Had hoped this would be the last update on my GoFundMe for medical bills, but life had other plans

[Rosco T.]

Last edited Sat Dec 30, 2017, 03:21 AM - Edit history (2)

I was told I needed to repost this, after today, they may have been right

You can read the previous update here...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9710327

Now for the end of the year, a lot of good news but some not so good.

After the last skin graft, things have progressed nicely. From a gaping surgical wound of 5 x 3 cm and almost a centimeter deep, I've gotten down to a 1.7 x .7 x .1 cm wound, closing up great. It's still considered an 'open wound' and still getting weekly wound care (clean, rebandage). The plan was for one more graft on the 2nd and they hoped that another month of wound care would get me down to 'a bandaid' and I would be done.

Well. Life has other plans. Or should I say bureaucracy has other plans.

First problem was back in October, the insurance decided that I had had enough home health visits (had been getting 3/week for them come do the wound care, clean and rebandage) and cut it off. So I went from 3/wk to one a week at the doctors office. That they would still cover but it also meant my wife had to take time off from work to take me in, so that's eaten up her leave and last 2 paychecks have been short cause she ran out of leave and hasn't been able to make up the time. But the foot has healed.

Today, got the big slam to the face (and people wonder why I hate my b'day.. New Years Eve).

My Wife's Insurance carrier is changing on the 1st. We figured that it wouldn't be a big issue for and ongoing treatment plan. Wrong.

First off, even for an ongoing they will only pay 40% until the deductible is met ($2500). Then they said that the Wound Care Center is NOT IN NETWORK so they will pay NOTHING until the deductable is met ($2500).

I had a graft scheduled for Tuesday. $800 due at time of the graft now, or if we can get them in network, $500. Then the weekly visits will be $250/$150 (out/in network). And that's due at the time of the treatment. No billing it.

So I'm about to go from being almost done to.. waiting for it to degrade and fall back. Assuming we can get the deductible paid and then get them in the network, I can get treatment again and hope that it won't have degraded to the point where I'm back in the hospital. Or dosen't get infected and I end up losing the foot after all.

Merry Fricking Christmas and Happy Damn New Year (don't even mention my b'day in this)

The Wife is going to update the GoFundMe page soon, but this is the latest info. We were going to lower the target (thanks to some great people that helped that didn't go thru GoFundMe, but now... the target is where it was because of the new deductible to be met.

the GoFundMe is here https://www.gofundme.com/richardmedbills

Thanks everyone that has helped, and thanks to those can can help any more now, It is appreciated.
If you can't, just a few good thoughts will be more than enough.

Thank you all again, and here's to you having a great next year. It has to get better.. dosen't it??

[MLAA]

1. Sending you healing thoughts!

Keep fighting 🙂.

[Rosco T.]

2. Thanks, but it's hard...

I honestly thought the worse was over, that by the end of January I would be totally healed up, almost a year I've been fighting this and now, nothing is certain. If this falls back because of lack of care, then I have to look forward to months of fighting my way back again. Or worse, I may just give up and if it gets really infected, just lose the foot and be done with it. I kinda broke down yesterday after posting that. Just too much.

I see a couple people have hit the page, thank you and hope others see their way to do a little.