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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/30/2009 4:51:01 PM   
LookieNoNookie


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Status: offline 		Hmmmmmm......

(I'm jaded).

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/30/2009 5:27:37 PM   
subtlebutterfly


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From: Not your hood
Status: offline 		Wow this's a hard decision I wouldn't want to be in your position.. I wish you the best of luck with whatever choice you make.
Out of 2 bad choices I think I'd go for amputation. If the reconstruction involves having the wrist frozen and you'll never be able to have full use of your hand.. Todays technology is amazing..as somebody mentioned..the prosthetics work amazingly and getting a good prosthetic will likely turn out better than if your arm gets reconstructed..and with practice you'll probably be able to use your arm much better than if you had it reconstructed..so I do think it outweighs the cons.


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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/30/2009 5:50:11 PM   
ShaharThorne


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Status: offline 		Good Gods, a tumor is growing at 3x the rate. Bone tumors are nasty buggers to deal with in the first place. For peace of mind, do the amputation. Tis a lot more healthier than playing a waiting game and for the bills, if you got disability insurance, you can use the payout to help cover the ensuring costs...even a hospital cannot turn someone away due to funds. They have to keep up their creditials in order to be a hospital and that means at times accepting payment plans for any necessary surgeries.

When my gallbladder threaten to burst, they got me in an OR ASAP. I did not have the funds to pay them then. But then, after the surgery, I was up and cleaning my room...LOL!

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/30/2009 5:54:10 PM   
kiwisub12


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Status: offline 		One thing everyone except one poster is overlooking is that if the OP amputates, he still doesn't have a prosthesis - he has a stump. The prosthesis costs cash, and if he doesn't have insurance he has to pay the whole shebang!  Might want to know how much one costs, and how efficient they are. Having a frozen wrist would suck, but at least you would have your fingers.
Obviously, what ever you have done will cost big bickies - and if you are like the rest of us, you won't be able to pay for it. You might want to consider the end result, and how functional it will be.  You also need to ask your surgeon what the chances of reoccurence of your cancer will be if you opt for reconstruction over amputatation. It's a big deal to amputate your dominant hand - try wiping your butt with your non-dominant hand!

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/30/2009 6:35:56 PM   
Rule


Posts: 10479
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Status: offline 		Better safe than dead: amputate. This is a fast growing and thus very dangerous cancer.
 
Them physicians just want the money and an interesting surgery; they think amputation is boring.
 
If the cancer was less dangerous, I would propose to put a tourniquet on the arm and to pump aerated donor blood with huge amounts of tumor necrosis factor through the arm in an artifical circulation. It has been done before with a cancer in a leg; the cancer shrunk, and then they operated anyway.
 
Amputate.

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/30/2009 10:11:31 PM   
Lockit


Posts: 11292
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Status: offline 		Apply for social security.  There is a good chance that after the date of the application, they will pay the medical bills as well.

My son (adult) had insurance that ran out a month after he was hospitalized.  At that point I had to apply for medicaid for him to cover the rest of his medical expenses.  At the same time, applied for social security disability.  Medicaid picked up the bill and only the bill, even though he didn't get the social security disabilty for two more years.

I am sorry you are going through this, but you sure seem to have a handle on it all.  I wish you well and hope you can get this worked out.  It is hard enough to go through and to add the money stuff... is just too much, but you seem prepared and strong.  I hope you can get some help with this!


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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/30/2009 10:49:10 PM   
BrokenSaint


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quote:

ORIGINAL: kiwisub12

One thing everyone except one poster is overlooking is that if the OP amputates, he still doesn't have a prosthesis - he has a stump. The prosthesis costs cash, and if he doesn't have insurance he has to pay the whole shebang!  Might want to know how much one costs, and how efficient they are. Having a frozen wrist would suck, but at least you would have your fingers.
Obviously, what ever you have done will cost big bickies - and if you are like the rest of us, you won't be able to pay for it. You might want to consider the end result, and how functional it will be.  You also need to ask your surgeon what the chances of reoccurence of your cancer will be if you opt for reconstruction over amputatation. It's a big deal to amputate your dominant hand - try wiping your butt with your non-dominant hand!


Well yes, but I'm assuming it would cost significantly less than a hand reconstruction. Of course that's not necessarily true, but I'd certainly hope so. For some prosthetics I'd imagine they'd cost a pretty penny. Thailand though has a kickass foundation where the government distributes limbs they make for crazy cheap (like 30$ cheap) from donations of recyclable materials. It would be an interesting and entirely worthwhile thing to get started in the US. Granted alot of the limbs don't last as long, or look as pretty as the regular ones. But one costs thousands of dollars, the other, 50 bucks.

< Message edited by BrokenSaint -- 5/30/2009 10:50:05 PM >

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 5:09:49 AM   
Bstardsbitch


Posts: 154
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Status: offline 		Thank God for the UK.
Good luck to you whatever you choose.
xx

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 5:33:16 AM   
LadyEllen


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From: Stourport-England
Status: offline 		This is a horrendous situation which illustrates in the starkest terms exactly why universal health care is so important and necessary. Such circumstances may easily affect anyone, not only the medical problem itself but more relevantly to this point - the utter disinterest of private health providers in dealing with expensive problems, motivated as they must be by profits.

The capacity to live in pain and/or die in agony from readily treatable conditions is not a measure of liberty or any other such nonsense. The ability to access medical treatment without bar or hindrance, the cost for which is shared out across the whole, is not a characteristic of socialism but of civilised society in a civilised nation.

Still, as regards the present instance it would regrettably seem that amputation is the only realistic option for a speedy resolution, whether one had the money for the alternative or not. Still this is not an easy option by any stretch, except in as far as the medical procedure is concerned. Recuperation and rehabilitation of the body will be one challenge - recuperation and rehabilitation of the mind will be quite another, with which specialist help will be needed I'm sure.

Lorr - I wish you well, whatever your eventual choice may be; and whatever outside help you receive, know that it is from within yourself that the healing must ultimately come - be strong through what are most awful circumstances.

E

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 7:14:04 AM   
Lorr47


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quote:

ORIGINAL: snappykappy

this has nothing to do with amputation but i am on the national transplant list for a double lung transplant

all of the major stuff is being picked up by the va and the only thing i am paying for that i know of is the drugs i get which are roughly 8 dollars per month and then a 50 dollar sorta co pay when i visit the pulmanist

being that sarcoidosis is a pre existing condition i cannot get any insurance\

the cost of the double lung transplant is 550,000 and if i have to have a heart transplant at the same time then it is 850,000 so as one can see if i could not get it done then i would just do what i am doin as long as i can

i am also on liq1uid oxygen 24/7

so i am very thankful for the va system

wishing u a omg-ridiculously-improbable-can't-f'n-
believe-it-actually-happened
super duper fantabulous awesome day
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Your problems make mine look like a minor cold.  I wish you the best.

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 7:15:18 AM   
Lorr47


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quote:

ORIGINAL: angelikaJ

Could you ask him for his recommendation for another surgeon at a different (less expensive) hospital?

(As amputation is fairly straight forward?)


Good question.  I will ask him on Wednesday.  Thanks.

(The doctor said that an amputation procedure is straight forward and cheep.)


< Message edited by Lorr47 -- 5/31/2009 7:16:36 AM >

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 7:40:07 AM   
Lorr47


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quote:

ORIGINAL: angelikaJ

Another thought, since you seem to have fallen through the cracks and seem to not qualify for VA services, could you call your congress-person and aske them to see if they can cut through red tape to get you in there?


My not being covered by the VA is mostly a problem of my own making.  I was in the Marine Corp when the kidney problem occurred.  I collapsed while in formation and my kidneys started to quit.  An officer visited me and said that they were willing to fly me home for treatment and discharge me.  The document I signed said that whatever was wrong with me had nothing to do with anything that happened in the Marines.  The officer took pains to tell me the language was there.  I signed it; they flew me home; and my kidneys quit.  I never had kidney problems before going in and have had 30 years of kidney problems since.  I was granted a Honorable Discharge.  Years ago my partner started working on the problem, but then died.  I sat on my rights---only my fault.  There was something about a two year service requirement.  So I have an Honorable Discharge; can belong to most veterans organizations; but do not qualify for VA.  Such is life.  I do not blame anyone.  The Marine Corp was an experience. Besides it shut my Marine Corp father up; he held the Congressional Medal of Honor and Silver Star among others and that stint in the Corp finally shut him up.  Well worth it.

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 7:57:54 AM   
Lorr47


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quote:

It's a big deal to amputate your dominant hand - try wiping your butt with your non-dominant hand!


It sounds ridiculous but wiping my butt is in fact the biggest nuisance by far.  Another is putting my pony tail in a rubber band.

My body went off warranty at about 55 when the kidney problems joined with three strokes and pushed me to the point I retired and gave away most everything.  I wanted to live quietly on a fixed income.  Now this.  No Popeye I have not given the gun collection away.  What I do not understand is my x wife becoming abusive because I am probably going to have an amputation.  What a long strange trip.

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 8:12:08 AM   
SavageFaerie


Posts: 4377
Joined: 12/3/2004
From: NYC
Status: offline 		Lorr, since you are going to a public or private, no sure wish, call the billing office and ask them if they have a charity program or grants which would pay for your hospital stay considering your circumstances your likely to qualify. These grants or programs may well pay any outstanding if you dont qualify for medicaid. Also medicaid may perhaps pay for a prothesis, its worth going through red tape to find out.

I dont work but have medicare which doesnt cover all. Having just moved here I have to get FL id to apply for medicaid depending on if I meet the requirements financially since I do get disability payments from SSDI.

I just had a 6 days stay in the hospital and am dreading seeing the hospital bill and what medicare will actually pay. But such is life. At least it was just pneunomia and totally treatable.

I find it very sad that dr's will flat turn you down depending on if you have insurance or other means to cover most the bill.  I know someone that is going through that now.

Like already mentioned, see if you can find a county or teaching hospital, alot of times because of the varity the med students need, they are willing to go the extra mile. Perhaps call the hospital and see who is the attending dr and perhaps you can talk direct to him for admission.

I wish you the best and hope things go well, keep us posted.

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 8:18:30 AM   
Musicmystery


Posts: 30259
Joined: 3/14/2005
Status: offline
quote:

Tell them you're an illegal alien. Then everything's free.


In that sense, it's true here too. The treatment is not being withheld.

Unfortunately, glibness isn't a useful solution, either to the OP or to the political issue you raise.

Actually, your illegal alien would have had free health care at home--the U.S. is the only major nation without universal health care, despite the fact that we we pay billions, far more than any other country, largely because crisis management is far more expensive than regular health care maintenance.

To the OP....I wish you well. It's a difficult situation and decision.




< Message edited by Musicmystery -- 5/31/2009 9:15:17 AM >

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 8:20:51 AM   
kdsub


Posts: 12180
Joined: 8/16/2007
Status: offline 		Lorr...I admire how you are facing the situation...God bless you.... I don't think I could be so pragmatic in facing the loss of a limb. I know you have little choice but to face reality but I would be a depressed mess barely able to function.

I suspect you have already made a decision that gives you the best chance of unburdened life in the future. Just try not to second guess yourself once the choice is made.

Strength to you…Butch


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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 11:54:17 AM   
LafayetteLady


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Joined: 5/2/2007
From: Northern New Jersey
Status: offline 		Why do you not qualify for the VA services?  Have you contacted them?  As a vet, they should be able to help you.  It might be a pain in the ass to get it going, but it is worth the effort in the long run.  As for the doctor, well it's kind of like trying to get a terminal cancer patient to continue treatment.  It really isn't going to do any good but prolong things and make them feel like crap, but the doctors have nothing else to offer.  I think a lot of times, it is their way of hoping for a miracle.

I wish you luck and my prayers are with you.

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 12:53:22 PM   
FawneTwo


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Lorr47

Maybe I could get a job as a pirate.


Get a gig as a pirate.
A fella could do worse.

< Message edited by FawneTwo -- 5/31/2009 1:09:13 PM >

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 1:30:02 PM   
LafayetteLady


Posts: 7683
Joined: 5/2/2007
From: Northern New Jersey
Status: offline 		I believe every state has what is called the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.  You are "advanced" in age, so from that perspective they may not view you as becoming employable.  However, I do know someone who used them for assistance with hearing aids.  Each one cost 12 grand and they paid for it.  Including replacing one that just broke.  They might be able to help you with a prothesis.  I'm honestly not sure how long you would have to wait, but I think it is a good year before prosthetics can even be considered.  There is a lot of healing and physical therapy that occurs first, so you would have plenty of time to work on getting that necessary things in order to get the prosthesis.

Just a thought.  Check it out and see.

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RE: To amputate or not to amputate - 5/31/2009 1:37:14 PM   
sirsholly


Posts: 42360
Joined: 9/7/2007
From: Quietville
Status: offline
quote:

The document I signed said that whatever was wrong with me had nothing to do with anything that happened in the Marines.
quote:

ORIGINAL: Lorr47

quote:

ORIGINAL: angelikaJ

Another thought, since you seem to have fallen through the cracks and seem to not qualify for VA services, could you call your congress-person and aske them to see if they can cut through red tape to get you in there?


My not being covered by the VA is mostly a problem of my own making.  I was in the Marine Corp when the kidney problem occurred.  I collapsed while in formation and my kidneys started to quit.  An officer visited me and said that they were willing to fly me home for treatment and discharge me.  The document I signed said that whatever was wrong with me had nothing to do with anything that happened in the Marines.  The officer took pains to tell me the language was there.  I signed it; they flew me home; and my kidneys quit.  I never had kidney problems before going in and have had 30 years of kidney problems since.  I was granted a Honorable Discharge.  Years ago my partner started working on the problem, but then died.  I sat on my rights---only my fault.  There was something about a two year service requirement.  So I have an Honorable Discharge; can belong to most veterans organizations; but do not qualify for VA.  Such is life.  I do not blame anyone.  The Marine Corp was an experience. Besides it shut my Marine Corp father up; he held the Congressional Medal of Honor and Silver Star among others and that stint in the Corp finally shut him up.  Well worth it.

You need an attorney. You passed the physical to get into the military so if you had a pre-existing condition it should have been detected at that time.
And the two yr service requirement to qualify for benefits is bull. If you became ill with renal disease while in the military, you should qualify.

I urge you to get an attorney. You should also qualify for a disability pension on a monthly basis.

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