Finally having enough she called the Penn doc directly and they were pros. She gets her first visit on Tuesday.

My own personal theory is that the incompetence reflects how shitty the Harrisburg area is.

I had given momwolf a book called "Don't Let Your HMO Kill You." I'm not sure if I still have it, or where it is, but it was a pretty good guide to negotiating the insurance minefield and becoming a director of your own care.

Maybe they forgot because they didn't see her case as more than routine, not at crisis stage yet? No? I tried.
Tell her she's got a big peanut gallery rooting for her. :thumb:

I'm allergic to peanuts, can I sit in the cashewnut gallery?

There's a big gang of us in the almond gallery, you're always welcome here!

you can sit in the carrot-chewed-up gallery too.

Sorry to hear about your Mom UT!

Keep on them to help your Mom you will have to.. I have had issues with the health care system involving my Mom and I was thankful my sister is a nurse. She rode their butt. Good luck...

Arf arf!

Tomorrow at 10am is the first meeting with the surgeon, or at least his office. We don't know what to expect. Will she be admitted directly? Or will they give her a week of reprieve or something?

Mom is moved into my house temporarily, as the new doc is a half-hour from here... more like 2.5 hours from where she lives.

Both our lives have been on hold for a week and a half. They will continue to be for many more weeks to come.

My Dad was in the hospital already when I received news of his aneurysm, so I don't have any first hand experience for your first question. When I did hear of his condition, I was very alarmed, but he wasn't. I attribute this to the reassurances he'd been given by the doctors. It seems to me that their attitude was more casual than mine based on better knowledge about the risk. It doesn't seem like a stretch to apply the same assumption to your situation, but I'm not a doctor, yadda yadda. Not minimizing, just... thinking.

Katkeeper goes in for surgery May 7. It's like... there's about a 10% chance she dies or has a stroke during surgery... but about a 10% chance she dies of the aneurysm, every year it isn't fixed.

We all live and die with similar odds every day, but they are rarely shown to us, and we rarely have the ability to play the odds. For example, John Ritter RIP never knew he was playing odds until he died, because he was never diagnosed with what killed him.

Wishing and praying for your mom. That would be good news and great odds.
I'd make that bet any day.

Best good vibes to both of you.

Really interesting perspective and good odds.

Walk in the park , best wishes from the front porch