LESSON #9 mom’s can sometimes say the weirdest things….just
keep moving along….
When I left the hospital yesterday, mom suggested I buy a
copy of, “Fifty Shades of Gray,” and read it to her. I turned fifty shades of red and thought to
myself, “this woman didn’t even give me the sex talk and she wants us to read
this book together???” Oh,
HEEEEEELLLLLLLL no, I told her.
This request was an indication she is well medicated and
I am so very thankful for that. Mom has
been through some crap these last few days.
One of my sister’s BFs who is a nurse (sort of a half
sister to me) came to visit mom in rehab over the weekend and told us to RUN,
do not walk, to the nearest burn/wound doc to get some attention for mom’s
burn. She also vehemently demanded we
get an MRI performed on mom’s painful and useless right hand/wrist. First thing Monday I made a call to the Burn
Unit at UNMC Clarkson and got an appt for that day. The doc took one look at mom’s leg and said, “I
want to admit her a few days.” Gulp.
The wound hadn’t really been well cared for – the PA and
nurses scraped mom’s leg and got piles and piles of dead skin, dried medicine
and gooey burn guts off of it – when they were done it was all bright pink like
a good sunburn. I couldn’t bring myself
to look at the craters. Mom felt nothing
and that sacred me cuz that likely meant much of her leg is dead. They started immediately with Bariatric Chamber
treatment.
Seems we are at the right place and Clarkson UNMC is the
only place in Nebraska with one of these 30,000 leagues under the sea machines. It simulates the pressure of something like
3,500 feet under sea level and is proven to promote tissue rejuvenation by way
of encouraging capillary growth and increasing tissue oxygen levels. Mom was a bit wary.
“Mom,” I explained, “Michael Jackson used one of these
machines.”
“And you know what happened to him,” she retorted.
Whatever, I am very curious to know what it is like in
the chamber and mom can’t tell me because she falls asleep in it.
Yesterday the doc took mom into surgery to do some
serious wound debridement and consider a skin graft. Serious wound debridement means make the wound
much larger and deeper than it is to get to viable tissue – they want the
bloody, oxygenated hamburger meat because this is the material that knits
together and heals quickest and best.
The doc wasn’t able to do the skin graft. The damage is too severe. She elected to toss in some cadaver skin to
see what happens over the next few days.
If the cadaver skin takes, she will take mom back in to surgery and
perform a graft with mom’s own skin. So,
for now, it is more scuba diving for mom.
Oh, and we will begin diagnosing her hand/wrist.
LESSON #10 – it is imperative to take full responsibility
and control of one’s healthcare. I don’t
know if it is generational, that they were out of their element, or what, but
my folk’s behavior was impotent…to the point of negligence… with mom’s healthcare
in Florida.
Dad and Mike should be home tomorrow I think. Yesterday they had breakfast in Memphis and I
haven’t heard from them since. Maybe
they’re touring Graceland.
I have begun health insurance reconnaissance. Seems Humana has no record of mom being
transferred from Cape Coral Hospital to the rehab facility. According to Josh the Admissions guy at the
rehab place, he called for a pre-auth – numerous times – was told no, mom was
out of network. He kept calling, even
had his corporate gal call and no one called them back. He is writing his report for me and I am
sending it and my GREIVANCE LETTER TO Humana.
Here we go……
I am caring for my brother’s two mini Dachshunds while he
is away. They are hilarious and I adore
them. Dewey is old and deaf. Molly is old, very fat and blind. We are all
sleeping together and Molly serves as our 7:00 alarm clock. I call them the
Frisky Friskerson’s because they have spurts of happy dance between all their
sleeping and laying around – it is so unexpected it makes me laugh. My little silver linings……
No comments:
Post a Comment