Kaiser SUCKS!!!

Steve has had shoulder problems for years, he works construction so with the lifting and working above his head (he's a glaizer aka glass guy) it comes to be expected. Well he got to a point in life where he would rather not continue to tolerate the constant pain and went to the doctor. They did an MRI and said he had a slight tear in his rotator cuff and it could be fixed via surgery with 6-8 weeks recovery.

So we schedule the surgery for about a month after our wedding on Aug 22, 2008. Day of surgery doctors tells him he's going to go in and fix the tear and while he's in there he'll remove arthritis from the bones to give more room for the tendon. When he gets out of surgery they tell him there was no tear but they took the arthritis off, WTF? What happened to the tear?

He starts seeing a Physical Therapist once a week and is recovering faster than they expected as far mobility goes. Well come week 4 that bascially stops, no more improvement and he is in constant pain that is preventing him from sleeping. They give him a cortizone shot and some sleeping pills, good ol' Kaiser and their drugs. Well the sleeping pills didn't last long, they worked for about 2 days and then not anymore, plus they interfered with baby making because little man never wanted to play. The cortizone allowed him to work out with the elastic bands but he was still in constant pain.

Next thing you know his physical therapist says there is nothing else she can do for him and will only see him once every 10 days. He continues to work it out himself and finds another therapist (kaiser of course because they refuse to out source you). Let me also say that this is after 3-3.5 months so almost double his supposed recovery time. He starts seeing the other therapist once a week and pretty much has gotten complete mobility back in his shoulder but has no muscle to lift, which is required to do his job. He starts hitting up the gym 3-4 times a week doing light weights on his shoulder and lots of cardio to get rid of the tire he has now developed that makes him VERY self consious.

Two weeks ago he saw the PT for the last time, there is now nothing else she can do for him based on the guidelines and rules set out by Kaiser. Still with very little muscle and now almost 6 months down the road he asks to see the doctor/surgeon again. They send him in to have an MRI and his appointment with the doctor was today. Oh and did I mention that his disability got cut off as of February 26th and if he is not back to work by April his union drops his insurance.

So the doctor today says that Steve now has a 50% tear in his Rotator Cuff and his only options are another cortizone shot (which is far from candy) to work through the pain, to have surgery again and fix the tear or to continue rehab and hope it gets better. Well isn't that flippin lovely!!! How the hell did a 50% tear magically apear when it wasn't there 6 months ago (even though it was there 3 months prior to that) when he has had 1/16th, if that, of the strain he normally puts on his shoulder.

Now his options are to 1) be in constant pain and take another cortizone shot that could potentially do more damage than its worth and go back to work 2) have another surgery and hope that he recovers quickly but most likely it would be double recovery than this time so potentially a year off with no pay and no insurance after May (even though I can add him to my insurance) or 3) do more therapy with no pay and under my insurance which is an HSA pay out of pocket for the first $1500 until I can switch in July.

Granted we can live on my income but not with added expenses of PT and paying for his insurance, well okay maybe we could do that but life would royaly suck! I hate Kaiser, they just made up my mind about switching to them when we get pg. I'll stick with my insurance thanks!