The Icarian

❤️⚕️❤️  STILL HERE!  ❤️⚕️❤️

A NURSING HOME TALE

By Karen Strickholm 09/28/2023

Greetings, my people! It’s been a beat since you’ve heard from me – more than two years, in fact. During this time, I’ve been dancing a do-si-do with Death.

Things went horribly awry… There was paralysis, from the neck down. There was kidney failure. Massive IV antibiotics. Seizures. A distressed heart. In short, hanging on by a thread…

So much! If you think you know my medical story, I assure you, you do not.

Until recently it was too complicated, too horrifying, too traumatizing to tell. See this brief ticktock, which lays out the journey completely for the first time.

Reconnecting with you is my first intention. Also, I’ll be sharing with you the tales of my life as a medical vagabond, a “secret shopper” of America’s convoluted medical system. This is stuff you are gonna want to know…

• The secret angels and predatory devils in the healthcare world – how to tap the former, and guard yourself from the latter.
• Adventures of the hoyer – a crane-like lift device that moves my body in a sling from bed to wheelchair.
• Walking the edge of death – What happens when things get dire, and how to make sure people don’t write you off, just when the battle is most critical.
• Up close and personal –  You will rarely be alone… So many people. Roommates. Doctors. Nurses. Aides, social workers, therapists, ombudsmen, business office people, schedulers, unit managers, other sick people – many with dementia.
• The darkest and best humor is found in the healthcare world. It is legendary, and ROFL funny.
• From wipe-out to new beginnings – When the past has been smashed to smithereens, how does one chart a new way forward?

Thank you for joining me as I close the book on the old, and ring in the new. I can’t wait to reconnect with you, and you, and you! <3 I may be slow to respond, but I will – I’m back in the saddle. Or up on the walker, taking those first steps yet again.

Thank you for joining me on this road! ~ Karen

2023 – Recovery begins anew. At last get under care of an Infectious Disease Specialist, Am prescribed “prophylactic antibiotic therapy” – e.g. antibiotics for life. In addition to Endocrinologist, begin treatment with Pulmonologist, Nephrologist, Cardiologist, new Wound Specialists. Nerves regenerate, feeling and movement slowly returns. With physical therapy, am able to stand. For the second time in three years, have gone from completely bed bound to standing – the necessary precursor to pivoting and then truly walking. Those wretched painful wounds continue open, unable to resolve under high steroid dosing. Strength is returning

Next Episode:

THE NURSING HOME CONFESSIONAL, A NURSING HOME TALE

Previously:

Dying… Or Not. How People Die. Better Days

Return To Substack

About this series…
Karen Strickholm had a hidden brain tumor on her pituitary gland. The tumor she didn’t know she had until she was about 50, wound up taking her health and all she had built in life. Her tumor, diagnosed in 2008, caused a tsunami of symptoms and eventually forced her into long-term care in a nursing home and a series of hospitals.

This is America, the only developed nation that does not have universal healthcare, and the only developed nation where medical debt can force you into bankruptcy.

Karen became one of the financial statistics due to her medical debt, and the fact that she couldn’t get Medicare unless she was literally penniless.

What made Karen different from many other people was her relentless optimism and belief that she was going to get better, would walk out of the nursing home to build a new life. She was smart, a good writer and she left behind a number of digital artifacts, which have been collected into this series. Karen relates, in her own words, her journey through the American healthcare system and the reality living penniless in a nursing home long term.

Karen Strickholm died 6 April 2026 in a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of sepsis and pneumonia. She was 67.

This multimedia documentary series is her story.

Medical bankruptcy
• Approximately 66.5% of non-business personal bankruptcies in the U.S. were attributed to medical reasons in 2019.
• 1 in 10 U.S. adults (10.5 million) have experienced medical bankruptcy since 2001.
• 78% of bankrupt individuals in 2022 cited medical expenses as their primary cause.
• Medical bankruptcy rates increased by 21% from 2010 to 2020, even as overall bankruptcy rates declined
• The average interest rate on medical debt from bankruptcies is 21% (2022)
https://worldmetrics.org/medical-bankruptcies-statistics/
Nursing home stats
• On any given day, more than 1.3 million individuals receive care in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility, and a total of more than 4 million receive care each year.
• 6 out of 10 residents (64%) are short-stay patients who remain in a skilled nursing facility for an average of 25 days.
• Nearly four out of 10 residents (36%) are long-stay residents. These individuals often have multiple health conditions. Their average age is 76.
• Nursing homes employ about 1.5 million people.
• Nearly 90% are women, and 60% are people of color.
• One out of every five nursing home workers is an immigrant.
• There are around 15,000 nursing homes in the United States.
• The average size of a nursing home is 109 beds.
• Medicaid covers the cost of care for nearly two out of every three residents (63%).
https://www.ahcancal.org/Data-and-Research/facts/Pages/default.aspx