Yesterday was one of the infrequent days where events stacked up enough that I never managed to post at all.
I spent much of the morning helping out my sister, who is back in her Honolulul apartment after stints in Straub Hospital and, later, a Liliha nursing home (for rehab). She’s able to be at home with the assistance of a couple of good friends who have stepped up to help, at least for the next five or six weeks or so. I’m dealing with paying bills and catching up with other financial matters.
Later, I stopped in at the main Straub Medical Center on King Street to find out whether the account information for my sister’s supplemental insurance as a retired City of San Francisco employee had been recorded in her records at the hospital.
I was ready for this to be a battle with the medical establishment. Instead, Straub made it a pleasure. At the information window, it was suggested that I inquire at the Admissions office. And the receptionist there immediately took me over to speak with a customer service rep.
After I explained the situation, and produced my power of attorney, the customer service rep got on the phone to the provider, spent quite a long time working her way through an automated telephone system on the other end until she reached a real person. She was then quickly able to confirm that my sister does have the supplemental medical plan coverage, got the current account number, and updated all the online records. And then she advised that we should ignore the bill that just arrived, and wait for a revision after it’s determined how much the SF policy will cover.
I walked out after 15 or 20 minutes with the problem resolved and a high respect for the Straub system of customer service.
Then I waited around until my scheduled eye exam, also at Straub.
I walked out with a new reality: Cataracts. Both eyes. I was advised years ago that there were baby cataracts lurking in the background that “someday” would likely cause me trouble.
Someday, it seems, is today.
It’s a bit spooky, although the corrective surgery is a procedure with a very high success rate.
If you’ve been through this and have any advice, I would love to hear it!
So the next couple of months will be a bit different than I had been planning! Luckily, our insurance will go a long way to cover the costs.
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Good luck with the cataract corrections. If I understood information from my last visit with the eye guy a year ago, I’m at the “lurking” stage. Inevitable, I suppose , but not looking forward to what lies ahead. Will be interested in your experience, which we all know you will share.
If the doctors consider them “ripe” at this point, don’t hesitate (one operation at a time). I consider myself “fortunate” to have acquired cataracts in my early fifties because their removal simultaneously corrected my severe myopia going back to childhood and for nearly 30 years I wore no classes!
I don’t intend to delay. I’m looking forward to the improved vision, for sure!
Ian, the best cataract story I can tell involves my father. He put off getting the surgery. Pre-surgery, he would have to have his buddies track his golf ball after he ht it because he could not see the ball in flight. He kept saying the sky was greenish yellow. Driving was a nightmare. He then got the surgery. He can see his golf ball, he said the sky is blue again, and now he drives too fast for an 80 year old dude. Now all he says is he should havd gotten the surgery earlier. His recovery was fast.
Here’s a comment about Straub’s customer service (might be relevant to other large medical systems as well). Nearly all my medical stuff is done with Straub. Once every year I update my power of attorney for healthcare, which includes an advance care directive. That means I update any details like phone numbers, and get it notarized with a current date so it’s never more than one year old. But last time I did the update and then visited my primary doc a couple months later, just out of curiosity I asked whether the doc could see on the front page of his computer “chart” for me that I actually have a POA with advance directive. He said yes, it’s right there. I asked what date is on it, and he gave me a date that was 14 months old. Obviously the front desk clerk who had taken my updated POA to the back room to scan it and send it to the central archive, or else the archive clerk, had made an error. I tracked it down and discovered there’s a cover sheet filled out by the scanning clerk giving instructions for the archivist, which the scanning clerk had apparently failed to fill out properly or else the archive clerk had failed to implement properly. So do be sure to double check that any such document “in the system” has been correctly updated, and get a do-over on the scanning if necessary.
Check out ocumetics.com. Bionic lenses. You may want to wait or it could be b.s.
Ian:
I had mine done a few years ago one at a time. Not because I made that decision, but because other medical circumstances dictated. I have heard pro and con both ways but my preference is to only put one eye at risk at a time.
One thing I would caution you to be aware of, is so called “secondary cataract”. Really posterior capsular opacity (PCO) which happened to me in both eyes. What happens is that the capsule which previously contained the removed lens starts to become opaque and you get the “Smokey room” effect maybe a year or two after your operation. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but if it does not to panic. It is easily corrected by a five minute, noninvasive procedure where the doctor uses a laser to blast a hole in the capsule restoring clear vision.
I was one of those who wore glasses since the seventh grade but has not had to where them since the operations. Except for reading, you never get away from that.
My niece had a cataract removed in Dec. In and out. Very easy procedure.
Good luck!
My husband just had the second eye done, first eye two weeks earlier. It is quite a routine and sophisticated procedure these days with very low complication rates – afterwards you will likely only need cheap magnifying glasses for reading. You do need to have someone who can drive you to and from the surgery and the follow up exams. My husband is enjoying not having to wear glasses for the first time in 50 or so years!