Limited Medical Update

Oh, wait, there isn't much of one. I'm sick -- but don't feel bad except for the damn infernal 24/7 hacking. The doctor says I'm sick and am suffering from some unknown viral malaise. Doesn't that sound fun. My throat is shredded to bits from the constant hacking. Talking hurts, so I haven't been doing much of it lately despite some people's efforts to try and make me talk.

I begin antibiotics today for a week coupled with some highly narcotic cough syrup (yay) Hydromet Syrup which my insurance has inexplicably declined to pay for even though it's clearly covered. I asked the pharmacist why. He explained as follows: "Your doctor prescribed a 1/2 teaspoon dose once per day and gave you enough for 48 days. But the insurance company will only pay for 30 days worth."

I explained to the pharmacist that I'm supposed to take 1/2 teaspoon dose at least twice (as needed) per day which means I got a 24 day supply at most. But, the prescription says one per day or as needed. So I asked him to give me less, and he said it's a liquid in a standard size bottle and he can't. My choice is to call the doctor back tomorrow and have him re-issue the prescription or pay for it. I'm very cranky already and decide I'll just pay since I'm already pissed off and the talking is killing me. All that, and it's only $15.82 -- if my insurance had covered it, it would have been $20 which is my minimum drug copay. Fucking insanity, I say. I paid less not being covered.

I also went to the otolaryngologist (ENT) to discuss my results from the Endoscopy in more detail but he referred me back to the original doctor who did the procedure instead and said he should go over it with me instead. That pissed me off. I paid $30 to get sent to another doctor. So that's two co-pays today. Although the ENT did give me a lecture and a half for taking Orange Juice for my cold (which is a no-no for Acid Reflux patients). I assumed that the cold was worse and a few days of that wouldn't be a problem -- I stand corrected. No citrus ever again for any reason. He said OJ for colds is an old-wives tale anyway though he supports chicken soup. He then gave me the official "endoscope up the nose" procedure -- which is a problem because with my cold I can't breathe so well through my nose and we almost had an episode like before (previous blog post).

Then of course, I didn't mention the insurance crisis. We have two plans at our office a regular plan and the same plan with the Open Access option. The OA option is quite a bit more money (nearly double the price) but I gladly pay it because I'll be damned if I'm letting some insurance company book tell me what doctors and I can or can't see and double-damned if I'm going to keep going to my primary care to get a referral. If I know what's broken and I know what type of doctor can fix/treat it, then I'll find one that's good and go to him/her right away and shave days and dollars off the process.

So I go to the otolaryngologist and check-in like always (remember, I've been before) and pay my $30 co-pay for a specialist. No worries. Sit down. I get called back to the window and told "You need a referral to see the doctor or you have to pay $290 for the visit plus any additional money for whatever the doctor does." I ask why because I'm on the OA plan. She says I'm not and she shows me a printout which conflicts with the card I have. She gets her phone, dials the physician access line and presses my card number into the automated system. Sure enough it says I'm on the regular HMO without the OA option. I call my office and ask the controller to get the insurance agent involved but it's too early and we can't get it resolved. We come to a compromise: I leave her a signed note saying she can charge my card if it isn't resolved in 24 hours. When I get back to the office later, Aetna insists I'm on the OA plan and can't explain the failure of the physician's automated line to get it right. They promise they'll call me back within an hour and also call the doctor and straighten it out. That was 10 hours ago. Not done. (My primary care doctor was nice enough to fax a referral to the doctor so I don't get charged. Technically not proper but nobody feels bad because the insurance company screwed it up.)

I hate insurance companies. I wish I could stop coughing.

Hiatal Hernia

I have a hiatal hernia -- those are the results of the endoscopy. Because it's not too bad, they are not recommending surgery. They expect to continue to treat my acid reflux with Nexium. I am to follow up with the original doctor in about three weeks. The hiatal hernia is causing the acid reflux and the hyperlink to WebMd will explain it in detail.

I do not have any signs of cancer, ulcers, varices, tumors, or polyps. Nor do I have any serious signs of esophogal erosion. All of that is good news. The bad news is I must continue on my white, bland diet.

Thanks to the few of you who expressed support or actually called/wrote to see how I was.

Eviscerating My Yard with an Endoscopy at Work

This post is brought to you by the letter "Q" for absolutely no reason.


First, my lawn was eviscerated by the lawn people: the same lawn people that do our common areas. Only they aren't my lawn people and they came on to my property, and hacked my beautiful shrubbery to death with what I would assume was a chainsaw. It's the latest picture on my Flickr blog if you want to see how horrible it is now (just the particular photo here). You can see the remnants of their "work" laying on my lawn -- not even the decency to clean it up. I left my management company a terse message today and naturally they didn't return my call, so I left another far less polite message which they returned very quickly. They're really bad at that. Anyway, he had the lawn guy call me. The lawn guy said he wanted to see it before he commented. He did have the decency to sound very apologetic when he called back. He couldn't quite believe what they did or even why. He's agreed to replace them so I won't be too harsh if they do. He was unable to explain why they were in my yard, and even if it wasn't my yard, why they would just hack everything off about 8 inches off the ground.

In other, far less fun news, I will be at the hospital on 3 March 2007 for an Endoscopy to see why my Acid Reflux has gone wild. Actually, the doctor isn't too concerned, but he wants to see what's going on before further discussion ensues. I like this doctor. When I went into his office, I filled out some basic forms but they didn't ask about allergies, previous issues, or anything. I thought it odd. But guess who does it? The actual doctor asks you questions, writes the answers himself, and asks more questions if warranted. Very nice, very friendly. And he asked me about ice skating, but he still says I need the Endoscopy. He's agreed due to my circumstances of not being able to easily miss work to do it on a Saturday morning. I will probably be able to attend the hockey game that evening, though whether or not I will be able talk is up for debate. It's pretty easy, I show up at 7am, they start at 8am, and release me by 10am. (Which means 1pm if you've ever been to a hospital -- they don't work on normal people time). I spoke to Austri and said I shouldn't worry, so I won't.

At work, we're still seriously understaffed. We're looking for people who are already knowledgeable about our products for warehouse work. We're also looking for an operations manager -- that pays pretty well too but I'm not hopeful we'll find anyone qualified enough.