Fix a Mom, Save a Life
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Hi! I don't know how many of you out there know me, but I expect that most of you are here because you do. If this is spreading outside of my usual circles somehow: thank you for taking the time to peek at this! It means the world to me.
So, my mom had a diabetic attack, essentially. Over a few weeks, her vision was deteriorating relatively quickly and her leg strength was slipping. She started needing a walker to get around, and soon, even that wasn't enough because she ended up mostly blind (can only see shadows and lights, really) and bumping into things, and her poor sense of balance combined an inability to see where she's going did not go well.
She only has Medicare Part A as far as insurance goes, so it's pretty much hospitalization or bust, so I brought her into one to get checked out. Several things were discovered, including a very high blood sugar (500 or so), hyperthyroid stuff, urinary tract infection, very harsh cataracts that had formed from diabetic retinopathy... All told, she was hospitalized for a little over eight full days, seen by several physicians, and stabilized before being discharged back home into my care.
I've learned a lot (and I mean a lot) about how to take care of her before they let her go, because she's still completely incapable of self-sufficiency. I manage her medications, I take her blood sugar readings, I give her insulin, I make her meals within a pretty constrained diet, I help her to the restroom every two hours or so, I set up the appointments that I take her to and back from (which is quite the struggle since the apartment has stairs to get out and in, she can barely walk or stand for more than a few moments), pretty much my whole life has been suddenly dominated with being on-call for her at all hours along with scheduled care. I'm also in charge of dealing with all the people and finances because she can't use her phone in this state.
It's all very taxing, physically and mentally, and I'm just really tired and exhausted all the time now but it's not stopping me, and a lot of the physicians, nurses, etc. that I've dealt with have been happy with how proactive I've been toward them! None of that helps with the costs of seeing them. So far we had been dealing with little chunks piecemeal, almost entirely out-of-pocket, but we don't have much cash and it turns out this stuff is very, very expensive. It was over a hundred to get what I needed to take her blood sugar and give her insulin, to get her prescriptions on discharge, and then the insulin itself (not a historically accessible medication for poor people). It was several hundred to be seen by a retinal expert who performed an ultrasound on her eyes to make sure they're okay for cataract surgery (they are!), another several hundred to see her endocrinologist from the hospital, some more for prescriptions from that appointment, all things that have been draining, but doable.
The looming, terrifying thing, however, is that Medicare Part A only covers inpatient hospital stuff, which this cataract surgery is not. I don't know why they couldn't do it there, she was even seen by the surgeon who will be performing it in her hospital room, but this is just how it seems to be. Her cataracts were diagnosed there, but she was referred to another eye specialist which I had to take her to out-of-pocket, and now has to return to the original eye doctor for a $150 office visit (plus expenses on what they may need to perform while there), $200 to measure her eyes, per eye, $40 for a prescription of some kind if she requires it, and $750 for surgery, per eye. This goes to around $2,000, if there is no further cost required during the office visit, and if the surgery is simple, but the cost goes up if they're required to do a more complex surgery which we won't know until she's seen. She'll also probably need new glasses, which they don't do at this place.
But wait, Feri, you're asking for more than that, what gives? That's what I'd like to know, too! I was under the impression that her Medicare coverage dealt with hospital inpatient stuff, and I was very meticulous in asking if everything done would be covered while I was there. What I was not informed of, no matter how I asked, was that a deductible must be met first of $1,340, and additionally, all of the physicians who visited her in the hospital while she was an inpatient, from their own building, were not covered by this. I've been informed that will end up being another $1,600 approximately.
I've been sitting on whether I should make this or not when all I knew were the costs for the eye surgeries, but this revelation is a real tipper. As hard as I'm trying right now (which is very hard, all the time, constantly, if you're someone I chat with often I'm sure you've noticed I'm busy nonstop now), I'm just not equipped to handle this. My phone's blowing up nonstop trying to coordinate her care between physicians, the eye surgeon, in-home help with nurses, physical and occupational therapists, a social worker who's supposed to help but is extremely busy, doctor's offices, the hospital, financial people who have been no help so far, and I need to be on top of so many things all at once, none of this to make note of how my personal life has also filled with drama lately... Things are really, really rough. Just, unbelievably rough, and overwhelming, and very, very scary.
I know I just put the total of current estimated expenses as the goal, but it's beyond my wildest dreams to hit that. I know my friends are wonderful, generous people, but everyone needs to take care of themselves, too, and if money were no object, this wouldn't be a problem in the first place. Sadly, I'm being backed into a corner here by just how unrelentingly frightening and smothering life is being right now, and I just don't see any way I can manage this without some help anymore... So, thanks for reading all the way down. I'm grateful even for the attention, and any help is truly appreciated beyond words. Getting even part-way there would be such a weight off my shoulders right now. I still have to take a lot of care of mom all the time in her current state, but if we get things rolling, she'll be able to improve, regain some self-sufficiency, and be able to take more proper care of herself, which is important for both of us.
Love you all. <3
Cat tax:
Blaze, Shadow, Middy, and Jayden, from left to right, perched on a window. Some silly, silly kittens I lived with a long time ago and miss dearly.
So, my mom had a diabetic attack, essentially. Over a few weeks, her vision was deteriorating relatively quickly and her leg strength was slipping. She started needing a walker to get around, and soon, even that wasn't enough because she ended up mostly blind (can only see shadows and lights, really) and bumping into things, and her poor sense of balance combined an inability to see where she's going did not go well.
She only has Medicare Part A as far as insurance goes, so it's pretty much hospitalization or bust, so I brought her into one to get checked out. Several things were discovered, including a very high blood sugar (500 or so), hyperthyroid stuff, urinary tract infection, very harsh cataracts that had formed from diabetic retinopathy... All told, she was hospitalized for a little over eight full days, seen by several physicians, and stabilized before being discharged back home into my care.
I've learned a lot (and I mean a lot) about how to take care of her before they let her go, because she's still completely incapable of self-sufficiency. I manage her medications, I take her blood sugar readings, I give her insulin, I make her meals within a pretty constrained diet, I help her to the restroom every two hours or so, I set up the appointments that I take her to and back from (which is quite the struggle since the apartment has stairs to get out and in, she can barely walk or stand for more than a few moments), pretty much my whole life has been suddenly dominated with being on-call for her at all hours along with scheduled care. I'm also in charge of dealing with all the people and finances because she can't use her phone in this state.
It's all very taxing, physically and mentally, and I'm just really tired and exhausted all the time now but it's not stopping me, and a lot of the physicians, nurses, etc. that I've dealt with have been happy with how proactive I've been toward them! None of that helps with the costs of seeing them. So far we had been dealing with little chunks piecemeal, almost entirely out-of-pocket, but we don't have much cash and it turns out this stuff is very, very expensive. It was over a hundred to get what I needed to take her blood sugar and give her insulin, to get her prescriptions on discharge, and then the insulin itself (not a historically accessible medication for poor people). It was several hundred to be seen by a retinal expert who performed an ultrasound on her eyes to make sure they're okay for cataract surgery (they are!), another several hundred to see her endocrinologist from the hospital, some more for prescriptions from that appointment, all things that have been draining, but doable.
The looming, terrifying thing, however, is that Medicare Part A only covers inpatient hospital stuff, which this cataract surgery is not. I don't know why they couldn't do it there, she was even seen by the surgeon who will be performing it in her hospital room, but this is just how it seems to be. Her cataracts were diagnosed there, but she was referred to another eye specialist which I had to take her to out-of-pocket, and now has to return to the original eye doctor for a $150 office visit (plus expenses on what they may need to perform while there), $200 to measure her eyes, per eye, $40 for a prescription of some kind if she requires it, and $750 for surgery, per eye. This goes to around $2,000, if there is no further cost required during the office visit, and if the surgery is simple, but the cost goes up if they're required to do a more complex surgery which we won't know until she's seen. She'll also probably need new glasses, which they don't do at this place.
But wait, Feri, you're asking for more than that, what gives? That's what I'd like to know, too! I was under the impression that her Medicare coverage dealt with hospital inpatient stuff, and I was very meticulous in asking if everything done would be covered while I was there. What I was not informed of, no matter how I asked, was that a deductible must be met first of $1,340, and additionally, all of the physicians who visited her in the hospital while she was an inpatient, from their own building, were not covered by this. I've been informed that will end up being another $1,600 approximately.
I've been sitting on whether I should make this or not when all I knew were the costs for the eye surgeries, but this revelation is a real tipper. As hard as I'm trying right now (which is very hard, all the time, constantly, if you're someone I chat with often I'm sure you've noticed I'm busy nonstop now), I'm just not equipped to handle this. My phone's blowing up nonstop trying to coordinate her care between physicians, the eye surgeon, in-home help with nurses, physical and occupational therapists, a social worker who's supposed to help but is extremely busy, doctor's offices, the hospital, financial people who have been no help so far, and I need to be on top of so many things all at once, none of this to make note of how my personal life has also filled with drama lately... Things are really, really rough. Just, unbelievably rough, and overwhelming, and very, very scary.
I know I just put the total of current estimated expenses as the goal, but it's beyond my wildest dreams to hit that. I know my friends are wonderful, generous people, but everyone needs to take care of themselves, too, and if money were no object, this wouldn't be a problem in the first place. Sadly, I'm being backed into a corner here by just how unrelentingly frightening and smothering life is being right now, and I just don't see any way I can manage this without some help anymore... So, thanks for reading all the way down. I'm grateful even for the attention, and any help is truly appreciated beyond words. Getting even part-way there would be such a weight off my shoulders right now. I still have to take a lot of care of mom all the time in her current state, but if we get things rolling, she'll be able to improve, regain some self-sufficiency, and be able to take more proper care of herself, which is important for both of us.
Love you all. <3
Cat tax:
Blaze, Shadow, Middy, and Jayden, from left to right, perched on a window. Some silly, silly kittens I lived with a long time ago and miss dearly.Organizer
Ferias Terras
Organizer
Woodstock, IL