Unfiltered Story #240413

A couple years ago I went to an urgent care clinic with a serious pain in my abdomen, was diagnosed by the doctor, who sent me to the ER of the nearby hospital.
There are lots of stories I could tell about this hospital stay, but the most serious one was regarding getting some assistance upon discharge. I checked with my insurance and they told me assistance — even rental of a hospital bed! — was available, but ONLY through my “case manager” at the hospital.
So the story here is that I ONCE reached my case manager by phone in the hospital, but I NEVER ONCE got to see her in person, and I could get her to do NOTHING on my behalf. Near discharge, I still could not both lie flat and breathe. Since I’m rather habituated to breathing, I had to keep my hospital bed at maybe a 20-degree angle.
When I got home, a few days after abdominal surgery I still needed to sleep slightly elevated, but because of my case managers refusal to lift a finger in my behalf, I got no assistance whatsoever. I checked a local surgical supply store for bed wedges, and found them too expensive — as I’d have needed two or three to get the angle. Of course, renting a hospital bed was out of reach.
Needing sleep, I took a plywood board, leaned it against my headboard, then padded that with a cushion to get some sleep the first night home.
The next day, still less than a week after laparoscopic surgery left five holes in my abdominal wall, any of which could feasibly herniate, I had to wrestle with an adjustable futon frame to rig a bed I could sleep in without suffocating. The only saving grace was that I’d equipped it with a lightweight foam mattress, not a heavyweight futon, and may have been the only reason I didn’t herniate an incision site.
Two days after I got home, I received a letter in the mail that was a form they’d “signed” for me, to the effect that I could get assistance for post operative home care — which I never got.