good news and bad news for BBB

Gotta love the everfighting spirit!

(And I'm glad the doctor saved your leg)

Hugs.

Glad to report that I'm working hard. Several medical professionals say they are surprised that I'm making such fast progress for an 82 year old gal. I've completed the top challenges of the CPM, which is a device for forcing the bending of my knee. I guess if I want to bend my knee further, I will have to climb on a white stallion and ride him through my neighborhood.

BBB

Great post, kid.

Hey, BBB. You get on the stallion and ride on over here. Good for you.

White stallion gallops through New York, stops at lake in Central Park.. pleased woman brushing his mane.

go girl

hugs to you and Butrfly xx

I put on my regular clothes today for the first time since my knee surgery. My pants at too large now. I will wear them anyway because I don't know what size I will be in the future---smaller, I hope. I'm a medium now and don't mind that at all.

I was thrilled today that I can bend my leg much better. I'm trying to reach a 120 bend, which will give me a lot more mobility.

BBB

Sounds great, BBB. Glad you are making such good progress.

My son, Stuart, just called me with wonderful news. He is going to have his hip replacement surgery August 18 in Arizona. He has been suffering for such a long time. He hasn't been able to work for over two years due to work injuries, has no medical coverage and no money to pay for it. The hospital will absorb all of the expense because his hip is so bad. Stuart inherited my bone structure and already had one knee replaced. I cried when he told me today that the surgery would be so soon.

BBB

That is indeed wonderful news! How awful that he has been suffering for so long--and how marvelous it is that the hospital will do the surgery without any expense to him and that they will do it so soon. Sometimes good things happen.

I am so sorry to hear that BBB had to endure so much pain and all the discomfort of a hospital. I'm glad you insisted on seeing the doctor when the nurses proved inept or insufferable. God only knows how they manage to hold on to their jobs. I haven't visited this site in such a long time, and was shocked to hear of all BBB's troubles, but am very glad she is doing well now. Keeping up with the therapy will be well worth your time and effort...who says you can't be healthy and pain free at 80? I'm not afraid of dying but I am scared poopless about pain. God bless BBB

Glitterbag, thanks for your good wishes. The lesson for physicians to learn is to pay attention what patients describe for them. I described what I felt in my knee, which described mass internal damage. My physician relied on several X-rays, which did not show the severe interior damage. In my case, if my physician had taken a MRI instead of just X-rays, it might have shown the extent of damage in my knee five years ago. He told me after he saved my knee that he wished he had operated on me five years ago so I wouldn't have had the pain for such a long time.

My physician is considered to be the best knee doctor in my area and if anyone could save my knee, it would be him. He had quite a challenge to save my knee and improve it's condition.

If you've been gone for a long time, did you know that Diane's husband Dyslexia died in May? A great loss for A2K.

BBB

I received the bill for my physical therapy hospital today. I was in this hospital for 23 days. Total cost is $29,025.14. I didn't have to pay any part of it because I'm covered by Medicare.

Total of room charges $10,160.00
Pharmacy $4,738.14
Medical and surgery supplies $1,517.00
Laboratory $2,699.00
Blood/ $654.00
Physical therapy $6,591.00
Occupational therapy $2,304.00
EKG/ECG $289.00
Professional fees $73.00

This amount does not include the cost for treatments I'm receiving at home for nursing and physical therapy. I don't now what the costs will be for this.

TOTAL CHARGES SO FAR: $122,531.03.

How many A2Kers could afford this bill if they don't have medical insurance?

BBB

I hope you aren't offended if I use some of these numbers as an example of why medicare must be restructured. A worker who works for 45 years at an average of $50,000/year will have paid a total of $32,625 into medicare when he retires. His employer will have paid a matching amount for a total of $65,250 to cover all of that person's Part A expenses. Not many people averaged $50,000/yr over the past 45 years and not everyone who receives benefits paid into the system for a full 45 years (or at all in some cases). In 2010 the median income for full time employees aged 25 and older was $39,336. That means that well over half of the people retiring this year earned less at retirement than my mythical employee who averaged $50,000 for 45 years.

Part A expenses aren't paid out as a function of what was paid in. Every medicare eligible senior gets the same Part A benefit. But if the total pool of funds is only enough to cover approx $65,000/per senior then it's obvious that there isn't enough to go around. I'm not sure how much of your $122,531 bill comes under Part A expenses, but from what I've seen I think it's a pretty big percentage.

There is a change coming in 2013 that increases the amount paid in for those making over $200,000/year but even that isn't enough to come close to meeting the Part A expenses of a typical senior. The average life expectancy today of a retiring 65 year old is 18.6 years. We have a system that funds about $65,000 per fully employed senior for in-patient hospital services throughout their retirement years, which obviously doesn't come close to meeting the costs. I have no idea what the numbers are for the total enrollees compared to the fully employed.

Again, I'm not trying to point at you, but the numbers you're posting are a perfect example of why we must reform how medicare is structured.

A major part of the problem is the huge increase of costs by hospitals, etc.? That's one of the thing Obama is trying to improve.

I started working and paying into social security at age 16. I didn't retire until I was 72. Medicare didn't start much later. I paid for it until I retired at 72.

How would the numbers work for my example?

BBB

estimate your lifetime earnings from 1965 through your retirement date and multiply the total by 0.029 (half of which was paid by you and half by your employer).

Yes, in addition to reducing the costs of hospital services and drugs, we might admit more young foreign workers to work and pay into medicare and social security. We are too old a country.

Yes, in addition to reducing the costs of hospital services and drugs, we might admit more young foreign workers to work and pay into medicare and social security. We are too old a country.

I'm doing considerable walking with my crutches for safety. The most difficult thing for me now is trying to strengthen my knee's muscles that has been weak for so many years. I cuss the pain and swear that I will restore my leg strength if it takes me a year to do it. My leg is still very swollen, but the pain pills help me in this battle. I hope I can do it without pain pills soon. Being 82 just makes it harder, but I'm determined.

BBB

I had a big grin on my face this morning.

Ten years ago, I weighed 227. Today, I weigh 157. It hasn't been easy, but it helps my knee to heel and to protect my body at age 82. I'd like to lose another 10 or 20 pounds and will keep trying.

BBB