5 replies to this topic

[McRobb]

I have a question mostly for the quads on here but wondering about the para's as well.

I am a para since May 2004 and after my accident (by the way, it was 7 years last Sunday and for the first time, I did not even note the day)I was in medical hospital for just over a month (multiple surgeries to ankle and back) then transferred to rehab for not quite 2 months. I had a wound infection during that time so I guess I got to stay longer than usual.

Anyway, have a friend who wrecked on St. Patricks Day and is now a quad. She was in medical hospital until early May but only had one surgery in that time frame. Now she has been transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska, for rehab and after 6 months there, will be transferred to Colorado. After 6 months there, they will move her to Arizona for another 6 months of rehab. I was amazed! Apparently, she was to go to a Christopher Reed Cener but as she can breathe on her own, they would not take her. And, she has no insurance so Iowa taxpayers are paying for all this. I had good insurance and still had to fight to get the time I got.

Seems like this is a lot of rehab even for a quad to me but I don't know for sure how much time a quad usually gets in rehab. How much rehab did you have after your injury and did they move you to a different facility if you were a quad? I know there were quads in rehab where I did my rehab so I don't think it takes special facilities.

I am really just curious and do wish her well but this all made me wonder. How much time did you get in rehab?

[sh1wn]

Wow, they moved me from the trauma hospital to another one that did rehab, it was in the same town and maybe a 15 min ride.
I got about 6 weeks there before they sent me home.
18 months of rehab sounds way more than normal to me.
Is it all inpatient?

[mcjane]

I spent 2 days in ICU, 5 in Trauma Unit, and then was sent to the rehab hospital for 4 weeks. I begged for more time since I could not even go to the toilet by myself and was granted another week. I got one shower. When I requested more the OT's said they only do one since it is "really hard on them". !!!! When I got rear ended there was no pain or loss of consciousness...just a sudden T5/6 spinal injury. They told me that I would get no govt assistance and that my sons would have to help me shower and toilet. I told them I'd rather throw myself under a bus. Toileting in the rehab hospital was an exercise in negative reinforcement...the nurse would go get another nurse to help and then they would ask ME how I wanted to do it! I learned more from a half hour on YouTube than 5 weeks in rehab. Medicaid paid. God bless SS. That is Social Security. I heard there is a place in Colorado that has been getting great results with constant exercise and nutrition.

[S&W Winger]

I was in trauma hospital ICU for about 5-6 weeks [on vent, twilight state, multiple surgeries] then moved to step-down [where they proceeded to crash me as they were trying to wean me from the vent; NOTE: they do not honor a DNR when they are CYA'ing for crashin you] then decided to send me back to ICU and do the trach for a few weeks [since they figured I wouldn't breathe on my own anyway, but fooled them]; then since I was not healed enough for SCI rehab, they warehoused me in HELL [a nursing home] for 2-3 months with a hospital stay for 2 weeks thrown in for multiple bilateral pulmonary emboli; then I was finally sent to SCI rehab for a whopping 5 weeks, where I was isolated due the nursing home giving me c. diff., and 5 other infections, thereby limiting my rehab to a makeshift room on the floor, missing out on all the great equipment...oh well, I was still not healed enough to do rehab anyway...finally had feeding tube removed, still had foley, bowel program not yet in place properly, and had that one slumping but nice wet shower...


Short answer: 5 nearly useless weeks...MD asked to keep me 3 months but insurance said: "NO!"

Edited by S&W Winger, 27 May 2011 - 06:46 PM.

[airart1]

i was in icu for 7 days, then they did surgery, then out to rehab after 7 more days, then was back working on the weekend pass after the 3rd week so i didnt loose my house, but after 6 weeks, i started real rehab and walked in my braces for 21 months, 3 days a week, drove 60 miles at 6 in the morning, done an hour and half of rehab and drove back 60 miles and worked 14 hours and went home and done it 3 days a week.......worked 7 days a week......for 15 years till i got a sore and it put me down for 6 months straight in a hospital bed where they screwed up my surgery 3 times.......

[McRobb]

Thanks for the answers given. Sound like we have all been through pretty much the same mess as I went through. And like the rest of you, I had to fight (or my family did) the whole time to keep from getting shipped to nursing home and to stay until I was able to learn how to function. I remember therapists telling me that in the 90's they normally kept paras in rehab for over 6 month and many for almost a year. But insurance and medicare quit doing that soon after 2000.

I thought that what my friend was getting was way beyond anything I have ever heard of. Now, if it all comes to pass, that may be a different thing so we will see. But have never heard of anyone how has gotten this much unless you are millionaire and can pay out of pocket and get what you want.

Will see if we get anymore commnets.