Those of us who have spent too much time in hospitals tend to think of insurance companies as cold and heartless, but when I got a call last August from Carolyn M, a former nurse employed as a case manager for my Medicare Advantage plan, something clicked.
Her call was a routine check to see how I was doing following a three-day hospital stay for an epididymitis infection last summer. At the time I was busy farming and wheeling about as well as working my editorial job. Carolyn and I had had no prior contact. But by the end of that first call, she knew not only that I lived on a farm, but also my age, marital status, history as a para and countless other medical facts about me. I also told her I wrote about medical topics and was editor of New Mobility magazine.
She reciprocated by telling me she had more than 30 years nursing experience, having worked all over the nation as a military wife. Her experience was broad — cardiology, poor people, teens with psychological problems, people with SCI, people in hospice who were dying. She had also been a nurse trainer. When I heard of her SCI experience, I knew she would understand my situation, wherever it led.
And three months later it led to an unexpected and frightening place: in bed with a stage IV non-healing pressure sore that required flap surgery and six more months in bed. The underlying bone infection could do me in.