Wednesday, October 13, 2010

OMG- The bill has arrived!!

For anyone interested in how much something like a liver transplant costs, the bill came today, and thankfully Robbi is not responsible for anything other than some co-pays for medication that Hopkins has filled for her after she was discharged.
I have rounded the amounts down. (All amounts in thousands of dollars have been listed as "K")

Total for 9/16/10 to 10/1/10: $176,412.68

General Breakdown:

$21k room and board
$13k OR Services (both surgeries)
$5k med surg supplies
$11k Lab services
$10k Blood services (all those blood/ plasma transfusions she got)
$3k anesthesia (surgeries plus the PCA)
$1k Respiratory services (the things related to ventilator, etc)
$3532.00 PT
$545.00 OT
$278.00 EKG
$11k ICU (3 days)
**$55k Organ Acquisition services**
(this is what they charge for everything related to getting the organ from the donor and to Robbi)

Wow!

I thought it would be much more. Mine was insane, something like 1.3 million for 5 mos of hospitalization, plus plus plus...it was several pages long IIRC. I have it somewhere in my papers. Mind bending.

Robbi's Mom





Saturday, October 9, 2010

Friday October 8, 2010

:) Today Robbi had her first POST TRANSPLANT clinic appointment at Hopkins. She will be going to clinic once a week for the first month she is home, then that changes. She gets labs done twice a week at her lab near her house. Her first clinic visit was AWESOME. Her mother in law from OK is up for 2 weeks, and she took Robbi. (Robbi is still now allowed to drive because she is still taking pain medication)
Her LIVER FUNCTION TEST labs were PERFECT. Her levels for her immunosuppression meds were PERFECT. Her incision is PERFECT, in fact her surgeon (who will follow her for the first year post transplant then she is followed by her Hepatologist) removed one staple at the end on the left (her left) and the top 4 staples because she couldn't wear a bra or even a sports bra without that area being irritated. He said next Friday he will take all of her staples out and put steri strips on and he said it was a great looking incision. Guess I have to stop nagging her to keep her hands off of it. They portioned her meds out in her med box for her for the next week. How cool is it that they do they, until you learn them all yourself (and they change anyway)?? Wish my transplant hospital had done that, my poor hubby and Mom had to do that for me. She is managing her steroid-induced diabetes well, her bloodsugars, etc and she has even taught Mike how to give her insulin and he does it like a real pro. She uses the Insulin pen, which looks kind of intimidating to me. Shes a brave girl, I am sure I had Bruce giving me injections but I don;t remember it, and the thought of him coming at me with a needle now is kinda scarey.
So, first week at home DONE. One day this week she opened a cupboard and a HUGE ceramic mug fell out (those 3 lb mugs) and landed right on her incision. Thunk.
I am so proud of Robbi. Its not easy the first few weeks/ months with a new organ, the meds and labs and incision and all the other things that go with transplant. Shes doing so well with it all, PLUS the kids, PLUS the husband.....amazing woman!

Robbi's Mom

Friday, October 1, 2010

FRIDAY, October 1, 2010

Today Robbi came home from the hospital. She called me on the way home, about 2:30pm, excited they had given her a yellow Johns Hopkins duffel bag with her "stuff" (meds, glucometer, etc) in it. Excited to be on the way home, and assuring me that she DOES take her immunosuppression serious, and in fact was wearing a mask at that moment. I was :) to hear that.
I am going to her house tomorrow for about a week and will probably feel sooooo different being there taking care of her, the kids, and the house POST OP than I was during the long, long wait.

Soon her new real life will start, after she has healed a bit, certainly before those staples come out, but soon. She is so concerned about her girls seeing anything icky such as her neck bruises, etc., that she was covering them with band aides in the hospital before she was discharged. But I wonder how they will react to her surgical scar and the staples? At least her 8 year old, who is so tender hearted I would not be surprised if I am told she cried when she saw it. She won't even step on an ant, she relocates them. I have shown Madi MY scar (much older and healed of course) to prepare her that Mommy will have one like Gramma. Madi doesn't even know Mommy had a LIVER transplant, she only knows Mommy needed a new BODY PART and thats what was making her sick and thats what we were waiting on. Never any question from her what the part was, where it was coming from, how would they get it in there, nothing. Thank God. Maybe Robbi will decide to not show them her surgical scar, I dunno.

More tomorrow.

Edited to add: Robbi loves her room and said she cried when she saw it.

Robbi's Mom