Well, I got a shitty surprise last Saturday and ended up back in the hospital. One of my toes we though safe went dead like a shriveled raisin in less than a day. This was deemed an emergency and led to a rare Sunday surgery to amputate the toe.
So far, so good. But then things went more like a hospital soap opera than anything else.
My podiatrist comes to my wife and tells her is it nearly a life and death situation, my leg needs to come off as soon as possible. The infection is still spreading. Even a 24 - 48 wait might cost me my knee. The vascular surgeon drops by, does a two minute review without looking under my bandages and agrees. The leg needs to be removed first thing tomorrow morning.
As it turned out, the podiatrist removed my wound care doctor and my GP from the notification list. I can't say if this was a mistake or by intent. The end result was none of my medical team knew I was in the hospital nor did they know the planned course of treatment nor did they have any of my current medical information.
However the wound care doctor finds out I am in the hospital when my wife cancels my wound care treatment plan for this week due to the planned amputation. The wound care doctor rushes over, inspects my leg and issues a completely different plan. He sees no life and death emergency, suggests we reject the advice of the other doctors and return to his clinic. The decision is mine to make.
We ended up in a conference call with the vascular surgeon and the wound care specialist. The surgeon ends up agreeing that there wasn't much of an emergency. Saying, go ahead and try wound care but that I would be in his care by June getting the leg amputated anyway. As might be imagined I decided not to chop off my leg this week and give the hyperbaric treatment a chance. I still marvel at the change of opinion by the surgeon - it seemed pretty strange to me.
At the moment this looks like going with wound care was an excellent choice. Things are looking promising, though the staff is quite careful to remind me there is no assurance of success.
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As for my observations about paying cash for medical services. I am in no way in need of financial assistance. I didn't intend to imply that I was.
We saved roughly $200,000 not buying health insurance over the life span of the Affordable Care Act. Even at the end of this treatment, we will still be way ahead by paying cash for medical cost vs using insurance. Plus I got faster / better care by not having to follow rules that apply to people using insurance / Medicare.
I appreciate the kind thoughts and suggestions for how to get financial aid. Thanks to everyone who offered their help.
DrStrange
