Friday, June 25, 2010

Fist pumping air

A minor miracle! Social Security has approved SSI and Disability. The in-person interview that was to take place on Tuesday had to be canceled because he was still in the hospital with the MRSA infection in both legs, which I think came from the intermittent compression cuffs they put on his calves after the operation, but what do I know?. Have any of you met MRSA? Run in the opposite direction if it wants to shake hands with you. Whew. Nasty, nasty beastie.

At any rate, Social Security did the interview over the phone. Poor Richard had to drive a LOT on Tuesday making trips back and forth between various places to accomplish this:

1. Drive 50 miles round trip to the local SS office to get the application that we completed on line for Nat to sign.

2. Drive to the hospital, which is 60 miles round trip from our house in the opposite direction, and camp out there until the Social Security office called.

3. Drive back to the SS office with the signed application and get the receipt (they bent the rules to let him have it) so that could be faxed to the people who are handling Medicaid.

4. Home.

This is great news. One less thing to worry about, and we will not have to call Binder and Binder (for non US people, this is a firm of attorneys that is constantly running advertisements to solicits clients who have been denied Social Security disability.)

I have nothing but praise for the local Social Security office. They have been kind, and gracious, and helpful.

The second miracle was that the doctor cut him loose from the hospital on Wednesday so he could make the appointment on Thursday for the head mapping for the radiation treatment next week and CT and MRI scans. We already had to cancel the PET scan, but -- another miracle --  that will be done on the afternoon of his last radiation treatment next Friday.

And now the funny thing is that now that I am taking back some of the household stuff that Richard had been doing because his new full-time job is care giver, I am having to re-learn how to do stuff in my own kitchen. This morning I stood there at the coffee maker and I couldn't remember how to make the coffee. Oy.


4 comments:

Far Side of Fifty said...

MRSA..that is a bad one..hard to fight, from what I understand even the tiniest blister or skin abrasion can develop into MRSA in a hospital setting. One more thing to fight.
At least the Disability benefits will come through now.
Sending more prayers..:)

Leilani Schuck Weatherington said...

Started as a small "pimple". We thought it was a insect bite. He says that if we had not gotten him to the doctor when we did, and if she had not put him in the hospital when she did, he thinks he would have died.

Momandy said...

Me and my family learned about MRSA when my Dad had a stroke and was in and out of rehab centers for 4 years before his death. He caught MRSA which decided to live in his lungs so he was very sick and needed to be on oxygen and we had to gown up when we went in to see him. I thought we were gowning up so that we didn't get him sicker by bringing in illness but it was so that we didn't get MRSA and pass it on. It almost killed him a few times but he fought it off for a long time.
I also had a bout of MRSA a few years ago after surgery. They put me on this strong antibiotic that killed all the bacteria in me and I got thrush and a terrible throat infection. So I have met MRSA and hope I never see it again. Sending love and prayers to all of you!

Tami Weingartner said...

MRSA...never fun. I'm MIL suffered with that...it eventually got the best of her.

Glad you guys got on it in time!