Bugger! No more PT for me!

So, you have 16 visits left for this year only? Are you planning on using the remaining 16 or are you wanting to save them up for another time later in the year? Wow, you may not want to hear this, but when I had private insurance which was the best PPO offered, we did not get no where close to 60 visits a year. We were given 6 weeks @ 3 times a week for those 6 weeks, nothing further.

My experience with home health & PT was a bust. They gave me a sheet of exercises, showed me the proper way of doing them & that was it. Same thing happened to my brother just recently when he was released from the hospital to go home. He fired them after 2 visits & got his PCP to write him a script for therapy & I took him since he was unable to drive. If I remember right you go to the gym, if this is true what you do in a gym would possibly be more helpful than what you will get out of home health. He too has been going to the gym since he finished his PT. I hope you get it all taken care of one way or the other.

The PT facility I stopped going to (so I could follow my lovely PT to his new place) does offer use of his facilities for $5/week...even if you've been discharged, so you can maintain your progress.

The new facility where my PT now works does not offer this (I asked). And it's a grand facility, too, lots of way cool toys!

My workouts have always been IN the same facility where I had PT,...not a separate gym location. This all changed, what was it, maybe 2 or so weeks ago when my PT left, so I'm 2 weeks de-conditioned. For me, that is a lot. My body responds very fast to exercise. And accordingly, I get deconditioned just as rapidly if I do not maintain resistance training.

It shows too because I've been having pain spikes something fierce. Even at my maximum meds per day, and the addition of 3 grams of Tylenol per day,...it's just making a dent!! I was doing really well, too!

I have awesome insurance, and I know it. I know that I'm lucky to get the coverage I do. I think I may be perceiving how I've been in PT since 2011 because of all the surgeries I've had, that also resulted in lots of down time where all I *could* do was home PT because I was stuck in a hospital bed for ages.

Bah. I'm still bummed.

I'm going to run it by my PT tomorrow. I'm going to see how much the out of pocket fee would be for the modalities HE does with me that I simply cannot do for myself. I can find a gym and join and do the cool stuff there I enjoy (resistance training).

I already do stuff at home, which is why I don't think home PT is going to offer me a dang thing I don't already do or know.

I just feel very cranky. My ins asked me how long I thought I'd need PT. I said, "Well, probably for life." Truth is, yep, I probably will. And that includes me working out on my own. I've just got so much going on. Then with this new cervical stuff hitting the fan,....aaghh.

I don't want to hurt myself in my exuberance. PT has kept me reined in because I get excited working out and yes, it's my nature to over-do it. He keeps me in check.

I guess I'll just have to suck it up. I can always ask my previous PT facility if I can work out there for $5/week. He probably will say yes. But it doesn't include all the goodies my new place does.

Okay, so now I'm rambling.

Alcie, yeah, I do have a feeling if I borrowed the grandkids, I'd be cussing you out the next day! ;P









M.

Quite frankly one of the best machines I have ever found for working out at home is the Total Gym or some cheaper knock off. The thing allows a person to stretch and strengthen most of their muscles at the same time and how much "weight" or resistance you get depends upon the level you set the bench at.

When my insurance only covered half the PT visits my therapist recommended, they dipped into a fund for me to keep going. Where you go they might have something similar. It was basically a program run through the facility, where a combo of donations, grants, etc. could be tapped when necessary in special cases.

I was only doing 3 x week for 2 months and that was back earlier in the year. I've been doing 2 x week for some time now.

My schedule was such that I'd work out 2-3 additional days (in the same,...ie: previous,...PT facility) and utilize their "gym" portion so I could work out my upper body when we were doing low back and pelvis PT. And when that case closed and we had to move to shoulder, he's also work me out heavily with my upper body during PT and on those alternate days, 2-3 days a week, I'd be working out my lower body.

So I was hitting opposite body parts every day (which I prefer) but getting thorough workouts in.

I have 2 sessions per week scheduled for the next 2 weeks.....I'm going to talk to him today about what to do. And try to talk to the owner (who's also another gym rat) to see about a gym.....because as I mentioned, this new facility does NOT offer use of their facility on non-PT days (unlike my previous place).

Feeling frustrated at losing the great amount of ground I gathered.....those remaining 16 sessions will help but that leaves me the rest of the year with nothing.








M.

Again-why can't anything ever be easy.

I could never qualify for home health services because I left the house too much. I went to drs appointments, PT, and my son's soccer games. That was too much to qualify.

Crazy

I hope something will work out for you.

This is *exactly* what I'm concerned about!!

After yesterday, I think it's 15 more visits, and we've figured how to ration them out. Then every 10 days I'm going to see him for Graston, which is a type of body work. That's only $30.00. But even then, for me anyway, that's really taking a chunk out of my budget.

Pretty much any *spare penny* I have, I pour back into my body and pay medical bills and spend on stuff to keep me going.

He figured out that in addition to the $30/session of Graston, "IF" she (the owner) were to let me use the facility, it could only be done under billable units (even if I'm self-pay, everything is via units, and I understand that)....it would cost me $65.00 for 30 minutes.

Uhm, yeah, no. Not so much.

So he (my PT) is going to help me find a gym that's to my liking. He knows I do not want to lose touch with him. I went through too many gosh darn hoops to find him as it is!!

I'll admit it, point blank, I am very concerned about how this will affect my pain management, my progress, my fitness level, my strength, flexibility,....the whole package.

As he said, at least in January 2015, we'll know in advance that I cannot exceed 60 visits and we'll ration accordingly.

Re: home health, according to my insurance, they'd still cover it, even if I do "get out"....for some reason that wasn't a factor. In my situation, that may only be because I've exhausted my standard PT sessions and this would be the only way to officially keep me under documented care.

Crap.










M.