Update:
Those on Face Book, know that Monday (10/12) was an emotional
roller coaster for me. I was scheduled
for a consult appointment with Dr. Robert Spinner at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester the following day (10/13).
About 2:00 p.m. on Monday, I received a phone call saying that my insurance
company had denied to authorize the appointment because it was “out of
network.” I was advised that I could
contact my insurance company to see if they would reverse their decision, or we
would need to reschedule. Those of you
familiar with medical scheduling know how long you can wait for an appointment
to become available. There was a
cancellation and I was given this appointment just a few days ago. I didn’t want to lose it and have everything
delayed. I’ve already been in a
wheelchair since February. I want to
make forward progress and get back to walking as soon as I can! When my wife called the insurance company, she
was informed that my local Physical Rehab Doctor would have to call them to
request the appointment after she had contacted the local neurosurgeons to
ensure that my case could not be handled by them. I needed the experts at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester because my local medical team isn’t able to take care of this issue
(I’ve been uniquely challenging all along since this began). If my doctor called before 4:30 p.m., there
was a chance that the insurance company could review the case and authorize the
appointment so I could keep it. By the
time my wife got this information, it was after 3 p.m. Do you know how unlikely it is to be able to contact
your doctor and get them to confer with other doctors and then call your
insurance company in less than 90 minutes?
I knew it would take a miracle, so I asked friends to pray. My Physical Rehab Doctor, Dr. Schmidt, and
her nurse, Mark, did extraordinary things and got the call in on time! Wow!
And the insurance company changed their ruling and authorized my
appointment about three minutes before their office closed! Double Wow!
I was an emotional wreck waiting to see what would happen after that
first call. I’m grateful for my wife’s
labor in chasing this down and getting it done.
I am also very grateful to Dr. Schmidt and Mark for making time in their
busy day to get this accomplished under such a deadline.
So on 10/13/2015, I had a consult appointment with Dr. Robert Spinner,
head of Neurologic Surgery at Mayo in Rochester. After examination, he feels
that my problem is more related to my fibula rather than a nerve issue directly. He is recommending an MRI to determine
exactly where the nerve and bone structure lies, etc. Dr. Spinner then wants me to return for a
joint consult with him and Dr. Thomas Shives, orthopedic surgeon who does many
of the amputations there at Mayo. At
this point, Dr. Spinner thinks that my fibula needs to be shortened which would
take pressure off of the nerve that has caused me so much pain.
Although this is a 180 degrees change in thinking, it makes sense. When I had the Ultrasound and nerve block
done, since the pain went away I was told that it proved that it is a nerve
issue. Dr. Spinner said that the
specific nerve block that was done could also have numbed the bone, etc. So the Ultrasound was not conclusive
evidence. He did say that the MRI will
give us the evidence that we need for a conclusive treatment plan.
So now it is scheduling the MRI and then the follow-up joint
consult. I hope they can be done soon,
but I am expecting that it will take at least a month or two to get them finished. If we go to surgery, who knows how far out
that will be scheduled. Right now, I am
mentally hoping that I could be walking by next spring if all goes well.
Let me tell you my adventure driving to Rochester today. After picking up a friend to ride along
with me, I decided to try a different route to get to Rochester. It took longer than I expected. Then when I got to the parking garage, the
thing was filled to the top! There were
no handicap spots open and I had to wait for car to pull out before I could
squeeze into a normal slot. I was barely
able to get my wheelchair out. Then
someone blocked the crossover to the elevator.
We had to fold the chair and I had to hop between cars (I’m not supposed
to do that!). We raced into the building
taking a wrong turn along the way. When
we arrived on the eighth floor, I realized that I wasn’t told which eighth
floor desk to check in with. Oh my! With all of the delays, I still managed to
check in for my appointment with one
minute to spare. Not fun! After the hassle to get the last minute
approval, I certainly didn’t want to miss the appointment! I don’t want to ever cut it that close again! What a goof ball I am! I’m thankful for all the answered prayers
that allowed this to happen today. With
all that, it was a pretty drive with a few spots of color in the foliage. Hopefully, the fall foliage will be in full
color the next time I drive over.
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