Health is Wealth

hospital food; taken yesterday via instagram

 I am currently recuperating from my surgery (Laparoscopic Cholesystectomy)  which rid off my gall bladder permanently due to a 1.5cm gall stone. My surgery took place last Sunday and thank God I am able to walk and go to the restroom inch by inch without an aid from anyone except close supervision in case I need help. 

Lap Chole is a surgical way to permanently remove the gall bladder due to gall stone/s the not so invasive way as you only have 3 small incisions: your navel, in the mid portion beneath the breast and another less than an inch incision about 5 inches away from your navel. 

For a start I spoke with my surgeon a week ago regarding the procedure, got all my LOA (leave of absence) forms signed (i opted for 3 week vacay), Medical certificate from my Doctor, i picked a hospital and there ya go he called the hospital to schedule me for Lap Chole. I was a little scared at first because I never had any operation in my entire life except RAI (radioactive Iodine) to cure my Hyperthyroidism before.

~Surgery/Admission Day~

I presented this hand written instruction from my surgeon to the Hospital's ER. Prior to surgery, it is a must to to disclose whatever medical condition you have or had in the past because it might affect how your body will react to the procedure. It's their standard measure for the doctors to know about your previous ailments to avoid complications during surgery so I told them about my previous health condition and the hospital contacted my Endocrinologist to make sure my thyroid is ok and the good news was I am now thyroxine free. My Endoc prescribed a hormone replacement medication called Levothyroxine™ (Euthyrox).

A medication was injected through my IV so my stomach won't be too acidic since you have to undergo fasting from morning until surgery time, a patched test for the anti-biotic which thank God I wasn't allergic to and more other anti-biotic i think. Going back, 30 minutes prior to my surgery, it was mandatory to prep up, stripped off all my clothes and undergarments and was just left with a  surgical gown no matter how I hate this part but i want to be well and just get this surgery done and over with. I kept my calm because I know the surgery too will pass. I asked God for his guidance and I wasn't even advised that the anaesthesia has been injected to my IV. I was groggy in a second like falling into the void and then hours later I woke up, no pain but a li'l uncomfortable on the part where the gall bladder used to stay. The pain killers given helped me tremendously endure the pain there was after surgery except that I was kinda groggy for 24 hours, puked a bit after drinking cold water which I wasn't supposed to except no one told my me nor my hospital care taker. My stomach badly reacted after drinking cold water thus explained why I vomit kinda, like an aftershock. 

~Fourth day post surgery.

In my opinion, I believe that Lap Chole is the a good way to remove gallstones using tubes as it won't leave big scars which would enable the patient to clean their wound themselves and just use a regular band-aid to keep it protected. Constipation and bloatness often happens after solid food intake that's why soft diet helps during the first week post surgery. As i am writing this blog I have all my medications sitting beside me, I have tons of anti-biotic, pain killer etcetera. Thank God as well for my health insurance because i did not cash out anything except for the band aids and of course medicines which I have to take once I'm back home to recuperate.  So, if you've been feeling a lot of discomfort because of gallstones, don't endure it because in my case it was not a pre-existing condition thus my insurance covered the whole procedure alongside PhilHealth.

My surgery could've cost 112K but because I have PhilHealth it covered 31K for the Doctors professional fees and when i say 'fees' i had 4 Doctors: a couple of surgeons, one Anaesthesiologist and of course my Endoc who constantly visited me to check my thyroid level. My total bill just boiled down to 85k and stayed 48hours at the hospital. Never mind the not so pretty hospital room as there's a certain limit to room coverage and if you're finicky go pay extra. In my case, as long as my insurance is able to cover the costly part then i'm ok with just a basic hospital room equipped with tv at least, heater and a fridge then i'm good to go. 

Make it a point to read your insurance guidebook btw because it should tell you everything you need to know before heading off to the hospital and decide undergoing any medical procedure. Make sure you're with the company/job for over a year (in my case 2 years and 3 months) because according to my surgeon, the HMO coverage varies depending on the employees tenure with the company. Which means, if you're six months or less, you have to shell out cash and yeah Lap Chole isn't cheap. Whilst at the hospital, someone from my HMO spoke to me to let me know up to how much they're able to cover (110K and up to my health card's maximum limit).

Please be also mindful of the term pre-existing condition as there's just a certain limit to same illness coverage wise and I read for Laparoscopic it's 30k if I'm not mistaken so that means that your insurance won't shoulder the full cost anymore in the event you undergo another Lap Chole. It won't hurt as well to email your insurance company when in doubt as it will help ease your mind from worrying about financial matters. In my case, PhilHealth covered 31K the most (Doctor's professional fee). So do the math, the actual cost of the procedure less 31K for PhilHeath and you'll get the approximate cost more or less.