Apparently I’m Entirely Too Healthy to Get Help for Two Broken Ankles
The Catch-22s of U.S. managed care health insurance
You know how most hospitals want you in and out? They need the bed, or insurance only pays for a limited number of days. Well, I’ve been in this quite nice hospital for six nights after surgery on both ankles.
Nice or not, nobody really wants to be in a hospital for this long. Except, they can’t release me until my insurance approves of a place for me.
That’s the good part of still being in the hospital. I can’t put weight on either ankle, so I’m known as “non-weight bearing.” I can’t go home and be alone during the day yet.
By the way, that’s an enormously good reason to lose the weight you want to lose before winding up in the hospital with two broken ankles. Not only will there be less weight to actually bear once you can bear weight, but hospital food has evolved to be both nutritious and almost delicious. Add that to inability to move much, and that’s a true recipe for weight gain instead of loss. I need to go home as soon as possible where my niece, who will be staying with me to help, can’ t cook. I’ll have to subsist on protein drinks.
Except, I shouldn’t go home. I should go to a physical rehabilitation facility for a couple of…
