Home Health Nurse Coming @ 2pm... Scared!

When I went into the doctor yesterday they had to open my incision the rest of the way... It was only close about 1 inch towards the middle and they felt it would open on it's own, it was just a matter of time. They (the NP & GYN) that it would have to be backed 3x a day. The GYN said he wanted home health to come in 1x per day until next week Wed when I see him. He is hoping at that point I can be stitched back up.

The NP showed DH how to pack me & he agreed that he would do it 2x per day morning & evening. So they called to make arangments with home health to come. They gave them the run around saying that I could do it myself & my insurance more then likely would not cover it. The NP even had to talk to them, the nurse was so fustrated. Well the NP got it approved by saying I could not go to the wound center, I can't drive, DH is working, & no family around, they even asked why DH could not come home durring lunch & change it, (she had to lie & tell him he could not deal with it it made him sick, so they think I am doing this on my own.) She had to go on and say GYN is very conserned about infection setting in, ect... Home health said they would check & see if the could and call me today... Well they just called...

The nurse was not too pleasent... The first thing she said to me is your insurance expires on Friday. I said yeah I know we are taking my husbands insurance, well her reply was I need that info & the card number, I advised her we have not received that yet. And she got even colder... She asked what time I wanted her to come, I said my GYN said for you to come in the afternoons because we are taking care of the other two packings. She asked me for dirrections which I gave, I had to grab the phone book because I didn't know the name of one of the streets and she sighed about 3x while I was looking for it. She seems very inpattent. She is coming at two and said it will take her about two hours to do an evaluation. What is she evaluating??? DH & I can clean & pack the incision in 10 mins.

I am scared I don't know what to expect from her... I am also nervouse about our insurance changing, she said she can't come after the 1st if she does not have the info... We are switching to an insurance that has diffrent providers and granted they may also agree to pay for home health, but I am almost postitive it would be with another agency. I don't know what to do... My GYN is on vaccation & so is the NP... I mentioned this to my NP last night before we left & she said not to worry someone would cover it.

Kim

I hope that this helps....

Try to contact your new insurance carrier(customer service) and explain the situation so that you know what you can do after Friday.
They may be able to schedule you for next week NOW.

Try to relax, be as nice as you can when she comes.

This is MY opinion, but, if she does not seem nice, is rude, or you get bad vibes, you have every right to refuse her services. You should have the name of the service that she works for and you can always contact them and let them know about your concerns.
You should not have to deal with unpleasantness from anyone in your situation. I'd come help you myself, if I could!!!

This is your care, and you need to be proactive about it. Do not let her scare or intimidate you!!!!!

I hope that this helps, let us know how it it's going. Please keep enlisting the help/support from your medical care-givers to YOUR advantage.

I know these insurance things really stink....I've got lots of experience dealing with it.......

I am not giving out medical advice, just a little assertiveness suggestions...

Take care,

Marcia

Hi-

I also had a problem with the first Visiting nurse agency that my dr's office contacted. The nurse who was going to come out seemed rude, put out and too booked to have time for me. My husband almost lost it when the nurse was telling him that he would have to be there to learn how to pack my wound. I complained to the Dr's office and they had another agency come out and they have all been wonderful. I think you should call your insurance co and found out whether or not there is another VNA , there should be. If not then maybe the nurse won't be as bad as she seemed on the phone... maybe she was having a bad day or is just overwhelmed with cases. Let me know how you make out.

I can understand why you are scared and nervous.
First, the reason they may take 2 hours for first visit, is that they have to do an exam on you, not just look at your wound, they have tons of paperwork to fill out (DH used to do home health) on first visit, they ask tons of questions and they will check BP, pulse, temp, etc. listen to your lungs etc..just to get an overall picture of you andthen they will do the dressing change inspect the wound measure it and document all of that.
If for ANY reason you do not feel comfortable with this nurse, do not let the visit go any further and tell her that you are not comfortable with her and her attitude, call her office (even while she is there) and explain this to them and request another nurse come for your visits. Whether or not they can not come after Friday should not make a difference, they are still getting paid---and getting paid quite well i might add.
You should feel completely comfortable with her and if you do not, then you need to call the office and let her go. More than likely it will not be the person you spoke with on the phone---that is usually the case manager who assigns the cases to the nurses. Please let me know how your visit goes, I have some experience in this ( I have had it and DH used to do it) so I can help you.
Now...breathe

Thank you all... And Marian thanks for explain the two hour visit...

I did call my new insurance copany as Marcia recomended and they were very helpfull to my suprise... They told me to have the company that is doing my home health call them, and they would authrize it for up to 5 weeks if need be. They told me not to worry they would make sure I had the help needed to heal properly. It was nice to hear how that there would not be any problems with reciving care since they are not contracted with our new insurance, neither is my GYN, but my NP told me do not worry this is all covered with the cost of the surgery its part of the post op care... When DH brought it up to her yesterday again she told him the same thing.

I was hoping as you all said that maybe it will not be the same person I spoke to on the phone or that if it is maybe she is just having a bad day. If I feel uncomfterble with something she is doing or saying I will let her know and call the office.

Thank you all for your support. I am trying to breath now... This is all so overwhelming right now. I will let you all know how it goes. I don't know what I would do with out you all. I thing you all are my gardian 's.

Kim

Kim,
I am glad you got the insruance thing straight, I know that is a weight off your mind.
And I am glad I could help, that is what I am here for...sometimes I truly believe that....mabye there is a reason I have so many problems, cause it keeps me here and maybe I can ease someone's mind or offer advice...I don't know..now I am just being silly...LOL

Bad day or not, that nurse had no right to treat you that way. I have a medical asst degree and I did HMC. Not quite, the same as she is but I worked for a nursing comp. that did visiting. We would get repermended badly for actly that way to any client.

I would call the place she comes from and talk to them about the whole situation. :burning:

I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience with the home health nurse. They are usually the nicest people in the world. I didn't have to have one with my hyster, but when I was pregnant and throwing up literally 20-25 times a day, I had an IV line that had to be maintained and I had a home health company that was AWESOME!!! One time I had a different nurse, though, that was a good nurse, but just not a good "fit" for me. I imagine you could call and ask that a different nurse come out, and see if she would be better. Also, call their office (if you haven't already) and straighten things out with their accountant so that the nurse doesn't have to deal with it when she comes out. That way she can focus on your care.

With my home health agency, I could call them at any time (and believe me, I did!!!) and ask the nurse questions. She even came out at 1 a.m. once to unclot my line for me. Always with a smile, too. I had her home number and could talk directly to her. She was a real blessing. I would suggest calling their staffing director and not complain, just request that someone else be sent out that might fit your needs a little better. They work for YOU...you have a right to receive competent and CHEERFUL service from them.

Good luck, my dear. I know that wound care is really taxing, especially if you have to go into the clinic a lot, in addition to trying to heal up at home. This too shall pass!!!

Haven't heard from ya since your visit, I hope all went well, please let us know what happened.

The visit went very well I have just been resting as she insturcted me to do so. She was very kind an caring, I just had gotten cold vibes from how ever was on the phone. And from what I can tell it was not her, it must be their scheduler.

She arrived at 2:15, we went over a health questionair like you stated Marian. She asked how much I weighed, height, went over prescriptions, prior surgerys, ect. We talked about what I can or can not do for myself & what DH is doing for me. I gave her my new insurance info.

She had me explain what the NP did for cleaning my incision. When I told her they where using peroxide she said I can't do that to you I am sorry but that's not how we are told to clean the insison. So she had to call her boss who wanted to either speak with the NP or the GYN of course they are on vacation until Tuesday, but they where going to try to page them. So her boss said she was to use the sterle solution. She also gave her boss the new insurance info & stated that she would take care of it for me. I guess a new study shows that using peroxide can kill good tissue and slow down healing.

Then we moved on to acturally cleaning the incison. She did it diffrent then the GYN & NP, but it made since & she had diffrent creams we can try because my skin is breaking down from the tape badly in spots. She told me how she would like DH to clean it.

Before she cleaned it she took mesurments. My incison is about 4 3/4 inches long, with is 3/4 inches, the left side I belive is open about 1 cm, a hole in the middle about 1 1/4 inches and the right side is about 3 cm. The right side is very sore tuching it puts my pain well over a 10. She is very conerned about the pain when cleaning & the hole in the middle of my incison.

Anyone know what would cause there to be a hole?? She also thinks I may have a bladder infection, bladder starting hurting last night & spams started this afternoon. The NP gave me a anti biotic to try to avoid an infection in my incision, she said if it's not better my tomorrow afternoon to call my doctors office.

Boy I wounder with the diffrent messurments & the hole if they will be able to close me up next week... It's just weriod that the hole is in the middle & I seem to be weeping alot from the middle.

She also told me if DH is home durring the weekends they can not come because he is capable of doing the packing said insurance will not pay if he's home. DH did not pack it tonight, by the time she had me packed it was 4pm & DH went to bed at 7:30pm and I just could not stand the thought of the pain that soon. He will change it when he gets up at 4 am.

Thats another thing she is conserned with, stated the wound clinic where she works says it should not have to be done 3x per day so she wants to check with the doc on that too. Boy I hope she can reach him.

After she cleaned my incison I turned white, got cold (she said my body was trying to shut down from the pain) and got dizzy. She thought I was going to pass out. So after dinner I took a nap.

Sorry so long...

Kim