My insurance company sent me a form to fill out the other day. Clearly getting an MRI of one's shoulder followed by a series of physical therapy makes them wonder...
"Recent claims indicate that you may have suffered an injury. Was this due to an accident?"
In other words, should I be billing my auto, homeowners or workman's compensation insurance instead of them?
"If so, are you planning on suing anyone?"
It's tempting to fill out the form with the entire story, just so they can have something to put on the Insurance Adjuster's Wall of Fame, or to giggle over at the office Christmas party.....
"Well.....
"Now that you mention it, it WAS due to an accident. You see, I was making a snowman with the church youth group, and my drill bit snapped in half! That made the drill jump, and the broken drill bit drilled right through my thumb joint. Lucky the bit was broken or it would have drilled me to the table!
"I had a couple of rounds if IV antibiotics and a tetanus shot, but when your wrist is immobilized and you have only your fingertips to work with, you can really jack up your shoulder trying to pull your pants up!"
Yeah. I don't think I'll be suing anybody over that.
Besides, our insurance agent assures us that we made the Wall of Fame when our pool caught fire.
DeeDee
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Saturday, February 17, 2018
So They Kinda Had to Fire Me....
The reason I was so in need of Retail Therapy last week was because our computer software at work was, well, doing what it was apparently designed to do. That is, if you believe (as I have strongly come to suspect) that it was designed by the minions of Hell Itself.
About two weeks ago I noticed that when I was clicking on the last of the 5,856 buttons needed to turn this incredibly awkward program into a patient note, the computer was inserting the wrong addresses for the patients' follow up instructions. Since the Headache Hell of 2010 I've only worked in one location, so telling people to see me in 2 weeks in a location 20 miles down the road was nonsensical at best. I assumed that this had been happening since they installed the new program last October, and that I had only just noticed this particular glitch (since there appears to be at least one glitch per day to trip over).
Tech support happened to be on their biweekly visit to our building, so I pointed it out. They looked into it and discovered that I had no less than EIGHT erroneous addresses and phone numbers listed in the system. No problem, they said. We can just take them out, they said.
The next day I started to get messages from pharmacies that my prescriptions couldn't be filled because they didn't have a phone number attached. That seemed so far-fetched that I initially just re-sent a couple dozen scripts, continuing to send new ones as well. Since I send in about 100/day, this began to pile up in a MOST significant way by the second day.
I called tech support. Interestingly enough, the response was along the lines of, "What addresses and phone numbers? We never took anything out?" And as Satan's little helpers continued to work on the problem, patients began calling to complain: "Where's my prescription???"
So by this point, for every prescription I've sent for nearly three days, there are at least three messages: The original request, the bounce-back, and the patient re-call. We have no way of knowing for sure what is missing and what's gone through. They are now shipping all of my refills to the residents and my nurse practioner, effectively doubling their workloads, and the front desk and the nurses are getting KILLED with phone calls and irate patients. I can feel my artieries hardening, because as I am seeing patients I have to remember that I CAN'T SEND ANYTHING TO A PHARMACY. I have to add what I want to their medical history, and then ask someone ELSE to send it. I forgot that detail more than a few times.
This drama went on for a FULL WEEK. Ultimately they had to install some massive new program, field test it, and then let us run it. It worked for everything except controlled medications: No pain medications, no ADHD medications, no anxiety medications, and in some cases, no seizure medications.
The final fix as I understand it involved suspending all my priveledges and then reinstating them.
A thought hit me as I arrived home on Friday evening, and I sent this text to my office manager: "Would you call human resources on Monday and just make sure I'm still on the payroll?"
One full week after everything was working again, we are still having patients call in or show up to see what the heck had happened to medications that they thought had gone to pharmacies, some insisting that they wouldn't leave the building until they knew for sure that the prescription was actually sent in.
Holy Lord.
DeeDee
About two weeks ago I noticed that when I was clicking on the last of the 5,856 buttons needed to turn this incredibly awkward program into a patient note, the computer was inserting the wrong addresses for the patients' follow up instructions. Since the Headache Hell of 2010 I've only worked in one location, so telling people to see me in 2 weeks in a location 20 miles down the road was nonsensical at best. I assumed that this had been happening since they installed the new program last October, and that I had only just noticed this particular glitch (since there appears to be at least one glitch per day to trip over).
Tech support happened to be on their biweekly visit to our building, so I pointed it out. They looked into it and discovered that I had no less than EIGHT erroneous addresses and phone numbers listed in the system. No problem, they said. We can just take them out, they said.
The next day I started to get messages from pharmacies that my prescriptions couldn't be filled because they didn't have a phone number attached. That seemed so far-fetched that I initially just re-sent a couple dozen scripts, continuing to send new ones as well. Since I send in about 100/day, this began to pile up in a MOST significant way by the second day.
I called tech support. Interestingly enough, the response was along the lines of, "What addresses and phone numbers? We never took anything out?" And as Satan's little helpers continued to work on the problem, patients began calling to complain: "Where's my prescription???"
So by this point, for every prescription I've sent for nearly three days, there are at least three messages: The original request, the bounce-back, and the patient re-call. We have no way of knowing for sure what is missing and what's gone through. They are now shipping all of my refills to the residents and my nurse practioner, effectively doubling their workloads, and the front desk and the nurses are getting KILLED with phone calls and irate patients. I can feel my artieries hardening, because as I am seeing patients I have to remember that I CAN'T SEND ANYTHING TO A PHARMACY. I have to add what I want to their medical history, and then ask someone ELSE to send it. I forgot that detail more than a few times.
This drama went on for a FULL WEEK. Ultimately they had to install some massive new program, field test it, and then let us run it. It worked for everything except controlled medications: No pain medications, no ADHD medications, no anxiety medications, and in some cases, no seizure medications.
The final fix as I understand it involved suspending all my priveledges and then reinstating them.
A thought hit me as I arrived home on Friday evening, and I sent this text to my office manager: "Would you call human resources on Monday and just make sure I'm still on the payroll?"
One full week after everything was working again, we are still having patients call in or show up to see what the heck had happened to medications that they thought had gone to pharmacies, some insisting that they wouldn't leave the building until they knew for sure that the prescription was actually sent in.
Holy Lord.
DeeDee
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Retail Therapy.....
I walked the dogs at 8 this morning, luxuriously late, after sleeping until almost 7. This is so far past my usual wake up time that I missed my first two hours of 250 steps on my FitBit.
I was at Aldi by 9, Walmart by 9:35, and my hairdresser by 10 on the dot, which is when my day sort of organically devolved into a me-fest.
I went from there to the Farmer's Market, oddly unaccompanied, and bought the only thing I'd really specifically come for: The amazing coffee. Oh, I got some carrots and stuff to justify my time there, and enjoyed the walk, and....
OhMyGoodness. Is that a MASSAGE chair?? A dollar a minute?? Let me see how much I have with me LOL. I limited myself to 10 minutes but it was time well spent to unkink the back of my neck after my ice fall(s) the other day (did I not mention that? I think I won't if I didn't.) Then I got to thinking. If I just got my hair done, it's probably been a while since my last pedi....
Off to the mall I go. My pedicurist is busy, and asks if I can come back in half an hour. Well, sure, why not, I haven't walked much today. I head off with the mall-walkers until I stumble over a sale at one of the few stores I really love but usually don't indulge in. I find work pants that fit beautifully, and some shirts, and...HolyCOW a half hour goes fast. I book it back to the pedi place and get to soak my toes while sitting in a massage chair for a delightful extra 20 minutes while my lady finishes up her previous customer.
All in all it was a lovely morning. Now I have finished sledding and building snowmen with the grandkids while their mom gets the laundry done, and then, personal homemade pizzas.
Considering how work has been for the past two weeks, it's been a very restorative day.
DeeDee
I was at Aldi by 9, Walmart by 9:35, and my hairdresser by 10 on the dot, which is when my day sort of organically devolved into a me-fest.
I went from there to the Farmer's Market, oddly unaccompanied, and bought the only thing I'd really specifically come for: The amazing coffee. Oh, I got some carrots and stuff to justify my time there, and enjoyed the walk, and....
OhMyGoodness. Is that a MASSAGE chair?? A dollar a minute?? Let me see how much I have with me LOL. I limited myself to 10 minutes but it was time well spent to unkink the back of my neck after my ice fall(s) the other day (did I not mention that? I think I won't if I didn't.) Then I got to thinking. If I just got my hair done, it's probably been a while since my last pedi....
Off to the mall I go. My pedicurist is busy, and asks if I can come back in half an hour. Well, sure, why not, I haven't walked much today. I head off with the mall-walkers until I stumble over a sale at one of the few stores I really love but usually don't indulge in. I find work pants that fit beautifully, and some shirts, and...HolyCOW a half hour goes fast. I book it back to the pedi place and get to soak my toes while sitting in a massage chair for a delightful extra 20 minutes while my lady finishes up her previous customer.
All in all it was a lovely morning. Now I have finished sledding and building snowmen with the grandkids while their mom gets the laundry done, and then, personal homemade pizzas.
Considering how work has been for the past two weeks, it's been a very restorative day.
DeeDee
Sunday, February 4, 2018
On Eagles and Wings....
Super Bowl Sunday. AND the anniversary of the transplant. Six years.
I watched Babygirl fill her pill sorters last night, just part of our weekly routine now. "Is iron once or twice a day?" Geeze, girl! get it straight! Twice, and multivitamins, once.
It IS confusing. The true majority of her medications at this point are "nutraceuticals." Supplements to help support her kidney function, fill in nutritional gaps, and decrease (theoretically) headache frequency. And since these aren't prescriptions, they aren't labeled as to daily dose. They're expensive, too, but I've discovered I can get about a years' worth on Amazon Prime for the same as it would cost at Walmart for about 4 months, so...
It's routine. Normal. Keeping an eye out for food recalls that could be dangerous to her. Being vigilant about preparing food at home, and kitchen cleanliness. Expecting to spend $200 or more every time we walk into the pharmacy. It is what it is. And it is, overall, good.
Her last kidney studies were excellent, her anemia is minimal, but there is one nagging little study that indicates that something in the background isn't working quite as it should be. They're trying to mend it with Vitamin D (yes, really. It does matter - keep your levels UP.).
But today will be for relaxing. We will watch the game, rooting for the Eagles (hey! We spend a LOT of time in Philly! If my home-town Bills don't get there, it's next-best, okay?), and eating chicken wings (no Blue Cheese for Babygirl - there's mold on that cheese so she can NEVER have it) and other unhealthy treats and playing out new family game: "Donner Dinner Party."
It's as good as it gets. I'm intensely grateful.
DeeDee
I watched Babygirl fill her pill sorters last night, just part of our weekly routine now. "Is iron once or twice a day?" Geeze, girl! get it straight! Twice, and multivitamins, once.
It IS confusing. The true majority of her medications at this point are "nutraceuticals." Supplements to help support her kidney function, fill in nutritional gaps, and decrease (theoretically) headache frequency. And since these aren't prescriptions, they aren't labeled as to daily dose. They're expensive, too, but I've discovered I can get about a years' worth on Amazon Prime for the same as it would cost at Walmart for about 4 months, so...
It's routine. Normal. Keeping an eye out for food recalls that could be dangerous to her. Being vigilant about preparing food at home, and kitchen cleanliness. Expecting to spend $200 or more every time we walk into the pharmacy. It is what it is. And it is, overall, good.
Her last kidney studies were excellent, her anemia is minimal, but there is one nagging little study that indicates that something in the background isn't working quite as it should be. They're trying to mend it with Vitamin D (yes, really. It does matter - keep your levels UP.).
But today will be for relaxing. We will watch the game, rooting for the Eagles (hey! We spend a LOT of time in Philly! If my home-town Bills don't get there, it's next-best, okay?), and eating chicken wings (no Blue Cheese for Babygirl - there's mold on that cheese so she can NEVER have it) and other unhealthy treats and playing out new family game: "Donner Dinner Party."
It's as good as it gets. I'm intensely grateful.
DeeDee
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Six Long Years.....
When we got the call to hit the road and run to Philly for Babygirl's kidney transplant, it was a massive three-ring-circus event. I was still packed from the false alarm earlier in the week, but Hubby was not. Babygirl had nothing ready. The car had no gas. And Babygirl herself was actually AT SCHOOL.
But however chaotic, tense, and nauseatingly hopeful our morning was, her donor's family was having the utter opposite: Finishing a long night with no remaining hope; and deciding to send what little hope they had out into the wider world to attempt to bring meaning to a loss so monumentous as to defy all logic and language.
How would I feel, now, six years after the loss of a child, knowing that parts of him were still out there somewhere, alive - and sustaining life?
I'm sure that there is some blessing there. But to me it seems so small a thing against the loss.
Keep Jorge's family in your prayers.
DeeDee
But however chaotic, tense, and nauseatingly hopeful our morning was, her donor's family was having the utter opposite: Finishing a long night with no remaining hope; and deciding to send what little hope they had out into the wider world to attempt to bring meaning to a loss so monumentous as to defy all logic and language.
How would I feel, now, six years after the loss of a child, knowing that parts of him were still out there somewhere, alive - and sustaining life?
I'm sure that there is some blessing there. But to me it seems so small a thing against the loss.
Keep Jorge's family in your prayers.
DeeDee
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Endless Artificial Energy...
Tuesday evening the right side of my head began 'tweaking.' It wasn't really a typical headache thing, exactly, just a pinging pain above and behind my ear that came and went, sometimes with movement, sometimes for no reason. It woke me up a handful of times before midnight. Migraine pills didn't help. Hydrocodone knocked me out between 'pings' but I didn't sleep solid.
I worked Wednesday, and it seemed okay, or at least not intrusive. Wednesday evening? More of the same. By the time I was done with work on Thursday I was exhausted, and the 'pinging' started as soon as I got home. I'm not a crier, but I cried, which scared my hubby a bit. I gave up on the pills and tried a glass of white wine (reds can make it worse). I slept a bit at first, but my Fitbit testifies to a bad night.
I got up Friday morning already exhausted, took the dogs for a walk and got ready to go to Physical Therapy (oh, that? My left shoulder's a bit torn up for no apparent reason. I'm hoping PT will help me dodge the surgery bullet) when some bastard hit the right side of my head with a baseball bat. (If I EVER catch that invisible so-and-so....!)
I took three Tylenol and some sumatriptan, and logged on to the Emergency Room's pre-registration site. I figured I'd have more than enough time to do my PT before they'd be able to see me. (I was right. I arrived 20 minutes late and still waited a couple of hours. Of course, there were three codes called while I was there. I have some kind of bad ER karma.)
IV Benadryl, Reglan, and 2 liters of saline. Percocet and prednisone. I came home, took more sumatriptan and another hydrocodone and passed out on the couch for about 6 hours, woke up for about 4 hours, took more prednisone and Benadryl and went to bed.
This morning I awoke at 5:30 AM with a fully functioning brain for the first time in what felt like ages. I walked the dogs three miles. We went to the farmer's market and the grocery store. I've done 5 loads of laundry and 2 loads in the dishwasher. Two bathrooms are toothbrush-to-the-grout clean. The rest of the house is dusted and mopped. Babygirl and I made halupki for the first time. I hit 10,000 steps on my Fitbit for the first time this year by 3 PM. Oh, and I read a book.
And we haven't eaten dinner yet.
I freaking love prednisone. It's almost worth the inevitable crash.
DeeDee
I worked Wednesday, and it seemed okay, or at least not intrusive. Wednesday evening? More of the same. By the time I was done with work on Thursday I was exhausted, and the 'pinging' started as soon as I got home. I'm not a crier, but I cried, which scared my hubby a bit. I gave up on the pills and tried a glass of white wine (reds can make it worse). I slept a bit at first, but my Fitbit testifies to a bad night.
I got up Friday morning already exhausted, took the dogs for a walk and got ready to go to Physical Therapy (oh, that? My left shoulder's a bit torn up for no apparent reason. I'm hoping PT will help me dodge the surgery bullet) when some bastard hit the right side of my head with a baseball bat. (If I EVER catch that invisible so-and-so....!)
I took three Tylenol and some sumatriptan, and logged on to the Emergency Room's pre-registration site. I figured I'd have more than enough time to do my PT before they'd be able to see me. (I was right. I arrived 20 minutes late and still waited a couple of hours. Of course, there were three codes called while I was there. I have some kind of bad ER karma.)
IV Benadryl, Reglan, and 2 liters of saline. Percocet and prednisone. I came home, took more sumatriptan and another hydrocodone and passed out on the couch for about 6 hours, woke up for about 4 hours, took more prednisone and Benadryl and went to bed.
This morning I awoke at 5:30 AM with a fully functioning brain for the first time in what felt like ages. I walked the dogs three miles. We went to the farmer's market and the grocery store. I've done 5 loads of laundry and 2 loads in the dishwasher. Two bathrooms are toothbrush-to-the-grout clean. The rest of the house is dusted and mopped. Babygirl and I made halupki for the first time. I hit 10,000 steps on my Fitbit for the first time this year by 3 PM. Oh, and I read a book.
And we haven't eaten dinner yet.
I freaking love prednisone. It's almost worth the inevitable crash.
DeeDee
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Still Afraid After All These Years.....
Babygirl and I are sitting in the waiting room in CHOP Nephrology. We got here at 7:30 with the goal of being the first patients in the clinic, hopefully with the outcome of being the first patients OUT of the clinic. Our appointment was originally scheduled for yesterday, but we got a call a couple of weeks ago telling us that the clinic was closed for Martin Luther King Jr day. Could we come in a day later?
Well. I already had taken off from work for Monday and Tuesday so that I could get her to Nephrology on Monday and Neurology on Tuesday. And we'd been lucky enough to snag a 10 AM appointment with Neurology so we'd be able to start home before noon. So, what's the problem?
Nephrology clinic is a morining clinic, first-come-first-served, and they've just dumped two days' worth of kids into one days' worth of clinic. It's gonna be a madhouse.
And Neurology is in another city, 24 miles away, and if we get the best possible timing we will be negotiating the larger of those two cities at peak rush hour.
Just shoot me.
But it's either that or travel 400 miles twice in one week in the month of January, and, lordy, given our today-it's-spring and yesterday-we-got-8"-of-unpredicted-snow type weather, THAT is something devoutly to be avoided.
So here we are, gassed up and ready to run like lunatics to the parking garage as soon as they turn us loose.
Packing for these trips still tells me something about my interior world.
It's been more than 4 years since the last time Babygirls was hospitalized. It's nearly SIX years since the transplant. It's approaching 7 years since the last time I believed I had gotten my sickest kids through their worst health crises, and that we were all good.
I packed, for a simple overnight: Two pairs of jammie pants, two full changes of clothing, a spare sports bra, a pair of sandals (because you need something quick to put on your feet if you're running for coffee at 2 AM in the hospital.....). Wait. Whoa.
We did Babygirl's blood work LAST WEEK here at home, and I'm assuming that if there was a crisis brewing somebody would have called us and made us come in.
But I can't overcome it: The superstitious belief that if I am Just Prepared Enough that everything will be okay, that Babygirl herself will be Okay, when I know that ship sailed and sank in April of 2011.
I really need to grow up. Babygirl certainly has.
DeeDee
Well. I already had taken off from work for Monday and Tuesday so that I could get her to Nephrology on Monday and Neurology on Tuesday. And we'd been lucky enough to snag a 10 AM appointment with Neurology so we'd be able to start home before noon. So, what's the problem?
Nephrology clinic is a morining clinic, first-come-first-served, and they've just dumped two days' worth of kids into one days' worth of clinic. It's gonna be a madhouse.
And Neurology is in another city, 24 miles away, and if we get the best possible timing we will be negotiating the larger of those two cities at peak rush hour.
Just shoot me.
But it's either that or travel 400 miles twice in one week in the month of January, and, lordy, given our today-it's-spring and yesterday-we-got-8"-of-unpredicted-snow type weather, THAT is something devoutly to be avoided.
So here we are, gassed up and ready to run like lunatics to the parking garage as soon as they turn us loose.
Packing for these trips still tells me something about my interior world.
It's been more than 4 years since the last time Babygirls was hospitalized. It's nearly SIX years since the transplant. It's approaching 7 years since the last time I believed I had gotten my sickest kids through their worst health crises, and that we were all good.
I packed, for a simple overnight: Two pairs of jammie pants, two full changes of clothing, a spare sports bra, a pair of sandals (because you need something quick to put on your feet if you're running for coffee at 2 AM in the hospital.....). Wait. Whoa.
We did Babygirl's blood work LAST WEEK here at home, and I'm assuming that if there was a crisis brewing somebody would have called us and made us come in.
But I can't overcome it: The superstitious belief that if I am Just Prepared Enough that everything will be okay, that Babygirl herself will be Okay, when I know that ship sailed and sank in April of 2011.
I really need to grow up. Babygirl certainly has.
DeeDee
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