About 2 weeks ago Kelley had her first follow up visit with the doctor who performed the surgery on her broken leg, and the news is good!. He says it is about half way healed, and he is very pleased with how it looks. She still has about 2 months to go, but the end is in sight. She is going to be able to ease into some exercising now, albeit very gradual and easy at first, just working on some easy upper body mostly and moving what she can in her lower body while sitting in the chair. She also had a great visit with some very old friends at her high school reunion last weekend, and about 20 of them came the next day to see the "3 women video". It was her first outing (except for doctors visits) since she broke her legs, and she really enjoyed it. She is planning on starting to go to the local gym with her mom this week, so moving forward....yet again.

I took advantage of an unplanned car break down in Sacto yesterday to help her out with catching up on her medical bills through the NTAF account. Good news on that front, thanks to the raft trip and other donations. Got all caught up on her bills, with a comfortable buffer for a little while at least. The Coloma fundraiser will really help ensure she can cover her expenses for the next year of rehab that hopefully can really kick in by around mid november. She also was able to finally complete the process to get her medical coverage through Medicare (primary insurance) and the state MediCal (secondary insurance) program and drop her Blue Cross account. This will probably reduce her regular monthly medical expenses by almost $1,000 a month (between monthly premiums and drug and doctor co-pays)... and her insurance was good....!. Sure gives you some perspective on this whole health insurance debate. She had to become financially destitute to qualify for Medicare and MediCal, and with the cost of paying for regular insurance with a condition like Kelley's you are about guaranteed to become destitute sooner then later.

But Medicare and MediCal still will not pay for much of the alternative and aggressive therapy, and supplements Kelley really needs for optimum recovery and health. So the NTAF account has been, and still is, critical for her since it can pay for that support without affecting her MediCare-Cal status (since the NTAF account is non-profit and only pays for strictly defined medically related expenses not covered by insurance).

Thanks to everyone that has provided this well timed and much needed support! Kelley, Kurt, Sean, Leona (Kelley's quiet but capable super-mom), and I hope to see many of you in Coloma in a few weeks. Sue