The good news: After getting calls every morning this week from Ronald McDonald House, telling me that there are no available rooms and no anticipated check-outs, I got a call out of the blue at 5 pm tonight, telling me they have a room for me tonight! I had sent our suitcase home with Derek during the stay, because there wasn’t really a spot to stash it at Shirley Ryan, so I quickly threw my clothes and toiletries into a tote bag and packed up some of my books to transfer over. I can move everything else over in stages. I am looking forward to being able to get dressed without a random tech or nurse or housekeeping person or food service person barging in at any stinking minute, day or night. (One night, someone felt that it was really important to come in and noisily change all of our trash cans at midnight, with Annie sleeping right there next to the trash can.)
If you haven’t been in a Ronald McDonald House, they are like a hotel/apartment building where everything you can think of is provided to relieve your stress. I had a care package waiting in my room with everything from hair ties and extra toothbrush to a mug, crayons, and a homemade quilt. Kitchen and community pantry supplies mean I’ll be able to cook for myself and Annie if we don’t want the three hot meals provided (or leftovers neatly packaged in a designated fridge) or the snacks donors have provided everywhere for families. We’re also on the same block as Whole Foods, if I want to grab some fresh produce. I almost cried tears of joy when the manager gave me the tour.
The bad news: Half an hour earlier, the case management lady had just come in to tell me that not only is our insurance fighting about even having us stay through next week (discharge date of July 12 would just be the bare minimum of 4 weeks, two weeks less than the standard recommended stay), but that due to blah blah insurance nonsense that I won’t go into, they might not even cover any outpatient here at all. Since what we get here is far, far superior to our PT option in South Bend (and because our home PT doesn’t even have room for us until the end of July, anyway), we had planned/hoped to finish out the 6 weeks of intensive post-operative rehab here, whether inpatient or outpatient. We were told repeatedly by every doctor and therapist before surgery that it’s absolutely essential to follow the recommended protocol of intensive rehab in order to see permanent benefits from this procedure. So I’ll be spending much of Monday on the phone with insurance and various doctors and rehab centers, trying to work out how and where we’ll be able to finish out Annie’s intensive rehab. What a wonderful birthday that will be…
But I’m not going to think about that until Monday. Annie only has one therapy tomorrow morning, so we’ll probably come back over here to RM House to hang out for the afternoon and evening. There’s a piano in one of the lounge areas, so I’m going to let her play to her heart’s content and probably only bring her back in time for bed!
Praying over all of the details!!! Hang in there!