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Bilateral PKR One Year Update

@Pumpkln thanks. I was wondering if they were on the expensive side as the drug side of policy has drugs grouped into levels
 
Most doctors now are pretty good about being sensitive to drug prices -- if the patient brings it up. Could you ask your doctor if there's something comparable to Xarelto that doesn't cost as much?
 
@SherrieT. Wow! You are doing extremely well with your recovery! Everyone was amazed at mine, but you have far surpassed me! I hope your recovery continues as well. The biggest problem that I encountered was trying to sleep at night, but I had no pain management. Best of luck to you. Don’t over do.
 
You may have to call your insurance company to get a straight answer. If you have only one maximum out of pocket cost as I do, you have almost surely met that during surgery and possibly everything is basically free from there on out. But some insurance companies have a separate deductible for meds. I'm sure the last thing you want is to jump through the hoops with the insurance company on the phone, but you need to be clear on how your insurance works. Many years ago i used to do insurance claims for a large clinic and the insurance companies all have their own little peculiarities and it doesn't seem Omamacare has completely removed that.

I had surgery about 6 months ago, and when I started with PT, they were wanting to charge me the $20 copay because the insurance didn't post the hospital charges several days. We finally got that straightened out and all my PT and all my meds cost nothing from that point on. It is early in the year. If you have met your maximum out of pocket for the year, it likely means no charge on meds for the rest of the year.
 
For what it's worth, Xeralto is quite expensive -- on the order of $400 a month. I only had to be on it for 10 days and the pharmacy was glad to dole it out for ten pills. After that, my doctor put me on high-dose aspirin. I suppose that's for the blood thinning aspects. If you have a high-enough dose, sometimes the drug company has a special program where you get it free or at a discount. It's worth asking the pharmacy and/or doctor about.

Tramadol isn't that expensive -- I think my last refill of 100 mg tablets (a month's worth) was $20, which is the copay on my insurance. Not sure how long you have to be on Dilaudid, maybe not long. Ask if you can buy only what you need and find out how long. That's a pretty heavy-duty drug.

I lived in MA for a bunch of years and had surgery and other procedures at Mass General. The Boston area is crazy with really, really good doctors, so it doesn't surprise me that B&WF would have similar really great personnel.
 
Since I knew the Xeralto was going to be on the high side I wasn't surprised with bill. The RX was enough for the whole time he wants me to take it. @Jajakio As soon as the next claim is put in then I should hit my maximum out of pocket. This year will be a good time to get all the things that have been annoying me taken care of, that's for sure.

I'm amazed at how well things are going. The stars were all aligned when I had my surgery, that's for sure. I was walking around my living area, doing a bit of clean up and suddenly thought "opps, I should be using my walker or cane". I walked up the stairs, foot over foot this morning. Not fast but continuous, slower pace. And it seemed natural to do so. My knees feel like they are MY knees. Of course it is so painful when I raise up from a sitting position if the chair is too low. So easy getting out of my bed, it's a big high

My daughter is so sweet. She did up a schedule of all my meds and when they should be taken. She is putting them in small snack bags with time they should be taken written on them and then I have alarms on my phone for them.
Last night I went to sleep around 11pm (on my side with legs in wedges), took meds when alarm went off at 2:15am and read for about 45 minutes. Meds alarm at 6:15am. Went right back to sleep until 9am.

Poop fairy still hasn't visited. I'm taking Colace and have started Metamucil. If Metamucil doesn't work soon I'll start some senna tea.

I'm in my recliner, toes over nose and iced. Nap time :sleep: for now.
 
You’re really doing well. I can’t imagine foot over foot on stairs right now, but I guess with both knees done it makes sense. And side sleeping, you’re a rock star! I’m in awe!!
 
It’s early days yet and this certainly hasn’t been a pain free couple of days but keeping up with the pain management, I think, when I got home has been so important
 
Had BTKR Thursday Feb 1st. Discharged Sunday, Feb 4th

This morning. Nurse took my vitals and went over all the medication. She liked the system my daughter and I (well, mostly my daughter) came up with keeping track of them all, and will call and let us know when she will be coming back.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the PT but it went really well. She went over the mechanical aids that we have and made sure we were using them correctly. She asked me what I most wanted to do right then and I told her "go outside". So we went back upstairs, got our coats and my walker and walked to the end of the driveway and back. She had been observing me in the house and thought I was ready for it. It was so nice being out of the house. Then we went back in house downstairs. I have been so proud of my foot over foot climbing of the stairs and, after seeing me go up and back down, saw that I was using my hips too much when climbing up and showed me what I was doing wrong. Really glad to get the feedback on that. We did measurements after that. Left 10/93, Right 5/92. Lost a bit of flex from when I was in hospital but it will come back. And these were unassisted. She never touched my knee.

All in all I was pleased with the visits and will continue them. But I am tired. Time for RICE.
Everyone have a great day
 
What a wonderful first visit you had! It sounds like you have a good home PT. Last week mine noticed that I was sort of throwing my left foot out a little on my walker. I am so glad he pointed it out to me. It is tiring when they come but right now, just about anything can make us tired. Guess we just have to go with it and do our part of the job - but it does get a little tiresome, doesn't it. You have a great attitude. You are on the way!
 
Can an admin put this in with my original recovery page? I wasn't doing too well when I posted this and didn't realize I was making a separate post
 
@SherrieT ,
Threads merged, be sure to bookmark your thread to make it easier to find the next time.
 
Just hope you are feeling better, during those first post surgical weeks you can feel like you are in a fog.
 
Thank you all so much. I was in such a stew that I actually thought I was posting in the same thread and just changed the thread title.
 
Still no visit from the "Poop Fairy" so daughter served me Brown Cow cocktail. 1 dose of Milk of Magnesia in 6 oz of warmed prune juice. :eeeuw:. It doesn't really taste as bad as it sounds but hope it works it's magic.
 
Miralax 3x a day along with stool softeners worked for me. I hope your concoction works for you!
 
@SherrieT, Colace and the others weren't working for me this time but what has worked is eating kale salad and raw broccoli salads. Sounds crazy but I guess that huge dose of fiber just kind of moves things along...
 
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