Monday, July 12, 2004

Vinnie follow-up

Just got a mail message from Mark on Vinnie's condition:

I took Vinny to Urgent Care yesterday afternoon because Kaiser wouldn't give him a referral to orthopedics over the phone. We saw a pretty poor doctor who didn't value/believe/appreciate the X-Rays from Sonoma Regional and made Vinny endure the removal of his split, and the positioning of his leg for another set of X-Rays. He said the orthopedic surgeon would need the Kaiser X-Rays anyways. At first he was only going to do the Knee because "...that's where it hurts. He doesn't feel any pain in his ankle." I had to enthusiastically remind him that Vinny doesn't feel ANYTHING in his ankle, and that could explain the lack of pain sensation. After much internal deliberation, he conceded that the ankle was a good idea afterall. He read the X-Rays, and not surprisingly, Vinny hadn't broken any bones since the X-Rays at Sonora. He then gave Vinny a referral to orthopedics today at 9:30am and a prescription for Vicadin. We were refused a wheelchair because the bureaucracy takes one full day to complete to get a wheelchair. So we wheeled him out to the car in a shopping-cart-like apparatus, drove him home, pushed him up the driveway in a wheeled office chair, had to unload him at the steps, and he did the crab-walk, one armed and sitting on his butt while I held his leg and slowly helped him scoot to bed. Chris did the reverse this morning to get him to his appointment. The appointment this morning yielded a message on my phone at work that said nothing more than "...bad news...3-6 month recovery...call us back to help arrange long term care..." I called back immediately, and left a message, and of course, I haven't gotten a return call or a hold of anyone since this morning. Needless to say, I'm thinking about changing my coverage away from Kaiser. So that's the latest on Vinny.

For those who hadn't realized it by now: Kaiser baaaad.

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