My mom just got home from the hospital after spending the night. She went in for surgery yesterday. We thought she was getting a carotid stent for a blocked artery. It turned out it was a carotid endarterectomy instead.
The procedure is similar to my heart bypass surgery that it removes plaque from arteries, just in a different location. Now I’m worried that I have more blocked arteries in other locations since the heart bypass surgery only cleaned up arteries in the heart.
Most of my issues are from lifestyle choice in food and exercise (or lack thereof). However, likely some of it is genetic. I’m more like my mom’s side of the family rather than my dad’s. For example, a lot of relatives on my mom’s side are diabetic as well, and there are a few heart bypass surgeries too. Sometimes I wish I had better genes, like people that can eat whatever and still are healthy and look good with minimal exercise.
I think my mom’s surgery went well and there doesn’t seem to be any complications, especially signs of stroke. Unfortunately, I am also going in for surgery next week so both of us will be recovering. My dad may be real busy for a few weeks taking care of both of us.
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My dad showed me the insurance statement from Blue Shield. My parents have a Medicare Advantage plan through Blue Shield. I though Medicare only paid up to 80% of medical costs but it looks like insurance paid 100% of my mom’s surgery, which came out to be ~$31,000, including one night at the hospital. I’m must surprised how fast the claim was processed. I’m still seeing claims from my ER visit and surgery from three months ago. Maybe that’s the difference between HMO and PPO claims.
Life with chronic diseases 