By Lisa Ansay —
There are a few things up in the air right now, and we’re hoping to have some answers in the next few hours:
Taylor has been running a fever of 101.5+ every morning for more than a week. The Infectious Disease doctor believes it is a minimum of sinusitis, and is caused by the breach from his frontal sinus into the area that houses the brain. “This surgery to repair the sinus cannot happen soon enough,” she has said, and we have been anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s surgery.
Yesterday afternoon, Taylor’s nurse received a call from the neurosurgeon that his surgery has been rescheduled for July 26th. No one seems to know why, and calls are out to all the surgeons/docs involved for answers. Is it a scheduling issue? Which surgeons are participating? Which surgeries are they planning to perform? Do they dare wait to repair the sinus? Is the Infectious Disease even in this loop?
Also, we are told that after discharge to St. Joseph’s/Barrow tomorrow for surgery, when he is released for Rehab again, he only has three days on the books remaining. Beyond that, he is to be discharged for outpatient care.
Rehab case managers have applied for State Medical Care but it will take time to know of approval/denial. SSI has already been applied for which if/when approved (most likely will be) he is immediately qualified for MedicAid, which is Federal, and won’t really help with this. The State aid could feasibly pick up where his current insurance ends on his inpatient rehab stay, and append the coverage for 30-45 days. That would be ideal, since his speech and swallowing therapy has really just now begun. Taylor is still on a full-time feeding tube in his belly, since the muscles of his throat, parts of his mouth were paralyzed from the cranial nerve damage. When he was able to move that right eye, he was also then able to swallow, so that nerve is healing and we can now begin that work.
The difference between inpatient care therapies and outpatient care therapies is: inpatient he receives three hours minimum a day, five days a week; outpatient care is schedulde for an hour a few times a week.
Our hope is that the surgeons come together and share with us their plan.
Our hope is that the insurance coverage for inpatient care at this facility is examined by benefit case managers, and see that days counted for inpatient rehab should have begun for speech when his jaw was repaired. Right?
We are waiting to hear back from a United Health Care “Catastrophic Case Manager” as they are the people with authority to modify/extend beneift, based on demonstrated progress. (It has been said that UHC would rather pay for an extension in rehab for a fuller recovery, than release an under rehabilitated person that will cost them more in the long run.)
Please pray for more rehab, and wisdom for the surgeons. And anything else you can think of…
We’ll keep you posted.
