A Family’s Medical Journey: Introducing Dad

Welcome to the first post in the series, “A Family’s Medical Journey.”

Photo by Dominik Lange on Unsplash

This new publication serves two purposes. First is a simple outlet to process this journey. Second is to explore challenges in the broken health care system in the U.S.

Let me introduce you to the star of our story — I’ll call him “Dad.”

Now, just to be clear, he’s not actually my father, but he holds a special place in my heart. At almost 83 years old, Dad is a retired welder who has faced his fair share of health challenges. He’s dealing with COPD, two previous heart attacks, and has a pacemaker to help keep things ticking. His diabetes is well-controlled by oral medication and because of nerve damage in one leg, he mostly uses a wheelchair, with intermittent use of a walker.

Topping it off, he is experiencing some dementia that’s quietly stealing him away.

Despite everything, Dad is the center of the family. He’s a giver, always looking for ways to make life a little easier for those around him. Now, as he enters this new chapter of life, he’s the one who needs support and care. But don’t let the dementia fool you — his sense of humor is as sharp as ever! He loves to keep caregivers entertained with his playful antics.

Thanks to a solid union job, Dad had great health insurance that he kept even after signing up for Medicare. He picked a Medicare Advantage plan that worked seamlessly with his longtime insurance provider. Managed care had always served the family well, so it seemed like a good choice.

But then came March 2, 2025. His wife noticed a wound on his toe that just wouldn’t heal, and before long, we discovered gangrene had set in. What followed was a whirlwind of hospital visits: a trip to the emergency room, three days of IV antibiotics, a partial amputation of his toe, and finally a return home with a whole care team in place — weekly wound care, oral antibiotics, a personal care assistant three times a week, and visiting nurses. Since both Dad and his wife had given up driving, the family stepped in to provide transportation for their appointments. Family members provide almost all their meals.

At first, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Necessary services were in place, and healing could begin.

If only it were that straightforward.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Dementia doesn’t play nice.

The brain simply doesn’t remember. No matter how many times we encouraged Dad to leave his bandage on, his brain wasn’t cooperating. At discharge from the initial hospitalization, the bandage was loose and came off simply transferring to his wheelchair to get into the house.

Did that little slip-up suggest to him it was okay to take the bandage off whenever he felt like it?

Who knows?

But what we found out was that keeping his open wound covered would be a daily struggle.

Every week at the wound clinic, they tried new methods to keep the bandage in place until the visiting nurse would re-wrap it — taping a note across it, adding extensive elastic bandages, using a surgery boot.

Nothing seemed to stick. The infection spread, and those oral antibiotics were barely keeping up.

Eventually, the doctor had no choice but to amputate his entire toe.

Shortly after, Dad ended up back in the emergency room with concern he was developing sepsis. Thankfully, he was not septic but began a 10-day hospital stay where he received daily antibiotics. The small-town hospital really provided exceptional care.

But with Dad’s complex needs, it quickly became clear that he’d need to transition to a rehab center next — that’s where the real challenges began.

Stay tuned for the next post, where we’ll dive deeper into those issues and share more about the family’s journey through this unpredictable landscape.