I had spent most of the weekend hoping that the clinic in Vail would call me today. I just wasn't prepared for the mountain of...stuff...that was about to come crashing down on me. The surgical scheduler, Linda, called bright and early. And I mean early as in I didn't get to the rink before she called early. She said that they could either do the surgery tomorrow or Friday. I said either would be fine. Linda said she would talk with Dr. Philippon and see what he preferred to do. The first snag of the day occurred when she said that the doctor requires all of his patients to stay in Vail for a minimum of four days after the surgery so that they can attend physical therapy with his team twice a day. I hadn't counted on this at all. Vail is an expensive town to stay in and the week before Christmas is probably one of the worst times to try and stay in a hotel or condo on a budget. Furthermore, they require that you have a family member or friend with you to assist you as needed. So while I tried to wrap my head around this new development, she sent me a secured email with some paperwork to fill out. Eight pages to be exact, several of which needed to be printed, signed and scanned back into the computer. After completing that, I started looking up various hotels and condominiums in the Vail area. Sticker shock quickly set in as I was seeing $800-1,000 for three nights in a hotel there. Stressed out, I decided I couldn't make any decisions until I knew when the surgery was. I had just settled in for a nap (as I had worked all night) when the phone rang again. This time, it was the billing department notifying me that my insurance had approved my surgery and inquiring as to whether or not I had met my deductible for the year yet. Just to give you an idea of the cost of this little procedure, they require out of network patients to pay $7500-10,000 up front before the surgery and cash paying patients to pay $15,000 up front. And that's just the doctor's fees. That doesn't include the hospital, MRI, physical therapy...but I'll get to that momentarily. After hanging up with them I had to call my insurance to verify that they were going to cover all of the medical equipment that I would need after the surgery such as the ice machine, CPM (continuous passive range of motion machine), SCD's, (those ankle cuffs that inflate and deflate that you see in the hospitals), hip brace, rotational boots and crutches. At this point, concerned I could be in surgery tomorrow, I started doing some laundry and getting some things ready in my house. My head was in a full tailspin waiting to find out what the next day or two would hold for me. Finally, the scheduler called back and said that they would do the surgery Friday. And in case my head wasn't already spinning, she was about to completely knock it off its axis. My schedule for the rest of the week now looks as follows, remembering that I slept for all of an hour Monday and worked all night Monday night:
Tuesday: Appointment with primary care doctor for physical, clearance for surgery and bloodwork. Work all night but leave work at 3 am to be in Vail by 6:30am Wednesday.
Wednesday: Appointments in Vail starting at 6:30am. 3D MRI, evaluation by the head physical therapist, evaluation and strength and conditioning testing with the head athletic trainer, evaluation and meeting with Dr. Philippon's surgical fellow and staff, office appointment and evaluation with Dr. Philippon, surgical scheduling and pre-op prep appointment with Dr. Philippon's nurse and meeting with a pharmacist to discuss post-op medications.
Thursday: One. Last. Skate. :-) Pack up for the trip, tidy the house, and some extra sleep certainly wouldn't hurt.
Friday: Surgery day.
Seriously. Please shoot me. Are you sure that I'm just having a laprascopic hip procedure and not an organ transplant? Buried within all the paperwork that has to be filled out and instructions for verifying your insurance's contract with every party involved from the hospital to the physical therapy office, there are many other things that I'm supposed to do such as arrange PT for when I return home and bring proof of this on Wednesday, begin showering with special antiseptic soap for the next three days, stay away from any anti inflammatories (aka my best friends), arrange lodging for the post-op stay in Vail, arrange for someone to be responsible for my post surgical self upon discharge from the hospital on Saturday, arrange transport to and from therapy twice a day after surgery and shop for/pack up food items that I'll need while I'm staying in Vail as I'm pretty sure I don't see myself jumping in to the car to grab McDonald's for lunch. And it's not nutritionist approved. But I digress...
Luckily, one of my coworkers has an aunt and uncle that have a house in Vail and they have graciously agreed to rent me a sort of mini suite in it for my post-op stay at a very reasonable price. This will also put me within a few minutes of the hospital and also local bus service if I don't feel up to driving myself to PT. This is a huge asset and I'm extremely grateful. Still, however, I can't help but feel extremely overwhelmed tonight by the sheer magnitude of what will transpire over the next few days, slightly anxious about going through this procedure by myself, (hey, who doesn't seriously want their mom when they're sick or hurt, regardless of age?) and well to be perfectly candid, the lack of sleep today is really starting to hit me. Time do some program walk through's to stay awake!
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