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| More drama on the disabled parking front today. Last week when I took Peo to her music class, as I pulled into the tiny lot of the music school, there was a great big truck in the middle, blocking everyone from getting around. It's a one-way driveway around, so it was keeping people from leaving at the end of the previous class, and it was completely blocking off all three disabled spots. I stuck my head out the window and shouted in case there was a driver there to hear me. There wasn't but another parent with a kid in the same class as Peo recognized me and knew about my walking problem, so she went and got the school's director. Long story short, the director took care of the problem, I was able to park, I spoke politely but firmly about the rights of the disabled versus the convenience of the production company doing the loading into the truck, and the director agreed and was apologetic. So today when I got there, two of the three disabled spots were taken, which was unusual. There was an SUV with a disabled plate and I've seen that before, but there was also a sedan without a disabled plate. As I parked I noticed it didn't have a hanging placard up either, and there was a woman sitting in there reading. I figured she's probably come to pick up her kid and figures she'll "only be there a few minutes" and therefore it's okay. As I got Peo out of our car, a man came up to the sedan with a wheeled table-trolley thing and started unloading things out of the sedan's trunk. I asked them if they had a disabled parking pass. The man said, "No, but I work here." I said, "Well that doesn't matter. It's not an unloading spot, it's a disabled spot." The woman opened the car door and said, "Oh, it's okay, I totally understand because my mom is an amputee. We're just here for a few minutes." I said, "Well then you should know that the spot is reserved for actual disabled people, not for unloading." She showed me that her foot was in a brace and said, "Oh believe me, I really do understand." I said, "Okay, then hang your disabled pass so there's no confusion." She said, "Well I don't have one." I said, "Then you can't park there." The guy repeated that he worked there and was just unloading some stuff for a few minutes. I sighed and said, "You have until I get into the lobby where I can sit down and get my cell phone out. Then I'm calling the police." Then the guy started getting uppity and telling me more about his right to be there, so I said over him, "Look, I'm getting really sick of constantly having to battle assholes who think they have the right to use these spots when they don't!" He flips out with, "WHOA WHOA WHOA! You can't talk like that!" I said, "Sure I can!" He points to Peo and says, "Not in front of her you can't!" I said, "I can swear in front of my own kid if I want to, and besides, she's smart enough to know that you're not supposed to be parking here!" Peo said in a very calm and eerily neutral tone, "Yeah." I repeated my warning about calling the police and started heading for the lobby. The guy said something else about working there so I shouted back, "Well then I'll go talk to your boss about it." As we were approaching the lobby, Peo said, "They're really really wrong. They can't park there." I told her she was right. Then she said, "That's bad behaviour. They're doing bad behaviour. That's not nice." I agreed again. As I went into the lobby, I could hear them peeling out of the lot fast enough to scatter gravel. Nice, given the number of kids in that lot at any given time! So I went right up to the desk and as soon as I started ranting about it, the director came out. We had a lengthy conversation about it including identifying the employee involved. She was extremely apologetic and understanding, even offering at one point to reimburse us the entire cost of Peo's class either for the one that's almost done or the one I've already signed her up for in January. I said I appreciated that but didn't want any money, that we had actually separately donated more than the cost of a class so that others without money could ensure their kids got to go to classes as well (because the school has a sliding scale for those who qualify). Of course, as soon as she realized I was donating beyond the class cost the apologies got bigger and more emphatic, which wasn't what I was after but now that I think about it, when I was doing non-profit work I'd have worried more about pleasing a donor too. Anyway, I said the point wasn't that I was personally inconvenienced either time, that my placard only has a month left on it so for the January class, I'll be parking in the back lot and walking around the long way as I did before my surgery. I reiterated what I'd said the previous week about it being less of an issue for me with a cane than for someone permanently in a wheelchair (last week I mentioned how I could cross the grass now to avoid the furniture being loaded on the truck, but that a month before I could not have walked on grass with just the cane). I said it was about wider disabled rights and ADA requirements, and that the staff need better education on why these are important issues of barriers and access. I said someone with a wheelchair doesn't have the option to step around stuff in the way or park in the unpaved back lot. She agreed and apologized more and promised to take care of it. So I took Peo back over to the kid area, read her part of a story, then took her to her class. When I came back into the lobby to knit and wait during her class, I saw the director's door closed, but through the window I could see the jerk employee standing in a shoulder-slumped kind of way in front of her desk, so I'm sure he was getting told. I must say, while I'd find it annoying if anyone did this sort of thing and I'm glad the employee got told off, the excuses of having an amputee mother and a foot brace really pissed me off more than anything else. It's like those people who think it's okay to say something racist because they've got a black friend. If you or someone you know is in the same situation, shouldn't you know BETTER? I had a leg brace much bigger than that woman's, and that whole time I parked in the back lot because I didn't have a disabled pass and therefore had no right to be parked in a disabled spot. Plus, her amputee mother was clearly not there, so even if she had a placard for her mother (which apparently she did not or I'm sure she would have whipped it out), she still had no right to be in that spot today. Even if her mother WAS there, if the mother doesn't have a plate or placard, then she too has no right to park in the spot. That's like saying that because someone turns 16 and could have a driver's license, it's okay for them to drive without one. Nope! It doesn't matter what your condition is or the condition of your passengers: you either have a pass or you don't, and if you don't, either get one or don't park in the disabled spot. It's usually free or very cheap to do it; in Austin it's free if you're permanently disabled, $5 for six months if you're temporarily disabled. So anyone who can afford to put gas in a car here can bloody well afford to get the pass. I'm also amused/irritated that apparently it's a much bigger crime to swear in front of my own kid than it is to actually break the law. Sheesh. Also, for a supposedly liberal town, Austin is far and away the worst city in which I've ever lived in terms of this attitude towards disabled parking. I'm increasingly appalled at the total lack of shame. It's pathetic that people in Las Vegas - a town whose slogan emphasizes a lack of personal responsibility - had far, far, far fewer people violating those reserved spaces than Austin. And for the record, over the last week or so I've been using them less myself at places like the library or other short-walk situations where there are wide spots where I'm unlikely to be boxed in. If I don't have the need, I don't use it despite having the legal right to do so. No more excuses, please. | ||||||
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Blatherings
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November 6th, 2009
September 18th, 2009
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| More unassisted steps today, although a bit bumpier than yesterday. One set was by accident...I was chasing Peo and had the cane in my hand and forgot to use it for a moment. But that one hurt. Going around curves/corners still hurts a LOT if I try to do it unassisted. And still a total no-go while barefoot. However, I tried going up the stairs on foot for the first time since the surgery, and was able to. Leaned on the cane and the railing pretty heavily, but I could do it. That's nice, because it's been sucking to crawl up there. Contrast that to this morning, when everything was so locked up (including my hips and my left knee) that it took me for-bloody-ever to get down the stairs. The key is definitely to keep the foot in a particular stretched position while sitting. Within about 3 minutes of it not being in that position, it locks up and I need to start from painful scratch again. That position is easy to do here at the desk chair, but impossible on the couch or on my living room chair. So I have to be careful not to cane over to those places and then be out of reach of crutches, because only a few minutes in those seats and I need the crutches again. | ||||||
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September 17th, 2009
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| Woot, I just walked 5 steps unassisted, and at a reasonable pace without bumping/hopping along. The sixth one hurt, though, so then I leaned on my cane. It seems like these days when the foot and ankle are really warmed up with tons of fresh stretching, I can almost walk around (in shoes...barefoot is still not so good). But it stiffens up in less than the time to eat a meal, and the stretching required to warm up can take as much as 15 minutes or more. So it's not like I can just get up and go. But at least this is progress... | ||||||
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September 11th, 2009
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| I am behind on several topics. Here is a quick-as-possible update: 1) On the Tidy-vs-TV battle, we won, but needed reinforcements in the form of grandparental units. They were under strict instructions not to actually pick stuff up for Peo (and oh, did she try to ply them every way possible!) but were available to keep her company and help count items. The room got clean. Unfortunately, one of the motivators was to be able to go to my cake meeting that night...and I screwed up because the meeting was the following week. Oops. But I admitted my error and we made good by Peo by going out for Chinese food instead, where she happily chattered the words/phrases she knows in Mandarin. 2) Coolest/funniest/deepest thing Peo has said recently: she wants desperately to visit Kai-Lan and has been convinced that she has to go to CartoonLand to do so, and declared to Corran that if she goes to CartoonLand and meets Kai-Lan and Kai-Lan draws a picture of her, then it will be a picture of Reality. 3) With tons and tons of the right stretching in advance, I can now take short, stompy, unassisted steps. As in, not safe to be carrying a pot of boiling water or anything, but could probably escape a fire in the house. And the podiatrist told me to get a cane to try to get off the crutches. So I did (for $25 all they had were patterned ones and I didn't feel like spending extra for wood so I have an old-lady pattern but the least old-ladyish they had), and I've been using it when the ankle is nice and warmed up from stretching. However, I have to be careful to not leave myself abandoned with crutches out of reach, because after about 10 minutes of not-stretching, the whole thing locks up again and the cane is insufficient. Podiatrist says it's acute tendinitis and not the bones/hardware/surgery. So I've got more appointments with physical therapy now, and they can now do other stuff since they know it's not hardware in the way, so we'll see how it goes. 4) Taught the two cake classes last week. The Mensa one ended up with only two adults and two kids...and the kids were periodically unsupervised and made a mess of my gel colours. They grabbed them and were jamming my brushes into them before I even noticed (one of the brushes is still soaking to get the colour out from under the metal bit, grrr), since I was trying to teach the adults. Plus, I couldn't easily cross the room to get them back. So I asked very seriously for them to go easy and not mix the colours, but they did. Gahhhhh. The adults were very pleasant and the organizer very gracious and all of that, but I think I have a new rule that under no circumstances will I ever teach a class again that uses MY equipment unless there's a nobody-under-18 rule. Unfair, because I know of kids in their early teens who are highly responsible and quite talented cake decorators, but that's the last time I'm risking my stuff on someone else's kids. Plus I'm not sure how valuable my time was teaching two adults who thanked me but admitted they'd probably never try any of it themselves. I'd only do a class like that again if it had pre-enrollment, as opposed to this, which was part of a convention with a show-up-if-you-wanna style. Four other women came in near the end but really, I'm not sure how much they could have learned doing that. The cake club class went much better and I've received lovely positive feedback, so I'd happily do that again any time they want me. But no more casual volunteering for non-cakies, I think. 5) Corran's parents were here and are now on their way home (may have landed by now, not sure, US to Sydney flights are scary-long), and were very nice Cinderellas for us the whole time, helping cut into the backlog of cleaning that had piled up since my surgery. On the day they arrived, Peo suggested they go back home immediately, but then of course when they left she was upset. Today she roleplayed it out with toys, which seemed to help. 6) Been watching the Canadian show "Intelligence" on DVD via the library and it's very interesting...but I wish Matt Frewer would stop muttering all the damned time, especially since there's no closed captioning or subtitles. Grrrr. All the US DVDs I get have at least the closed captions...which may even be a requirement these days? Pain in the ass how many UK/Canadian ones don't. I have a hearing problem and men's voices turn to mud when there's low-note background music, which this show has in spades. So I have to listen to it LOUD or I miss half of what's being said, and then inevitably the next scene has loud music so it's a huge noise. Pain in the ass. We also finally got Watchmen from the library queue and Frewer was in that too, as was another guy from Intelligence. And two weeks ago I ended up seeing Felicia Day in a ridiculous amount of things all within a few days...rewatched Dr. Horrible, there was the video about dating the avatar, and there was an episode of Monk (which I'm also doing by library DVD) as well. And something else, but I forget. Am I being celebrity-stalked through my TV or am I just a pattern-finding ape? Hmmmm... Anyway, off to finish Intelligence so it can go back to the library today before it's overdue, and to work on the last bits of the Kai-Lan dolls (one for Peo, one for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nightxade's daughter) and then finish up the Biscuit Brothers stuff that has been taking for-bloody-ever. | ||||||
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August 25th, 2009
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| Something interesting has just happened for the second time since I've had the disabled parking pass. In both cases, I was returning to my vehicle in a disabled spot with the pass hanging in the window. In both cases, someone else was parked in the disabled spot next to me, but had neither a pass nor plate...at least, not on display. And in both cases, when I looked at the windshield and saw no pass and the person in the vehicle saw me noticing that, they were quick to offer me random assistance. The first time was a few months ago while I was still in the wheelchair. I was lagging behind Corran and Peo, so he was already loading her into the car when I came along. As I passed a van in which people were eating ice cream (conveniently right outside the ice cream parlour in an otherwise crowded but not full parking lot) and looked and noticed that there was no pass/plate on display, one of the two got out and asked me if I needed help going anywhere. I politely said, "No thank you," and when it was evident that Corran was then about to help me get into the car, they grinned nervously and got back into their van. Just now, at the library, I was getting back in the car when another van pulled into the spot beside me. A woman got out, leaving the van on, and started to walk past me quickly. I glanced behind me (mostly because I always pay careful attention when a vehicle is idling because you never know when it's going to move, and when Peo is with me this is a big-time dangerous thing so it's instinctive at this point even though Peo wasn't there), and noticed that there was no pass hanging in the window. I had already noticed there was no disabled plate because I'd been keeping an eye on the moving vehicle as I was getting to my car anyway. The woman saw me look back, kept walking for a moment, then ran back to me as I was getting into the driver's seat and asked if I needed help with my crutches, which were leaning on my open door. Again, I thanked her politely but said no. She looked really nervous, and ran into the library, van still on. It took me a couple of minutes to get everything together to leave and she was still in there. I even had to wait for a bit to leave the lot because of a school bus and line of cars behind it, and she was still in the library. Now, of course, it's entirely possible that in both instances, people were just being nice. Maybe these are folks who always offer help. There have been other random strangers who have offered to help me in various ways, like rushing ahead to open doors for me and stuff like that. Heck, I do that for people pushing strollers or in wheelchairs/handi-carts all the time. So it's possible both people were just nice. But the thing that makes me question it is this: most people offering to help either just go ahead and open the door or do it with this air of concern for my apparent fragility. I'm not being critical of that, although I do know some disabled people who get irked by it. It's a kind of, "that looks un-fun/I hope they don't get hurt/I should offer help" sort of vibe. It's an offer, but not desperate and certainly not nervous. The two people in the disabled spots seemed both desperate and nervous. It's also possible that both had a disabled pass and just didn't have it hanging. Unlikely, since most people legitimately using any special service generally want it known that they have a good reason for doing so, but it's possible. Of course, the lady today was clearly not disabled and no disabled person got out of the car with her... Unlikely excuses aside, I'm pretty sure in both cases these people offered help either out of guilt or in the hopes that I wouldn't call the cops on them or both. And to an extent, the latter works, since if I had a cell phone with enough battery power to make the call and time to bother, I would consider calling the police (I've done it before), but I have to admit that their offer of help would make me feel slightly more dickish for ratting them out. But only slightly. Folks, please don't use disabled spots as quick'n'easy entry spots. That's not what they're for. Oh, I know, parking lots can get crowded and it's hot outside and it's no fun walking across black pavement. And I'm sure you're just going to be a minute, honest. But those spots ARE NOT FOR YOU. Let me make this clear: the reason people need those spots is often much less about being close to the door and much more about being able to open a door wide to load/unload themselves. That's why they usually have a lined-out bit beside them. An otherwise close spot isn't going to cut it. Every day that I go to physical therapy, I pass up spots right in front of their door because they are regular spots, and I can't guarantee that a giant SUV won't park beside me while I'm in there and make it so I can't open my door all the way. I crutch either three or four stores down on that strip mall to use one of the disabled spots. And even when those are taken, I park way up the aisle where I can get a spot beside an island so I can absolutely be sure to get my door open all the way. Disabled spots aren't about convenience; they're how people with assistive equipment can get in and out of their car. If I had to park in a regular spot that had an open spot on my left and someone else parked there, I'd need to find someone else to back my car out for me just so I could get in it. I could probably get someone from the physical therapy office to do that, but what about at a store? Less likely and way more hassle. And then the entire aisle would be blocked while that person got out and I got in. I used to drive my boss' van that had disabled plates (heck, a full wheelchair loading ramp too). When I had her disabled son with me and he needed to get in/out, we used a disabled spot. But when she was sending me on an errand and her son was not with me, I NEVER used the disabled spots. And right now when Corran has my pass still in his car but I'm not there, he doesn't use it. Hell, last week when all three of us were on the way home and he needed to pop into the store to grab dinner while Peo and I waited in the car, even then we didn't park in the disabled spot, because it's morally disgusting to use the spot unless currently needed by someone with an actual problem! So please, if you ever use disabled spots when you have no right to do so, quit it. There are no excuses. I get that a full parking lot is a pain in the ass. I've had to cross both roasting and snow-filled lots during holiday shopping. I've had to carry a screaming kid or heavy stuff across the lot. I too have had to rush around fighting for a spot only to drive past that row of mostly empty disabled spots. Any excuse is something I've faced too, that we all face, but I've never, ever, ever misused a disabled spot. If you have, get yourself some good karma back by stopping and by spreading the word. PS: And for those like the lady today who leave their cars idling: quit that too. It's wasteful and polluting. If you're coming back fast enough that you think it's okay to idle, then you're coming back fast enough that your car really truly will not turn into an oven or freezer (and I've lived in Ottawa and Las Vegas so believe me, I get both concepts). And if you leave your car idling and it gets stolen, you totally deserve that. | ||||||
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| We've had no Internet for the last 48 hours. It just got repaired. Cable guy says it looks like a lightning problem again, but this time we didn't even have a storm right over us anywhere near the time it went out. So apparently a storm within driving distance can knock this thing out. Wheeeee.... So I'm behind in all emails etc, and don't expect me to be able to catch up any time soon. In other fun news, yesterday the physical therapist pretty much concluded that I'm not going to be walking any time soon. While the overall flexibility and motion of the foot/ankle has improved with the therapy, as has its ability to bear weight, there's a particular motion necessary to walking that has had almost zero improvement despite tons of work of all kinds. He and his colleague now think that it's either all so tight in there that it's going to take months and months of severe therapy to loosen it up, or it's the hardware that was put in holding it in place. Either way, I can't walk and won't be for some time. We'll have to wait until next week's appointment with the podiatrist to see his opinion on it. I have this nasty suspicion that, as I said a couple of months ago, it's going to turn out that I need the hardware removed, which is another surgery. Fun. Oh, and it better bloody well come in this calendar year because I do not want to have to pay another $1500 deductible on this foot! | ||||||
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July 28th, 2009
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| Holy crap on a stick, US health care is frickin' complicated and messy! So my podiatrist said I can start putting pressure on the foot and re-learning to walk without cast, boot, bandage, etc. This means actual showering, yay! That is, once it doesn't HURT LIKE CRAZY to put pressure on it. So he says continue the pool therapy and he wrote a prescription for physical therapy. And if all goes well, I may even be able to drive myself to it, which will make life easier for Corran. But he wrote the prescription on a form for St. David's, which owns the hospital where I had the surgery, so you'd think they'd be in-network. Nope. Looks like SOME parts of St. David's are and most aren't. Can't say I'm sad entirely, since I was not pleased with how long and how much effort it took to get South Austin Hospital (a St. David's hospital) to refund the $837.37 portion of the deductible I paid to them since insurance paid the podiatrist's assistant first even though the hospital billed first so my portion actually needs to go to the assistant (but the podiatrist office today said not to pay them yet because they're still working out other billing issues with the insurance, like the part where the assistant shouldn't get the primary amount but the assistant amount instead). It took multiple calls with a horrid computerized phone system that continually failed to find me in the system, and then would dump me into a queue for a human that would periodically route to voicemail and then nobody would frickin' call back except one time they finally did to say the refund was going through, but two weeks later it still hadn't so then I had to call again and get a human who said it hadn't gone through (duh, I know) and he couldn't make it go through so then I had to talk to a supervisor but she was "in a meeting" so I had to leave voicemail for her threatening to send Amex after them for a chargeback and two days later she bothered to do it. *pant*pant*pant* So yeah, not exactly thrilled with them. But then there I was with a prescription on a St. David's form and St. David calling to confirm that their rehab clinic isn't in our insurance's network. [Ahem, in Canada, there's no such thing as network or non-network because of the SINGLE PAYER system.] So I called the podiatrist's office and they wanted to know which clinic is in-network. I said I couldn't tell, because the PPO's website only lists doctors by name, not by clinic (which actually makes it incredibly difficult to find a clinic's website unless the website lists the doctors). She asked what names were on it, and I said, "There's 128, but I know from previous checking that at least a dozen of those are children's therapists for occupational stuff." She then sighed and grumbled and suggested that I phone around and try to find one on my own that will accept the St. David's form. So, using the PPO's provider list - which is horribly out of date, and frequently contains names of doctors no longer even listed in the phone book and with phone numbers that are disconnected - I went poking around to see what was where and if I could find reviews, and finally found one called Town and Country Physical Therapy with several branches including one near me. I phoned them, and their name is something else now that I already forget...but anyway, the very nice receptionist didn't see our PPO or insurer listed, but said they sounded familiar, and put me on hold to go ask some other people, and their theory was that apparently the insurer has recently changed its relationship with the PPO and they haven't had anyone with either come through since they changed their clinic name, so that's why it's not on the list, but they definitely used to be in-network. So I gave her my info and she did an initial processing and it came back as wanting to charge just the co-pay, whereas if they weren't in-network, it'd want to charge more. And yes, they'll take the St. David's form. All in all, it took me almost 4 hours to book an appointment. And that's really not the fault of any individual clinic in any of this...it's the way the system is set up, with spheres of insurers and spheres of providers with PPOs as bridges in-between, with constant changing relationships and no standardization across any of it (ie each insurance company has a different way of labelling you, so you'll generally have some kind of main number but that could be called an ID number, a plan number, a member number, etc., and then a way of identifying the employer through which you get it, and that could be a payor number, a group number, an account number, etc., and then each provider has different forms that ask for one of those choices and it's hard to know which goes where, plus there are other numbers that may or may not overlap one of the others in name and/or function...aiieeee), so every time you go somewhere new or change jobs or your job changes insurance or your insurance package or the stars don't align properly or whatever, you have to do it all over again. Is it any wonder this costs more? And imagine if I was elderly and confused by computers and had trouble reading the tiny text on my insurance card. Or just confused easily in general. Seriously, do you think someone in that state could even get this booked at all? No, they'd need someone to do it for them, and if that wasn't a readily available family member with no life of their own, it'd be some kind of paid assistance, raising the cost of care even more. It's plain stupid inefficiency. And I don't see any politicians discussing how to tackle that part of it...the Obama plan sure as hell isn't going to reduce this complexity (it's better than nothing but it falls way short of what's needed in so many ways), and the Republicans bitching about that plan aren't exactly coming up with great ideas to fix this overly complicated and inefficient system. Because frankly, the only way to fix it is to have fewer players in the field, which would mean eliminating PPOs and the number of insurance companies and oh gee I don't know having A SINGLE PAYER with a standardized system that applies to everyone. | ||||||
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July 25th, 2009
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| Our Austin Children's Museum family pass expires at the end of July, so we decided to risk the relative inaccessibility and go with Peo today so she could do some of the stuff at the much-touted MakerKids exhibit (which does not appear to have any specific O'Reilly branding, but the logos and artwork match Maker magazine style, so...?). As we suspected, accessibility is very limited. If there was nobody else there, I could have squeezed into a couple more places, but I do mean squeeze; the upper level entrance to the construction zone is about an inch wider than the wheelchair, the Global Market/milk/vet/play food area was far too narrow to risk entering with other people coming through, and I'm not sure I could have negotiated the turns necessary to get around in there. The "My Family" exhibit is mostly wide enough to get in and around, except for several raised false-floors that don't have enough bevel on the edges to allow for wheelchairs to get up onto them. For pity's sake, a half hour with a power tool could make that exhibit more accessible and they just didn't bother! And as always, the train area (which was not working; the train is currently dead) is barely accessible to those who can walk because of it's extremely narrow and steep metal staircase, and 100% inaccessible to the disabled. It is telling that I noticed a kid-size wheelchair parked with the strollers...someone nice was obviously carrying a disabled kid around because the wheelchair simply couldn't go to half of the places. MakerKids was sorta vaguely accessible, insofar as it was mostly tables with supplies and I could get up along broadside and kinda do stuff. Except as soon as a few people are seated at the tables, there's no room to get a wheelchair in and out, and they've put garbage and recycling bins between tables so it becomes a bit of a maze. They've also moved the penny vortex thingy to a place that makes the entrance to the main area about two people wide, so this was a choke point for all coming in and out, and I could only get through when nice people cleared out of my way entirely. Then I finally convinced Peo to try a sewing activity and intended to help her, only to find out that you have to sign out sewing needles (this is a good thing that prevents them from lying around dangerously) and they were out (this is a totally stupid thing, for crying out loud you can get a multipack of the damned things for a buck or two at Hobby Lobby!). Gahh. I felt justified in bringing the cloth she'd chosen home and promised I'd help her sew it another day. As for getting there, we had some fun with uneven sidewalks (although nothing so bad as in other parts of downtown, where sidewalks abruptly end and become grass or stairs), and there was one vehicle whose owner was damned lucky she was leaving as we approached, because she was totally illegally parked in a non-spot in such a way as to block the ramp. The people with her were working very hard to not see me waiting and glaring. As Corran put it later, they parked there thinking it wouldn't hurt anybody and when it was clearly a problem, they were all "um...whoops...heh...". Grr. On the nicer side, two cars who had gone too far into the crosswalk when stopping at lights backed out of the way so I could use the ramp, and the first one did it before I even had to look at her. The second required a bit of a glare to back up, but at least they did. For clarification, they were both over the stop line. Anyway, Peo had fun at the museum and Corran got stuck with chasing duty. I was able to do some things with her, but spent a lot of time lonely and bored, off to the side waiting while they did something I simply couldn't get to. During one of those times, I filled in a comment card to say that I'd come more frequently if it wasn't so inaccessible. We aren't renewing our membership for now. We'll go with Corran's parents when they come out but frankly, between non-preschooler-friendly exhibits (MakerKids at least put some thought into that age range, the previous CapMetro bus thing was STUPID for little ones because everything was on high stools and required comprehensive reading skills) and inaccessibility, we won't be going often enough anymore to justify a year's pass. However, we're inspired ever the more to get ourselves to Toronto soon for a trip to the Ontario Science Centre. But here's a very nice and literally cool thing: last month the museum had a survey and if you did it, you got a page to print for a coupon for a free gelato down the street. So we brought in the page and they gave us three coupons, and we went for it afterwards. It was so delicious that I have to give them mention: the place was Paciugo, www.paciugo.com, 241 West 2nd Street. It's not cheap stuff, but it was very good and not obscenely expensive ($3.99 for the small size we were having, except ours was free with the coupon) so I'd happily go again after a museum trip. I had the chocolate-chocolate-chip and it was DARK and rich and glorious. Lovely lovely. Peo had the same flavour and when I asked if it was just okay or delicious, she grunted, "YUM." I would definitely recommend it. We also appreciated the small spoons, because stuff of this quality should be savoured, not shovelled. Corran and I noted that it was more of European-style eating experience than a typical wanton calorie binge, and we liked that very much. | ||||||
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July 19th, 2009
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| One last quick update for today... We've been doing the pool therapy the podiatrist recommended (actually, demanded), and it does indeed help. Today for the first time, I "walked" without hanging onto the side of the pool for support. It is weirdly difficult to walk. My foot doesn't touch the ground in the same way anymore. I have to concentrate to do a proper walking motion. The exercise in the pool also drastically improves the overall feeling of the foot, and even makes it look better...a lot of the purple-bloated look fades after a solid hour of pool therapy. Contrasted to using the big black boot, which I did all day yesterday, and resulted in such bad overheating that the incision on the inside swelled up and itched and looked AWFUL. So I basically need to live in a pool all day. It's so liberating to be able to go where I want, when I want, without a chunk of metal to assist me. Coming out sucks because I feel like a big broken lump! | ||||||
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| *headdesk* So months and months ago, when the issue of foot surgery first came up and I was waiting forever for my podiatrist's office to check insurance coverage (this was the period where they misfiled my info in their office so actually nobody was checking at all and they weren't answering my phone calls), I went to another podiatrist for a second opinion. I paid the copay from that podiatrist on the day, but then a couple of times after the fact received bills for the rest of the appointment cost. Each time I called them to ask wtf (well, more politely than that), and was told that insurance is slow sometimes and to not worry about it. Except this last time, a couple of weeks ago, I told them that I had never received a statement from my insurance, so maybe they should re-file. They had to leave a message for their billing service which only operates in the evenings, and those folks called me back and I had to talk them into doing the re-file, but they said they would. Lo and behold, now we've got a message from the insurance that it was not filed within 95 days and Texas law says they don't have to pay. As far as I'm concerned, I've paid my portion and shouldn't have to pay the rest because of their error, especially since I called them each time so really, wasn't it their responsibility to ensure it had been properly filed? If they can demonstrate that they did the filing properly and on time, one would assume that the insurance would have to pay. But if they can't, I don't think I should get stuck with the bill because of their error. Hopefully they will accept it as their error (either the billing company or the doctor themselves) and eat the cost and not make me fight them. But no doctor in the US will treat you these days without you signing a form that says you'll pay if insurance won't, so they might try to hold me to that. Then again, it's the kind of nonsense that might make the insurance drop them as an in-network provider, except actually the insurance doesn't decide that, only the PPO, which is an intermediary between insurance and providers that won't talk to patients. So guess what? When Monday comes, I get to spend some time making medical phone calls again! It has become so common for me to spend hours each Monday on the phone with medical billing problems that when I didn't have to last Monday, I felt weird all day because I hadn't called anybody. But government health care would put a bureaucrat between me and my doctor! Aiiiee! *rolls eyes* | ||||||
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July 2nd, 2009
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| Wanna know an awesome thing about having used prefold cloth diapers? Now, when I've got an iodine-soaked dressing on my foot and some of the iodine wicks out along the bandage, all I have to do is put a diaper down under my foot and voila, potential staining mess contained. And who cares if the diaper gets stained...iodine is the cleanest brown stuff it ever had on it! | ||||||
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July 1st, 2009
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| 1) Happy Canada Day! Woohoo! 2) This also marks our first full year in Austin. 3) Got the cast off today. I'm supposed to now wear support hose to minimize swelling, plus back to the black boot of doom (which is at least removable and so I won't have to wear it when I sleep). But after doing all of that for a couple of hours today, I noticed some drainage from one of the incisions on the support hose, so I called and now they want the hose off and Corran has to go buy some iodine solution stuff so I can put wet dressings on it for awhile. Yay. And there's enough pain when I try to step that I'm not really walking yet. Plus they couldn't x-ray today because their machine needs repair, so I'm holding off on full pressure until an x-ray says it's okay even if it hurts. 4) While there, we discussed the ultrasound machine non-covered-by-insurance issue. I think the doc intends to argue that, but other than that, he said if the rep said they wouldn't bill me, they won't, but just to be sure he's putting a call in to remind the rep of that. Also, the other billing nonsense has been distilled down to this: I paid the remainder of my deductible to the hospital, but somehow the doctor's office got its billing into the insurance before the hospital did even though the hospital's bill is dated the day before, so the hospital now has to refund me the $837.37 so I can then pay it to the doctor's office. And yes, it's too much to ask that the insurance do so...they told me I have to do it myself. Been waiting all day for a call back from the hospital's billing department. Oh, and the double-billing thing from the doc's office...they said his associate assisted in the procedure, hence the double-billing, and if insurance isn't covering it that's weird, but at least for that the doc's office is going to work it out with insurance themselves. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a bill for us but the lady there didn't seem to think it would. Fun. | ||||||
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June 26th, 2009
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| *headdesk* Over the past few weeks, we've received statements from the insurance company listing all of the charges for my foot surgery. I paid the remaining of my yearly $1500 deductible (which was $837.87) to the hospital at pre-registration, and after that the rest of it should be 100% covered. As an aside, this is "good" insurance, because on the insurance we had before leaving Nevada, we had deductibles all over the place plus they only did 80% after the deductibles. The surgery was about $45,000ish, so we would have had to pay about $9000 plus deductibles under that plan. (Of course, Corran pays wayyyy more on premiums for this insurance, so it might be that amount anyway...) Anyway, we thought everything was okay with this. Well, sort of. There's the lingering doubt about the fancy ultrasound bone healing machine...I was very clear with the doctor that I would not pay for it if insurance didn't cover it, and he at first said it probably wouldn't be covered but wanted me to schedule an appointment when the rep from the company that makes the devices would be there. At that appointment, suddenly the doc seem overly confident that it would be covered, and when I expressed suspicion, the rep said they would bill insurance but that if insurance denied it, they wouldn't charge me. I thought that was weird but remember, I was on a LOT of hardcore pain meds. Later, when we got the statement from insurance denying it (which was the first time we saw the cost: $4500), I got worried that the form they had me sign saying I was accepting the device may have had a "you'd better pay" clause. I was VERY CLEAR to the doctor and the rep that I was not capable of reading due to the drugs and the rep said it only said that I was accepting the machine and that they could bill insurance. But now I'm nervous...and for $4500, if they try to bill me, it's SOOOO going to a lawyer. Our theory is that the doctor and rep may have worked out some kind of deal because I think the doctor wants to be the Austin distributor for the product and as a 36 year old with this kind of surgery, I'm probably awesome material for proving that it works (as opposed to the senior citizens he usually sees). But that's just a theory. Anyway. We thought at least the payment for the surgery stuff was taken care of. Oh...except for the part where the deductible hadn't cleared when I was in the medical supply store getting the rented wheelchair. They took our word for it and didn't make us pay right then. But we've received a statement from insurance saying that they're covering part of it but waiting for a response to a letter sent to the store before covering the rest...erm... Anyway. Like I said, the surgery was fine. There should be no bills for the actual surgical procedures. Um...you know where this is going, right? THE FRAKKIN' PODIATRIST'S OFFICE WANTS $837.87. Look up in the post. That number should seem familiar. *sigh* Corran and I just went through the stack of insurance statements and credit card statements and doctor bills, and our theory is that both my doctor and his clinic partner each charged for one part of the procedure. I have never met his partner. If he was present during the surgery, I didn't know about it. So our theory is that the office staff - who have been grossly incompetent on multiple occasions, messing up appointment times, failing to put my folder on the right person's desk for insurance processing while I waited six weeks to hear about coverage (at least that lady apologized and admitted the error), and tons of failures to call back on messages - have somehow managed to charge this aspect of the surgery under each doctor's name. So the insurance paid it once and has the others listed as duplicates. Somehow out of all that we're guessing that they think we have to pay THEM the remainder of the deductible that I can prove I already paid to the hospital. GAHHHHHHHHHHHH. Now, chances are, this will get settled by arguing and phoning and maybe Corran doing some foot-stomping when we go to their office on Wednesday for an appointment. But again, the STRESS of this crap is driving me crazy. We shouldn't have to spend hours on the phone arguing about someone else's mistakes. And speaking of mistakes, I've just heard back from the Texas Department of Insurance about a grievance I filed with them regarding River Ranch Radiology, the people who did my MRI back in January. See, River Ranch Radiology said my portion of the procedure, towards deductible, would be $474.15. The receptionist said insurance might actually pay more of that, so she encouraged me to pay half that day and they'd bill the rest. So I did. Then we got a bill that was $188 higher than the $474.15 quoted. They wanted the other half PLUS an additional $188. In April, I spent hours on the phone with River Ranch Radiology and all of the insurance players, and everyone pointed the finger at someone else. The Texas Department of Insurance has now told me that indeed, River Ranch Radiology quoted me the wrong amount, and sorry, the government entity cannot compel anyone to fix the problem. So I had to pay the extra $188. Needless to say, I'm advocating that everyone avoid River Ranch Radiology like the plague, because you can't trust their quotes. They just go ahead and charge more after the fact and the patient is hosed. Nice. Seriously, this is the real hell of US health "care". It's mistake after mistake after mistake and even if you can make the mistake go away, you have to spend tons of energy and time and stress doing so. And even when you're right and they're wrong, there's apparently no recourse. It's not worth going to a lawyer at $250 an hour for a $188 charge. There's no incentive for providers and insurers to not make mistakes. In fact, under the current system, it's in their interest to make mistakes because most people can't/won't fight back. Most people will sigh and pay the bill. The small number who do fight can be defeated a lot of the time, and if not, well, it's still overall lucrative for them to make these mistakes. Now, someone PLEASE dare to tell me again about the hazards of government bureaucracy in a universal, single-payer, government health care system. Oh please do. Because I sure as hell never had billing nightmares like these in Canada with all of those ooo-scary commie bureaucrats. All those talking heads saying that this administration is going to put a government official between me and my doctor? Hell yes! Please do! Bring it on! Someone ought to be able to enforce some rules for once! Sheesh! PS The other podiatrist I saw as a second-opinion has also sent me a bill for that appointment. It doesn't look like they even properly tried to bill insurance and I don't recall seeing an insurance statement from them. So I'll have to call and yell and straighten that out too. Oh joy. | ||||||
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June 11th, 2009
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| Blech. :( The hot flashes continue to mess up my sleep. I did briefly find that if I could get into a comfy position on my tummy (which is hard, being fat and having surgical mesh over an incisional hernia across my belly) and didn't use a sheet at all, I stayed relatively cool through the night and could sleep. That was all well and good until the stomach problems started. Increasingly over the past week, I've been getting some kind of indigestion - no doubt linked to my regular laying-down position, since upright makes my foot swell and hurt, even with it up on a footstool - and it's been getting worse, to the point that now when I try to sleep on my tummy, as soon as I relax as I drift off, whatever's in my stomach tries to push up into the esophagus, so I sit up fast to avoid barfing. And because digestion is slowed by lying down so much, my stomach isn't emptying well, so even if I don't eat for hours before bed (which absolutely ensures that I will be starving if I wake in the middle of the night, and low-sugar-shaky in the morning), I still have stuff in there to come up. So for the last two nights, I've had less than four hours total sleep. Usually I can get so exhausted by morning that I sleep all morning, but yesterday the lawn service was here making tons of noise, and today I had to go to the doctor. And now it's so swampy-hot upstairs AND my stomach is blechy so I know I won't sleep even if I go try. Hrumph. I am GRUMPY. Told it all to the doctor and he just made a joke about me being pregnant. The x-rays show that the ankle bit is accelerating in fusing very well (in large part to the ultrasound device I keep meaning to mention, long story on that for another time), but the part more in the foot is lagging a bit. The doc isn't worried that it won't fuse, just that it's not rushing ahead. So much for my hope that I'd be in the walking cast sooner... So there's a second regular cast on now. Because the swelling was down when I was there, it is tighter than the last, which I fear will make the heat issue worse, and I'm not keen to find out what happens if the swelling exceeds what the cast has room for. Oh joy, that won't hurt much, I'm sure. Speaking of the heat thing, while he seemed doubtful that it had anything to do with the casts, the nurse Corran and I were talking to agreed that it could, since when they took the old one off we could see the tons of cotton (or cotton-like, not sure) padding in there and Corran remarked that it's like I'm sleeping with a down-filled coat wrapped around my foot and leg all the time. And a couple of nights ago at my cake club, one of the ladies there said she had to wear a support boot to bed for awhile and she ROASTED every night. She didn't have hot flashes, but was just hot hot hot hot the whole time. It's entirely possible that I would be as well if I wasn't cooling down by sticking ice packs under my boobs, under my arms, in my elbows and knees, and between my thighs...all tricks I learned while on Clomid and getting the side-effect hot flashes from that fertility drug. Anyway, it's all being quite un-fun right now. A few weeks ago I told Corran that he had the crappy end of the deal since he had to deal with PeoAngstMonkey. But she's chilled out since she's been finally potty training (I need to post an announcement related to that), and I said that before I felt pukey all the damned time, so this morning I revised the assessment and said next time he can have the surgery and I'll do extra dishes. Because this is sucking hard. I've taken a Rolaids twice now for the indigestion, and it helps enough that I can sleep, but of course those kinds of drugs can seriously block absorption of other meds, so I can't take them close to other med times. Plus my Rolaids are from 8 years ago (yes, expired, but it's minty chalk and works just fine) and there's only one left, so now I have to send Corran on an expedition to buy more and who knows how the product has changed over the years...gahhhh... Well, three weeks in this cast and then presumably it'll be healed enough to get a walking cast. Appointment is on Canada Day. Maybe I should blow up the old cast in a colourful way and call it a firework. It'll also be one year to the day that we've been living in Austin. | ||||||
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May 29th, 2009
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| So I read up on hot flashes and it's probably because of medication and/or diet...pcos women have estrogen problems related to carb but right now I'm too groggy to figure out if I need more or less to stop the flashes. And apparently exercise helps. Yay. My hips have been killing me for days and I know that a good, brisk walk would fix them fast too. Yeah, I'll get right on that. I've been doing leg lifts and other similar bedrest type exercises fairly frequently, and I've gone pretty fast in the wchair when we've been out (which might be great for arm-toning but is unbelievably exhausting), but it's going to be months before I can walk. I am hot, sweaty, achy, uncomfortable, bored, groggy, lonely, and slightly nauseous. *sigh*grumble* Era please do not suggest any herbal/alternative remedies. I looked into such thing while on clomid and my other heatl issues preclude their use and I don't like having to argue about it. | ||||||
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| Not doing so great lately. Been having Clomid-like severe hot flashes for days that have been preventing sleep, plus when foot gets hot incisions sting and I can't get comfortable. We can't figure out what's causing the hot flashes. Also had some nausea in middle of night early in week, it's back now though not as severe. Having tons of trouble sleeping so I'm always exhausted and feeling like crap. Discovered yesterday that two smallest toes and part of foot just above have gone completely numb. Only found put when corran was rubbing other toes and I couldn't feel little ones, just the pressure of the squeeze higher up. With that and my temp at 99.0F just now, corran will call doc to let them know in case they would be concerned. But it's Friday, doc's surgery day, the day the staff are truly horrible about answering messages, responding to pharmacy requests for refills, etc, so corrans call may fall on deaf ears. | ||||||
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May 21st, 2009
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| I now have a cast. I am happy because having it on means I'm not unwittingly holding my leg/foot stiff anymore and already a lot of the pain is gone. I'm going to nap now because I had a horrid night of not being able to get comfy in any position, and the cast should help because it is more of a buffer so I don't feel pressure on the incisions. Oh, and last night a dream was about to turn violent (hint: the people on the strange back road dresses as cows who flag down your vehicle are not cops and when they start asking intimate questions, assume the worst and skedaddle before they open the car doors), so I woke myself up. But every time I'd start to fall back asleep the dream would try to continue. So I listened to a podcast, not expecting the radiolab episode to suddenly launch into a story about a guy with a fly maggot growing in his scalp. SOOOO not helping me get calm for sleep! So I had to listen to something else, and thankfully had an nova/science now bit with Neil de Grasse Tyson, and hooray for happy nerd king's soothing voice...can't remember what he said but he relaxed me. <3 for Neil. Crashing out now...nap time... | ||||||
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May 20th, 2009
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| Listening to poor corran trying to put overtired screamie mccranky down for bed makes it pretty clear that I'm not the one with the shortest end of the stick in all of this. Yes, AngstPeoWrangling is more exhausting and unpleasant than recovering from foot surgery. The difference is that SweetPeo is awesome and of course there's no equivalent upside to foot surgery. But I get to participate in a lot of the SweetPeo moments, while most AngstPeo is corrans alone right now. Poor guy! | ||||||
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May 18th, 2009
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| Went to doc this morning. Long story short dressing was too tight in multiple places which aggravated the swelling making more swelling. Foot was purple. Relief started within seconds of dressing coming off. Now have new softer dressing, still sore but manageable. Going to try to sleep...hopefully peo plays quietly so I can and so corran can work Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz | ||||||
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| Middle of night and can't sleep even with full meds. Pain so bad I've been crying Now lying across bed so foot can hang off edge with nothing touching (corran has been on couch since surgery) Dangle foot is tolerable pain but still hurts Told corran to call doc in morn for appt This sucks | ||||||
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Blatherings
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