Before and after pictures one month after surgery.

I took some pictures of my heel before my surgery so I thought I would show you the difference.  It's only been one month since my surgery and I have more healing to do but I am making good progress.  Spent the day at the pool again yesterday.  Walked the dogs and took them for rides in the golf cart so Huli could have a vacation day.  Temperatures are back into the 80's this week.  Sounds like there is some better weather coming for the northern part of the country this week too.

Here are the before pictures

 

Here is the after.  No more bump.



Went to the doctor again today. I am walking again. Motorhome is out of warranty

Today I went to see my surgeon for my almost one month post operation visit.  Before the surgeon came in his assistant took off the butterfly band aids they put on after removing the stitches on my heel.  He said my incision has already heeled and I don't even have a scar.  He said I have healed very well and he sounded surprised at how well I have done.  He ask if I have stayed off my foot and I said oh for the most part.  Truthfully for the last week I have been walking some with my boot on and then a little without the boot. 

The surgeon comes in and checks out my tendon and said it is doing very well.  I ask what we are waiting for now.  He said my tendon will take a few more weeks to completely heal.  He said I can start walking with 25% of my weight on my foot in the boot and then gradually increase it. He said he used four suture anchors to affix my tendon to my heel bone.  With my previous six or so surgeries I have always progressed much quicker than the prescribed timeline.  This really pisses Huli off but I tell her I am not going to do anything I don't think I should be doing.  I tell her if I do something and I feel any pain at all I don't do it anymore.  The doctor told me the exact same thing today.  He said add weight but if you feel any pain then back off for two to three days.  They gave me a prescription for a physical therapist for 30 days but I told them I think they are a waste of money.  I said I visited one before for my heel and it was a total waste of my time and money and I doubt if I will go to one now.  They told me if I wanted to get back to walking on that foot then I should go.  I didn't want to tell them I have already been walking on that foot without the boot cause I was afraid my surgeon would go ballistic.  I may go for one or two visits but I'm still deciding. 

Follow up to getting a prompt pay discount from Lee Memorial Hospital.  I called and spoke to the business office before my surgery and they refused to offer us any kind of discount.  They even thought I was doing something unethical by asking them to discount my deductible.  I spoke to several people at the hospital and I was not impressed with any of them but they did hold their ground.  I then called Aetna, my insurance company, and they told me I had every right to aggressively pursue a prompt pay discount (this is a term hospitals use fairly consistently).  They then advised me to just wait until after the surgery.  In any event I didn't pay anything before the surgery and while I was told numerous times I would be asked to pay a certain portion upfront. In reality not one person ask for a penny before the surgery.  In fact, we called them this week and ask when or if they were planning on sending us a bill since I have noticed the insurance company settled the bill from their end a couple of weeks ago.  The person on the phone said they were getting ready to send out a bill and Huli ask whether or not they offered any prompt pay discounts.  The person said yes if we paid today they would take 20% off the bill.  We paid the bill in full over the phone using our HSA account and got 20% off.  Just like that we saved $1600.  The 20% is less than the 25% we have gotten on my last three surgeries but it still better that paying the whole amount.  This is just what Aetna said may happen if we waited until after the surgery since we would be dealing with a different group of people within the hospitals business unit.  

Today I was in the swimming pool and hot tub for the first time since January 16th.  While the outside temperature was only around 70 degrees the pool temperature was great and the hot tub felt really great.  Just walking around without the boot and scooter was very liberating.  I plan on going without the boot as long as my heel and leg feel ok. My foot doesn't hurt but my entire leg feels a little off I guess just due to being off of it for the better part of a month. 

I received the quote from Newmar on getting the motorhome body work fixed.  It came in at $5700 but this does not include replacing the front wheel which would be another $400.  I received a check for the wreck from the other persons insurance company for $4600 but they said I could refile for additional money if I needed to.  Newmar made several mistakes before I got a good quote so I am starting to question taking the unit to them for the repair work.  Also Newmar charges $118 per hour for the labor which seems high to me for this type of work.  Other motorhome owners have told me to take it to Precision Painting in Breman, Indiana.  I have sent Precision the photos and am waiting for them to send me a quote.  I told Janet I could probably fix the body work and paint and clear coat it to "almost good as new" for a couple hundred dollars doing it myself except for replacing the wheel.  Getting it to "just like new" costs thousands more and is done by experts.  I will see what the Precision quote is and will then decide who we will take it to.  Another reason I am questioning taking it to Newmar is they sent me a advertisement to have some maintenance work done while my coach was there for repairs.  The sheet included normal maintenance items and other things like full body wax and buffing.  All of the maintenance items are significantly more than I paid Freightliner for the same maintenance.  Also,  Newmar wanted $3400 to wax and buff my motorhome while we paid a crew down here in Fort Myers Beach $895 to polish, buff, wax and buff the motorhome.

Our motorhome is one year old today and is officially out of warranty.  I think in the year we have owned it we have had 31 recordable issues that have had to be fixed by me or someone else.  We have an appointment at Newmar in May to have some remaining warranty issues fixed but the bottom line is these motorhomes are so complicated that a one year warranty is not long enough to get through all of the bugs a motorhome may have.  Having said that I am still not getting an extended warranty.  I am going to roll the dice and take care of any other issues on my own.  The good thing is the engine and chassis have been almost totally problem free except for a 10 minute time period where the cruise and wipers didn't work.  The funny thing is the items where we have not experienced one problem have warranties that go on for two to four more years.  The actual motorhome itself where all of the problems occur is only twelve months.  They used to be two years but reduced the warranty to one year.  Probably due to all of the problems they had to fix in the second year.  I still have no regrets in going to a motorhome.  If I had it to do again I would have purchased a used one instead of buying new.  Even though we got a great deal on this one due to it being a year old I still would think a used one would have had many of the issues worked out that we are dealing with.  Oh well it gives me something else to do.