That's funny that your puppy used your braces as a chew toy. I hope her teeth survived intact.
Mike,
She survived lol. She has moved up to stealing my socks in the mornings now. She thinks it is a game to snatch them up and go hide them. She is Daddy's little girl and gets away with more than she probably should.
WOW! Acrobat that is outrageous!! I still paid more for mine with my deductible but I have a feeling they are jacking the price up to get more out of you which is absolutely not right. I just don't see how they can get away with this. I have added a picture of my one of my braces that I literally took just now LOL. Is it the same?
Yes these are the braces that Hanger is ordering me. Hanger prosthetic have been fined numerous times for fraudulent Medicare billing. I will just turn them in for fraud. I have not agreed to pay anything so I have the upper hand. The braces are already in fabrication. I have dealt with Hanger before as they made two sets of my braces in previous years and they are a bunch of crooks. My current braces which are the ones I posted the picture of were only $2800. My previous orthotist that ordered the braces I am currently wearing even said that Hanger was trying to rip me off. I called them and asked about the Phatbraces.
Hanger does not like to supply them because they like to make their own inferior products. But I told the rep that I would not accept anything other than the type of brace that I have which is what they called a "phat type" brace.
But Medicare will only pay a certain amount, they can bill all they want but Medicare will tell me exactly what I have to pay which is 20% of the amount that they allow.
I am so glad I talked with you two on here. I won't have to pay but about $400 if that much. I did call Medicare but they cannot tell me how much my copay is going to be until after the bill has been submitted.
I wonder how many people they have stole money from like they are trying to do me? It is illegal to make a Medicare patient pay more than 20% of the allowable charge. I have a feeling this is the first time this Hanger office has ordered from the company Phatbraces.com
Thank you both so much for your comments. I will post some pictures as soon as I get them.
I've never dealt with Hanger personally but have heard some horror stories. I have also heard that Hanger is bad about trying to get you to get a brace that they make which I'm sure they make more money off of. If I'm not mistaken, the Phat Braces are all made by the company itself. The Orthotist that I deal with was telling me that they except what Medicare will pay because they know many would not even be able to afford the co pay. Great folks for sure.
So glad to hear your Co-Pay is only $400.00. Sometimes I feel that these people try and take advantage of people like us. They know we have to have this things to have a somewhat normal quality of life and will do all we can to make that happen.
I'm having a horrible time with pain management right now and I told them yesterday that if they had to live one day in my shoes they wouldn't drag their feet near as much.
This video was today 4/24/2015. I put a 1/2" wedge in my boot to see if it helps. WOW! I had no idea how much it would help. My gait still isn't perfect but I don't think anything could make it perfect. I am hoping it will help with some of the ankle/leg pain. I will keep you all posted and look forward to seeing some of your videos as well.
Thank you DJ. I'm not saying the wedge is the fix just yet but I wore it about 3-4 hours last night and I have had very minimal ankle pain. This is highly unusual! I am going to try and go as long as possible today without a pain pill and see how it does.
Post by acrobatinmydreams on Apr 25, 2015 13:57:42 GMT -8
Most pain management practices are just money pits too. I have been in three and they make you take all these Psych classes, Physical therapy, and see several doctors before they will even treat you. They make tons of money that way. Then there is no real treatment that can help. And they act like it is a crime to get narcotics which is the only thing that helps the joint/hip pain anyway. I have just learned to live with the central pain syndrome that causes the burning and stabbing pain.
Then they wonder why we fight depression??? lol I am not depressed and hopeless as long as I have some pain control. Nothing fixes it all but if I can just get to a manageable level every day...life is much better.
My hips are worn out from the swayed gait like yours. I hope these new braces improves my gait as much as yours.
thanks for posting the video. You are walking great.
I made it almost 18 years without dealing with pain management. It got so bad that I never slept more than 30-45 minute stretches. Tough when you work everyday but I never missed a day. Now that I have no other alternative I'm treated like I am some pill head out here on the street dealing drugs. I told a doctor yesterday that it is bad enough living with an SCI for life but to be treated like a second class citizen to boot is almost more than I can take.
I take Cymbalta to help with my depression. It took my wife 15 years to convince me to try and wow it has made a difference in my life.
I do think this wedge is going to be a BIG help to me as well. The ankle pain which was constant has been very minimal the past 24 hours. First time in years! I'm not calling it a miracle cure yet but I will take a day of relief anyway I can get it.
I am excited for you to get yours as well. I have spent the better part of my life not having anyone to communicate with that has any idea what I am actually dealing with and these forums, especially this one has help me tremendously as well.
jeff1967, I am so excited to see the improvement in gait!!! Of course the best part is pain reduction!!! If there is anyway that you can get your orthotist or even a good shoemaker/repairman to make on for you, the result can be wonderful. For 23 years I wore a wedge (the same one!) made of a relatively hard foam (harder than EVA), with leather top and thin, tacky sole material on bottom (kept it in place inside shoe). If you need more than 3/4" height, it would be better to add to bottom of shoe, even though it is much more costly this way. Also, I found that a slight elevation toward outside of heel helped my gait. The exact specification should really be prescribed by podiatrist, chiropractor, etc. to get covered by insurance and get best fit.
acrobatinmydreams, hear you loud and clear. I am so sorry you have to deal with the rip-off Hanger people and also no understanding for pain management.
I made it almost 18 years without dealing with pain management. It got so bad that I never slept more than 30-45 minute stretches. Tough when you work everyday but I never missed a day. Now that I have no other alternative I'm treated like I am some pill head out here on the street dealing drugs. I told a doctor yesterday that it is bad enough living with an SCI for life but to be treated like a second class citizen to boot is almost more than I can take.
I take Cymbalta to help with my depression. It took my wife 15 years to convince me to try and wow it has made a difference in my life.
I do think this wedge is going to be a BIG help to me as well. The ankle pain which was constant has been very minimal the past 24 hours. First time in years! I'm not calling it a miracle cure yet but I will take a day of relief anyway I can get it.
I am excited for you to get yours as well. I have spent the better part of my life not having anyone to communicate with that has any idea what I am actually dealing with and these forums, especially this one has help me tremendously as well.
I made it 15 years without pain meds. But I only started with Pain management in 2012. My pain was really bad when I worked and walked office to office every day so I know what you mean.
I started taking Cymbalta in 2003. I stopped for a couple of years in 2012 when pain management was messing with my meds. But I recently went back to it because nothing else has worked. I slipped into a major depression when I gave up my job. But the pain got to the point I was making mistakes and just couldn't hold my focus. The drug stigma is so bad but Cymbalta really has made a difference in my life too. It doesn't work for everyone. It seems to work for low injuries like ours. I have several friends that could not take Cymbalta but had higher up injuries.
I have Central Pain Syndrome which is the burning, stabbing, altered skin feeling stuff. My calves and my feet feel like someone has taken steel wool and scraped all the skin off then poured alcohol on the open areas. It never goes away but I have varying degrees of high and low pain days. When it rains, I have a high pain day and no focus. I honestly chose to move back to the high desert of Colorado for this reason.
I went to Craig Hospital in March and went through their "aging spinal cord injury re-evaluation program". It was the first time since my initial accident that I had been through testing like that. Physical Therapy did a full evaluation and several other medical specialties. I will have an MRI and see Dr Falci when I go back to get my new braces. He is a neurosurgeon that specializes in tethered cords. I guess they are going to see if my increase in pain is related to a syrynx or tethered cord. I guess scar tissue can cause the cord to twist up and grow together causing an increase in burning pain. In the late 80's they just sent me home and said do the best you can. So I know too what it is like to have no one that knows what you deal with. Aging really does effect things too.
I saw a pain management doctor in Grand Junction and he was horrible. He interrupted me several times and said (exact words) "why are you here"? Then when I started explaining he said "get on with it". He walked out of the room leaving me on the exam table with my braces across the room. He was so patronizing that I cried all the way home. I have never been treated so bad by a doctor. I wrote him a nice letter the next day and let him know I wouldn't be back even if I had to drive to Denver to see a doctor. So my primary care doctor said she would write my prescriptions.