Back to Good

Okay, not really. But my back is starting to feel much better, even with my little set back this weekend. Dr. Baker could tell too, my muscles were much tighter and I was harder to adjust today, but when he did, I felt so much better. So, right now I'm feeling pretty good.

That's what always happens right after an appointment, but the next day I'm all sore, so I shouldn't be so happy right now. Tomorrow's probably going to suck. And I have two more appointments this week - on Wednesday and Thursday. I've been keeping track - that's seven times I've been so far and by the end of the week it'll be nine.

So, imagine my surprise when I got my insurance notices in the mail saying what it cost (holy cow, thank god for insurance) and how much they paid... and what I might still owe. Now, the documents clearly say that they are not a bill, but here's what it looks like:

Initial Visit -

Total Billed Charges: ......................................... $260.00
Minus Member Savings/Discounts arranged by BCBSKC: $97.67
Minus Other Not-Eligible Charges: ............................$0.00
Leaving and Allowable Provider Charge of: ..............$162.33
Minus Plan Payment of: .....................................$132.33
Leaving a Balance you may owe: .............................$30.00


Second Visit (and the next five after that, I assume) -

Total Billed Charges: ....................................... $55.00
Minus Member Savings/Discounts arranged by BCBSKC: $14.09
Minus Other Not-Eligible Charges: .........................$0.00
Leaving and Allowable Provider Charge of: ..............$25.91
Minus Plan Payment of: .......................................$25.91
Leaving a Balance you may owe: ............................$15.00

So... I totally thought that I was going to owe them money because getting better was certainly going to cost me something because I had no other choice but to do it. So, I brought the "not bills" in today and asked them about it and they told me that I do not owe them anything. Even though one of the "not bills" told me I had a $30 copay because Dr. Baker was considered a specialist or he took x-rays or... something.

Regardless of the reason, I still don't owe anything. Thankfully. I thought I was going to owe $120 today and when I told my bank account, it cried.

So, bottom line is I'm feeling pretty good right now and I still haven't given them a dime. It's all coming directly from my insurance... which is magical, and I have no idea how it works considering they think that I may owe money. I just hope that it doesn't come back to bite me later considering that I don't get how it works.

Can you imagine? If I had to pay all of that money right out of pocket because I didn't have insurance, that would be... *does math* $590.00. So, for all you people who nagged me to fix myself 2 and a half years ago when this happened the last time and I had no insurance... I say, "See! I knew I couldn't afford it then. I can't even really afford that now!" I feel pretty vindicated...

Let's see... not much else is new. I'm watching new TV shows, thankful that the writer's strike is over and I'm reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It is full of ANGST. I mean... it's a lot of angst. I get that's exactly how everything felt and was SO important in high school... but isn't that why people don't want to go back and relive high school? I hear that the next books get better, so I may continue with the series. I'm only half way through the first book and not entirely committed yet. I'll let you know how that goes.

Otherwise, I'm just working (currently I'm compiling quarterly stats. It sucks. I have no idea how I got myself into it.), getting my back cracked, and sitting in awe of my insurance "not bills".

Exciting times in the Blackwell household.


End blog.

The Painful Week in Review

Miss me? I've missed you too, Internet. You see, I haven't been able to do much recently except lay on my back and sleep. I totally twisted something out of alignment in my back on Monday afternoon and it took me the rest of the week to recover. There's still a lot of tightness in my lower back and some weakness in my thighs, but I'm finally feeling well enough to walk around and sit at my computer.

I'm seeing a chiropractor and maybe finally fixing my back problems stemming from high school band and carrying around drums and whatnot. I truly believe it's where all my problems originate, which is really sad because I loved it so much. I doubt that I'd change anything going back. Maybe instead we can blame it on all the books I had to carry around in high school.

So, I'm seeing Dr. Kelly Baker whose office is just 5 blocks from my house and he is a great man. Not only because he's helping fix my problems but because he explains what he's doing really well. He also has a super awesome table thingie that raises and lowers so that I don't have to try to get up and down with my hurt back.

He took some x-rays and adjusted me three times this week. I go back on Monday for another. They were the first x-rays that have ever been taken of me, so that was spiffy. He said that I have a curvature in my lower spine and that the lumbar vertebrae 3-5 are twisted, which is probably causing the problem. He said he could make the pain go away in 4-5 treatments and fix the curvature in my spine in 22. I find that kind of amazing.

The good news is that with my insurance, I get 26 visits to the chiropractor a year and there is absolutely no copay. I love my insurance right now.

Sadly, with all the adjustment stuff going on, I was still in a lot of pain and went to an emergent care facility to see if I could get a prescription for anything that would help. They gave me a muscle relaxer and Vicodin. I'm not really a huge fan of Vicodin because it made me all lightheaded and weird feeling the morning after I took it, but the muscle relaxer is my new best friend. The only thing that sucks about it is that it's a sedative and I can't keep my eyes open very long if I'm just laying on my back trying not to hurt anything. I tend to fall asleep for hours.

Therefore, I have slept through several BSG episodes and have to go back and watch them again. Funny how I thought it would be work getting in the way of watching the show - as I haven't been to work all week.

Unfortunately, because this happened at work - even though it wasn't work related and I could have done it absolutely anywhere - my boss filled out an injury report. Which means I had to see another doctor. I can't tell you how mad I was about the whole situation. By Friday I just wanted to be better and having to go all the way into the city to see a doctor when I'd already started to take care of the problem on my own made me angry.

So, I went and saw him. I told the nurse I didn't really need to be there because I was getting my own treatment but she said it was good that I was there, although it was a vague reason about workman's compensation... which I didn't need. So, I went through the motions because I thought I had to, the doctor hardly looked at my chart, and he made me do a couple stretches and bends. Then he said he wanted to give me a painkiller and some muscle relaxers and send me to physical therapy.

I told him that I was seeing a chiropractor and that I already had both a painkiller and muscle relaxers and it was all right there in my chart. He told me that I had arthritis in my lower back. I immediately didn't trust anything else he said. Why you may ask? Because Dr. Baker, the Chiropractor who actually took x-rays of my spine, said that I did not have any arthritis.

So, I flipped out on them and said I didn't want any of their dumb pills (they were still trying to give me prescription strength Advil... which, really? I can take four over the counter ones and have the same effect) or the therapy. They looked at me like I was crazy. Why wouldn't I take free treatment? This was for me. They were just trying to treat me the best that they could. Yeah, well, your solutions aren't good enough for me, I guess.

I wonder if I hadn't told them I was seeing a chiropractor if they would have told me to go to one, or if their answer for everything is physical therapy. Because I can assure you that physical therapy alone would not fix this problem of mine.

Anyway, the whole place has lost my trust and I hope that I never actually do hurt myself on the job and have to go there. I had to hand write a letter absolving the KCPD and Concentra of any liability and say that I was seeking treatment elsewhere to get out of what they wanted to do. They don't even have a release form? Weird.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to the past four days. Laying down, being in pain, and sleeping. Thankfully I had 30 some sick days at work and really good insurance. The emergent care only cost me a $30 copay and the meds were $16 total. But my favorite part is not paying anything when I go to see Dr. Baker. He's my new hero.


End Blog.

Health Insurance

Health insurance is really cool. Remember my eye problem? Well, I finally got my insurance claim from that. I had a $20 copay because I was seeing a specialist, but the total bill came out to $159.60. Just for the exam. So, I'm glad I didn't have to pay that on top of the charge for the antibiotics I had to buy.

That whole medical and dental insurance thing really comes in extra handy. Thank god I have a real job and am no longer in grad school.


End Blog.

Ant-EYE-biotics

My right eye has been bugging me for about a week or so and since Martin Luther King Jr. gave me the day off today, I figured I'd finally go and figure out what was causing the annoyingly excessive tearing and sneezing. Just because my eye was rather swollen this morning and had bothered me all night, doesn't mean that I wasn't planning on having someone look at it today anyway. Although, I totally wasn't.


Doesn't my eye look perfectly healthy and normal to you?

Well, it seems that my optometrist thinks that I have a low grade viral infection in my eye, which was determined by putting a fluorescent dye in my eye and looking at it with a blue light that was similar to the ALS I use at work all the time. Although, he says, it might be accompanied by bacteria as well... and since I'm in discomfort, I might as well have a prescription for some eye drop antibiotics and use them four times a day. Peachy.

I'm not sure if anyone knows this other than my mother (remember that time I had pink eye?), but... I simply can't do eye drops. The whole thing is beyond me. I could stick my finger in my eye if I had to, but dropping liquid from a bottle is just completely beyond my technical abilities. I can't see the drop, so I don't know when it's going to fall, and those drops just hang on the end of the bottle forever, now, don't they? Actually managing to get it inside my eye and not somewhere on my cheek or eyelid is impossible.

Imagine my surprise when I got the first dose in properly on the first try. I hope the rest of the applications go as smoothly, because I really have no faith in my ability to conquer the complexity that is eye drops. Cross your fingers (or your eyes) for me. I can only hope that this will clear up whatever's been going on in there the past few days. Especially since it cost me $45 for the eye exam and antibiotics.


End Blog.

An Open Letter to John Edwards

Dear John Edwards,

Please create another speech or pay someone else to do so (is the writer's strike affecting you, too?). I have seen you speak live three times on television and each time you've said approximately the same thing. And so I ask you to stop speaking about the girl who died because she didn't get a liver transplant and the dude who couldn't get his cleft palate fixed until he was 50 because of lack of health insurance. Also, I know your family worked in the mills. Let's work on talking about something else.

Thanks,
Nikki