Titling this blog "The Daily Haley" was extremely dishonest of me. This blog should really be called "The Biweekly Haley"... but that just doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well. I am pretty stinkin' excited to hear that my friends and family are reading my sporadic posts. And, apparently, they like them! I couldn't be happier to hear that.
I had my surgical follow-up appointment with Dr. Hulka today. She was very happy with my incision even though one end of it seems to be bothered by "skin separation" despite two rounds of stitches. It's nothing serious, just makes for a strange looking scar. There are worse things. Dr. Hulka is awesome. I know I've mentioned that before but I just have to say it again. I know what you're thinking, "This girl thinks ALL her doctors are awesome!"... yes, but no. Different levels of awesome, not quite the same level as Dr. Budhecha (hey, they can't all be saints).
Speaking of Dr. Budhecha, I ran into her at Renown on my way to Hulka's office this afternoon. I was reminded (as if I needed a reminder) why she is such a special doctor and I am seriously SO blessed to have her. We chatted in the hall for a few minutes, she looked at my incision and gave it a thumbs up, then we started talking about the insurance fiasco that is now stalling the commencement of my course of IV antibiotics. Not only is she trying extremely hard to work around my specific requests but as we were talking she knew who my insurance providers were, in the correct order, and how the systems
should be working together. I have a lot of doctors and she is the only one who takes the time and cares to know and research that information. And
remember it! Like I said, she's a saint. She also called me earlier this week after office hours and gave me a pep talk that nearly sent me into tears. I just can't say enough good things about her, as you can tell!
Now that I've mentioned the insurance fiasco I'd better devote a paragraph or two to it. I was approved for Medicare earlier this year and it took effect just last month. Before Medicare I had Tricare as my primary and only insurance. Tricare and I got along just fine, in fact, I hardly had any trouble with them ever. For some strange reason when Tricare and Medicare get together Medicare becomes the primary and Tricare becomes the secondary insurance. If it was any other insurance besides Tricare, Medicare would take the backseat as the secondary. Now the fun starts.
The whole point of IV antibiotics through the port is to keep me out of the hospital where I would be exposed to countless dangerous bacteria. As a rule, doctors want CF patients in the hospital as little as possible because of the high, high risk of contracting other infections. So to avoid all of that doom and gloom we get IV antibiotics at home delivered via a home healthcare provider and a home health nurse that visits once or twice a week. Unfortunately, Medicare doesn't cover home healthcare unless you are homebound, which I am not. The only other alternative are frequent visits to the infusion center to get my daily doses of antibiotics. Dr. Budhecha isn't too keen on that idea because it's still essentially a hospital. Luckily, we have Danielle the Social Worker as our secret CF weapon! She has been hard at work all week fighting with both insurances. I'm hoping Danielle is able to work some magic because home healthcare sounds so much more appealing than either of the other options.
Other exciting business going on this weekend:
-The Reed High Art Festival was tonight and Cierra had SEVEN pieces on display.
-Tomorrow night is Cierra's Junior Prom... which means a very busy day of running around for my dad and I.
-Sunday I will finally be well enough to go to lunch with my grandparents for the first time in over a month. Yay!
I think that's everything. You may now consider yourself officially caught up! Thanks for reading!!
