in medicalese).  Because of the ointment's distinctive color, the nurse practitioner said that she calls this "poop in a tube," but we are visualizing something slightly more antiseptic.  So another shoe failed to drop - maybe we really are on the road to something like normal.

Oh, by the way, do you remember that device for the home measurement of blood clotting that we were trying to obtain?  The one that is covered by our insurance, but requires that dragons are slain before you can have it.  The one for which five separate corporate entities needed to lay their hands on the process (and the flow of dollars) in order for it to be delivered to us.  Well, we still don't have it, though we have again been told that "it is being shipped tonight, tomorrow at the latest."  The latest (and maybe last) glitch is almost comical at this point.  The company to which the order for the device was passed after our insurer (Cigna) had approved it now says that Sarah's insurance coverage expired on August 31, 2010.  This is an interesting thing to discover a month after a three week hospitalization that has to involve a bill in six figures, for which Sarah's insurance has already provided most of the payment.  Now we think she is uninsured?  And I am asked to prove that she is insured before the device will be shipped to us.  The only proof I have is her insurance card with her member ID number.  I thought that should be pretty good.  Stay tuned...