After reading some posts and me worrying and not knowing what to do or who else I can ask for help because my wife’s primary care doc. and 2 different neurologist don’t seem to understand, and act like this is just normal and it’s no big deal? Let me start fro. The beginning on sept 5 2021 my wife had an aneurysm Burst they coiled it and she was in ICU for about 2 weeks then rehab for about 3 weeks then came home but on Nov.3 she had a shunt put in her head from forming Hydrocephalus. All sameness to be going fine but it seems to me like ever since the shunt was placed she started improving slowly but then around may I started to notice that she wasn’t remembering things that she already knew and also not remembering stuff she had recently so did that day. I told her primary when we were in and he put in a referral to a neurologist that he knew personally. But not the neurologist that had put the shunt in her head after seeing him he made a n adjustment to her shunt and scheduled an bhM RGBI. Meanwhile my wife’s condition is getting worse and worse. The MR results showed more damage that before I guess wasn’t present until 10 months after her aneurysm? Now the other Nerosurgen that put the shunt in said that it is malfunctioning and said that he wants to go back in and open it up and replace anything that is not working properly. That was about 3 weeks ago the doc office keeps s telling methey are waiting on approvals. Meanwhile my wife is now even worse and is literally begging for someone to help her? She begs me everyday to retake her to somewhere that they can see how bad she is and that am an fix her. She begs me to someone that knows how to fix her? She is very aware of the fact that she can’t remember but a couple of minutes now and keeps telling me that she needs someone now because the longer it takes she is is afraid that there won’t be anything left to salvage. She tells me everyday she is not getting better? She says I am getting worse day by day please help me.? So we are waiting and hoping this surgery thing helps. But I don’t know when they will get around to do it for her. I’m just feel so helpless and don’t know who to turn to for help. Especially when she is begging me to find someone competent enough to figure out and fix what’s wrong with her before it’s to late.
Sorry MRI is what he ordered
@AnthonyThaBruce I’m confused, often the case with me since I ruptured. Did both your brother and your wife have a rupture? I may need to reach out to @ModSupport to see if we can’t start a new topic on all this, maybe two…
@AnthonyThaBruce is asking about where to find care for his wife. Unfortunately, he quoted the text in the previous topic which made it very difficult to follow. I’ve moved this into a new topic and I’ve tidied up the quote.
I take it that you’re waiting on approvals with the neuro who originally fitted the shunt? (i.e. you’re not currently seeing the neuro whom your PCP referred you to).
It does sound like the shunt may not be set correctly or may not be working (or may be blocked) so getting it looked at would definitely appear to be the right thing to do.
Thank you so much Mr. Richard!
You may want to call her insurance company yourself and ask what the delay is for tweaking the shunt. I’ve never heard of this taking so long. Unfortunately, surgeons won’t and can’t do any procedures without the insurance company saying they will pay. Don’t forget that there’s also the hospital bed and procedure room that needs to be available.
If the insurance company has given their approval, ask the doctor’s office again why the hold up. I remember one time, my insurance company said they hadn’t received the request for a procedure. So I got the number that the doctor’s offices call for such things and the secure line to send the images to and asked the doctors office to try again.
You can also reach out to a different Neurosurgeon and ask for them to review the latest images. Perhaps someone at OSU or OU can help. You can literally have images sent to anywhere for a second opinion. But if you choose someone out of your State, you’d have to be willing to travel there, I imagine. Don’t forget there will be follow up visits and you will still have to wait for the medical insurance company’s approval.
To boil it all down -
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call the doctor’s office to find out what type of approval and from whom they are waiting on.
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if it’s your wife’s medical insurance call them and ask why the hold up
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if it’s the hospital, it may be harder to reach someone in scheduling, my Neurosurgeon had a wonderful very experienced scheduler who retired. Her new one is still learning but is learning quickly!
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you might be able to do most of the contact with the doctor through your wife’s patient portal, then it would be in writing. Explain to whomever you contact through the portal your wife’s declining condition.
Ok thank you, I can do that. I appreciate the help.
Great! Please let us know how it goes, it’s how we all learn here!