BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: gnu
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 05:23 AM

Glad to hear the fever is under control. How often does the nurse visit?

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 01:53 PM

"Next week her home health care benefits run out. We'll pay for them to continue." Uh-oh!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 05:14 PM

As I said before, no home should be without a mortgage. But it's not going to come to that if I can help it. Worked too hard to pay the damned thing off.

She's going to get the help she needs if I have to sell gnu's house.

The nurse comes as needed, and I can afford that, I think. I mean, what else can I give for her birthday tomorrow? She sure ain't goin' out for a big party!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: gnu
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 05:12 AM

I hope she has as happy a Bday as possible. Perhaps my loss of words is due to still being half asleep... I'll just say again, youse are in my thoughts and prayers.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: maeve
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 05:46 AM

Happy Birthday, Pat. We are glad you are here to celebrate with Mike!
Dream of your next quilt.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 06:22 AM

Rapparee, I have been conspicuous by my absence...far too self-absorbed with my own probs. I apologise & send healing, comforting thoughts to you & your wife. It grieves me that you have to consider the financial implications of your wife's care in the way that you do...that is so unjust & unfair.
                           Much Love to You Both,
                                                               Nigel.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: GUEST,Rapparee on an iPod
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 07:51 AM

My mistake. Her bday is the 11th. Today is our 41st anniversary. Wednesday my brother turns 68. Friday he has shoulder surgery. It's a busy week.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: maeve
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 07:54 AM

Save my birthday greeting for the 11th then, and please accept congratulations for your anniversary!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 09:12 AM

Our health insurance is, thank goodness, quite good and we have some resources we haven't tapped yet and it doesn't look like we'll have to. I don't mean the County Poor Farm or the Workhouse, either. I won't be forced to sell my body on the streets or, worse, become a Walmart greeter*. I do wonder, though, what people without what I have do (actually I know -- I grew up that way and it ain't at all pretty).




*Me: "Hi! Welcome to Walmart, the slave wage store! Can I help you find something made by a political prisoner in an impoverished country? No? Perhaps you'd like some chocolate harvested by child slaves in Afica?"

Nah, I wouldn't last long.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: gnu
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 02:24 PM

Happy anniversary to youse! I hope you got her something nice like a Weatherby or a Browning or some IMR powder.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: JennieG
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 05:42 PM

Happy anniversary to you both! Maeve, that is a gorgeous quilt to dream of........all I have to do is dream........it's now a musical thread.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 09:02 PM

anniversary greetings & early birthday greetings!

& another wow! to that quilt

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: maeve
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 09:53 PM

Quilt was found here: Click and scroll down.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 10:05 PM

Happy anniversary from me, too! You got married on my birthday--well, probably not the same year!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: gnu
Date: 07 Oct 14 - 05:24 AM

Happy Yesterbirthday, CL!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Oct 14 - 08:12 AM

You THAT much younger?

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Oct 14 - 09:23 AM

thanks for the link, maeve

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Severn
Date: 07 Oct 14 - 04:31 PM

I have been away from the cat for awhile, for the most part. My best thoughts are going out to you and Pat for whatever you will be facing from here. Hang in there. I will be following this thread closely from now on.......

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Oct 14 - 09:49 AM

Today to the clinic to hopefully find out why she isn't sleeping well and why the fluctuations in body temperature. The insurance nurse/case manager comes the afternoon (no, we're nowhere near the insurance or any other limit -- I checked).

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Oct 14 - 09:45 PM

insurance nurse/case manager?

wazzat?

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Janie
Date: 08 Oct 14 - 11:52 PM

I'm wondering also, Rap. I know for some of my clients with complex health needs some insurance companies will assign case managers. When I first encountered them I was suspicious, but my experience with them in my capacity as one of the treating professionals is that they are very helpful and work to support the patient to take advantage of the best care and recommendations available. Have not experienced these case managers, from the provider end, as trying to limit care, but trying to enhance and promote good utilization of care. Hope Pat's experience, on the receiving end, is as positive as my experience has been from the provider end.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: LadyJean
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 01:22 AM

Happy Anniversary. I have a friend who's trying to crowd fund cataract surgery, if that's helpful.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 08:46 AM

Our insurance assigned a registered nurse to sort of "oversee" the case. She cannot do anything unless in her opinion (subject to appeal) those providing services aren't doing their job. For example, if the physical therapist isn't showing up or is incompetent the Case Manager will contact the people providing the service and either get them to shape up or lose the job to another provider.

The Occupational Therapist made her last visit yesterday; Pat's received all that the OT can do for her at the moment. I said that if to Pat that since occupational therapy has finished she could go to work and support me; she said something that sounds painful and anatomically difficult or impossible.

She did over 4,400 steps yesterday, the most since the surgery.

There's another doctor's appointment scheduled for tomorrow but she can cancel it if she feels as if it isn't necessary. We'll probably know by early tomorrow morning or late tonight.

My brother -- whose birthday was yesterday and who's having rotator cuff surgery tomorrow -- made a nice analogy. He said that recovery is like the tide: it flings you up on the beach and then drags you away and you hope that each time flings you up a bit higher until you no longer wash back out.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: gnu
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 11:50 AM

Wise your bro is.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 12:28 PM

Good analogy for surgery and other traumatic events.

Hopefully the insurance company isn't able to cap benefits - that is part of the Affordable Care Act legislation. Or are you seeing something different?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 10:31 PM

Let us know if that appointment was kept and, if so, how it went, please.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: maeve
Date: 11 Oct 14 - 07:00 AM

Happy Birthday, Pat! http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1474211/thumbs/o-CRAZY-900.jpg?6
(Found here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/23/workt-by-hand_n_4312371.html )

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 13 Oct 14 - 10:04 PM

Whenever you can, Rapparee, please let us know how your wife and brother and you are all doing.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Oct 14 - 10:25 PM

We kept the appointment and she was feeling pretty good. The UTI seems to be completely cleared up.

She slept for EIGHT UNBROKEN HOURS last night!!

And, yesterday, when everybody else was going to church, she DROVE around the neighborhood for forty-five minutes. I was with her, so I can verify that she did. (She's not about to go driving in traffic yet.)

Today she walked, with the physical therapist, perhaps a quarter of a mile on the golf course -- uneven ground. Then she was made to stand on a foam block, close her eyes, and touch her nose. Heck, I would have a hard time with that!

There will be more bumps, of course. She's fighting inside with wanting to "do something" to the bicyclist and she frightened herself with the morbidity/mortality rates for a craniotomy...and even more by discovering what the rate is for an untreated subdural hematoma.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 02:56 AM

my physio runs a class of Tai Chi & Gentle exercise for seniors & I'm not telling her about the stand-on-a-foam-block-close-eyes-and-touch-nose. Standing on foam blocks is enough for us oldies practicing balance!

congratulations to Pat.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 06:07 AM

Rapparee, I enjoyed reading your post of 13th...full of positivity, optimism & progress. That damned cyclist's 'moment of madness'...does s/he fully appreciate just how much pain & distress they've caused? I wish your wife a complete & pain-free recovery & send you my sincere thoughts as you support her through the coming days & weeks,
                                     With Love,
                                                    Nigel.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: gnu
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 07:12 AM

Where is the Like button?!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: jacqui.c
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 07:57 AM

Great news!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 08:58 AM

Rap, she's entitled to go after the bastard, it is likely to be rather therapeutic for her and speaks pages for her recovery. The biggest question may be one of cost, but his lack of consideration put her life at assessible risk and unless she does the best you both can to bring him to real account, putting his liberty at risk, then firstly all other cyclists will be tarred with the same brush and secondly he'll only have his own self-reproach to bear - if any. You've seen your medical insurance take a heavy hit, and all the other costs not associated with it: you should force him to undo the damage as far as possible.
Try taking out some form of attempted murder against him, for starters. Someone rides on the sidewalk, of course he's putting pedestrians at risk, so if the risk crystallised - and that is the nature of risk, sometimes it does - then he takes the lumps, not his victim.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 09:34 AM

I've been thinking of a charge of reckless endangerment. That's a felony. I think conviction should carry a penalty of at least 350 hours of community service emptying bedpans at the hospital or better, at the veterans' home.

Of course, every bicyclist in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest will be angry with me, but I don't care. But it's up to Pat; she's the lawyer. I'm jist a poor broken-down retired ol' liberrian (not a Liberian liberrian, although I do know one) who kin barely look it up any more.

Craniotomy surgeon's fee: USD 5,700.00, near enough. My part: $14.10. But I have no idea what the other bills will be.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 11:55 AM

I'm of two minds here: the bicyclist is responsible for seriously injuring someone because of his/her irresponsible behavior. Riding a bicycle on a pedestrian area is foolhardy - too many people do it often and don't think about the consequences. If that individual has auto or homeowner's insurance, there may be a way to sue to at least recoup some of the insurance costs. Another option is to sue the owner of the sidewalk - and that is also fraught with difficulties. Municipalities are often self-insured, and have ways of simply saying "no, you can't sue us. End of story."

However, anger is a caustic emotion. It's self-destructive. To sue someone (if a law enforcement entity isn't taking matters into their hands and arresting and charging the individual) is usually prolonged and expensive. Insurance companies push back with puny settlement offers or foot-dragging for years if you choose to fight them. All of this is counter-productive to the healing process. My friend who was injured on Jan. 12, 2012 (in this case, a pedestrian struck by a car in a parking lot) was in the hospital ICU for 2 weeks, then the next 3 1/2 months in a couple of rehab hospitals. She has had surgeries to correct several problems resulting from her head and hip injury. The only way to cover those vast hospital co-payments was to sue. It has been hard on her, she'd like to get on with life but has to keep focusing not only on that day, but on the deficits in her life because of the brain injury. She'd like to look forward and continue to improve, not continue to look back. It involves attorneys looking for the deep pockets to cover the bills - in this case, the owner of the property where she was struck had business insurance that included their parking lot. But insurance companies, as I said, to not play nicely when they are sued.

Good luck, whatever the decision. If you can shame the bike rider into a settlement to cover the insurance co-pays, that might be the best outcome.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 01:52 PM

No responsible biker would mind you calling one of the people giving them a a bad name on the carpet.

Good to hear of the progress!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 08:12 PM

Thank you for the update on Pat. It sounds like she is continuing to make good progress.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 08:26 PM

She said to tell everyone she walked 7/10s of a mile on uneven ground today!!!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: LadyJean
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 08:54 PM

Hallelujah! I got miserable news yesterday that a friend of mine had died. I needed to hear something good. Thank YOU and I hope things continue to go well.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 09:12 PM

Never injure a lawyer not least because your Counsel is her professional consort...and if Pat can take her own stand against him, it makes it memorably direct.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 10:04 PM

She's still deciding on that. First, he's almost certainly judgement proof (nothing there). Secondly, she's opposed from a professional and personal standpoint to suing anyone -- she says that nothing good ever comes of a lawsuit unless it breaks new ground (e.g., class action) because the law is pretty well established. Thirdly, she's concerned that she might be doing something out of a desire for revenge, and that's not ever good. So she's deciding whether or not to proceed against him. Besides, she has too much else to do right now

That 7/10s of a mile was done in 22 minutes. Not a new land speed record, but she's REALLY happy about it.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: maeve
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 11:08 PM

I see that Pat is not only moving well, she is thinking clearly and deeply. My respect for the way you both are continuing to live well.

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 01:07 AM

I'll second that, maeve

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 01:34 AM

Good to hear that Pat is progressing so well!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: gnu
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 06:12 AM

I'll heartily ditto maeve.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: GUEST,Janie
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 06:31 AM

Glad to hear she is progressing so well

. My mom and sis had to sue the estate of the young drunk driver who killed himself in the process of nearly killing them due to medical expenses but hated having to do so. Essentially came down to suing his insurance company. Had to have been hard for his parents, having to manage that while grieving.

It has always been clear from you posts that Pat and you are thoughtful people. No question that whatever she decides will be a well reasoned and ethical choice.

Keep.getting better Pat!

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 09:18 AM

I've told my friends that I was going to contact Vinnie and Guido to "take care of" the young man. Dey're from Chicago, see, an' dey know what to do. See, dey even bring der own concrete.

I actually know very few people in or around Chicago and nobody named "Vinnie" and/or "Guido".... To paraphrase what a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce said to me in Killarney many years ago, "I wouldn't know how to get in touch with the mob* if I had to."


*IRA.

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 10:48 AM

Sue to make him use training wheels on his bicycle for the next 5 years...

and I'm so glad to read of Pat's progress

Subject: RE: BS: My Wife's Having Brain Surgery 5 Sept
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 09:12 PM

I'm taking her to a class and then to lunch tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.