Medical Update & Other News

The wound care team finally completed the debridement of all the eschar, that black, dead skin you saw in the original photo. While most of the slough—the yellowish dead tissue—was removed, some still remains around the original site of the infection.

I had lined up an appointment with a general surgeon who specializes in wound treatment, hoping to speed up this process. Unfortunately, that plan fell apart quickly. He canceled the first appointment after I had already arrived, then canceled again the following week just as I was heading out the door. They tried to reschedule a third time, but I told them not to bother—my time is valuable, and they clearly didn’t respect it.

Because of these botched appointments, I had to skip two weeks of my regular wound care visits. That gap in treatment likely contributed to the latest setback: the infection has returned.

This should never have happened. During my weeklong hospital stay, they should’ve performed proper debridement under anesthesia, but instead, they dumped it onto outpatient wound care, which drags the process out and jacks up insurance costs. So far, I’m out $4,000 in hospital copays, and to make matters worse, I’m now being billed again by a third-party company for the same doctors—all of whom were already paid through Piedmont.

There’s no transparency here. Pidemont and this other biller went paperless without asking and provide no statements—just the balance due in the payment portal. I paid Piedmont in full, only to get duplicate bills with no information other than the service date. Now I’m locked in a dispute with the third-party biller, trying to prove I’ve already paid. Piedmont confirmed at least one physician who billed me four times had already been paid, so now I’m working to verify the rest.

Yesterday, I drove an hour out of town for a second opinion from an infectious disaese doctor who’s out of network, which confirmed that the infection had returned. Their recommendation? Go straight to the emergency room. I’m holding off until I get the wound swab results, which should come in today or Monday. Once those results are back, they’ll determine the right IV antibiotic, which I’ll need either as an outpatient (every day for weeks) or in the hospital—where I’ll insist they finish the debridement properly before release.

I’ve been warned that if I delay, I risk losing my leg. But based on my previous hospital experiences, I’m hesitant. The nurses and physician assistants are almost always dismissive and rude, no matter how polite I am. They parade in a dozen doctors, many of whom you never actually meet, and you get billed thousands for services and medications you never received—some of which I already owned and don’t require a copay.

To help blood circulation in my leg, there was a stent implanted in my groin during the last hospitalization. But during my follow-up with the vascular surgeon, he brushed off my daily pain—caused by blood pooling in my lower leg each morning. The leg swells up dramatically the moment I put my feet on the ground. Instead of addressing it, he referred me to a podiatrist, who later confirmed that this type of infection isn’t even in his wheelhouse. I was also supposed to have a followup ultrasound scheduled to check if the stent was still functioning properly—but I haven’t heard a peep from that office since.

Frankly, the American healthcare system is broken. No wonder so many people file for bankruptcy after a serious medical event. I’ve already paid off the bulk of these bills, but from here on out, I’m refusing to pay anything without a detailed statement— including the date of service, procedure details, billing codes, and the attending physician’s name. If a nurse practitioner bills under a doctor who never saw me, I want that name too so I can match it to my insurance claims. I’m tired of their non-transparent bullshit.

Now, shifting gears a bit—I’m dropping the third installment of BackSpin [2009–2010] tomorrow morning. After that, things are a bit uncertain while I wait on the swab results to figure out my next move. There’s a good chance I’ll end up back in the hospital, so timing is up in the air.

Lastly, it’s almost time for Gay Anthems For a New Generation, but I’ve pretty much taken that series as far as it can go. If you still want it, drop your song suggestions in the comments (preferably with the remix version because there are a ton out there). Do not email me—comment here or on Facebook only. If I don’t hear anything or if enough people don’t respond, I’ll skip it this year and just release a Gay Pride Circuit set from the past 18 years and save the newer stuff for the Summer Edition.

As always, it’s up to you. And of course, everything depends on how this infection plays out. I’m trying to stay hopeful—but let’s be real, that usually doesn’t pan out the way I want it to.

Until the next time…