Insurance issues

I'm still feeling well today, but frustrated at insurance issues. If you're considering who to vote for this election, please note that only one of the people running is being clear about their healthcare plan.  Prior to the ACA (Affordable care act, also called obamacare), there was a clause that said that if you had a pre-existing condition that the insurance did not have to take you on a a client, or if they did, they did not have to cover anything related to your pre-existing condition.  I was literally uninsurable (I know, I tried to buy private insurance at the end of grad school when I aged out of my dad's insurance and COBRA ran out) unless I found a job with insurance without a pre-existing condition clause.  Please note that if the ACA is repealed and there is a pre-existing clause again, I would be uninsurable except via an employer, or claims related to my heart condition and transplant could be denied.  This would be catastrophic for us.  

I have received over $850K in bills this year. I put away $2K, my out of pocket max, pre tax. To my knowledge I had paid this already, so was confused by a bill from Duke for almost that amount again. I spoke to the finance person, who said it was all processed correctly, so I should call bcbs. I spoke to them, and they said I had met my co-insurance max, but that copays don't count towards it, so I do owe $600 for each hospitalization. They couldn't tell me when I hit my out of pocket max 

So I reached back out to Duke and they need me to find the Explanation of Benefits (EOB's) from my March hospitalization.  For which I have already found 4 seperate documents with claims from that period, and I know I am missing some.  So now I need to figure out how to get them, as the last thing I was doing while in the hospital and convalescing was paying super close attention to the mail.  I definitely owe $1200 I wasn't expecting, as it was not clear that copays aren't included. It's frustrating to have to be so on top of this, and that the two systems have different answers. This is why healthcare is my number one priority in the election. If things go back to his they were before the ACA, I could be on the hook for the entire $850K+. To give an example, my couple day hospital stay for food poisoning was $32K.  A clinic visit I believe is about $10K+.  Each time. 

Hopefully this only takes the few hours I've spent so far, and not much longer, to fix. I doubt that will be the case though, and now I have to spend time I would be doing other things in dealing with this.  This system is so broken. Please vote.  We have already successfully done so.  If you don't have a plan, please make one. I'm happy to help you look up any information you need.  Please vote as if lives depend on it (because they do)

No rejection

I got my biopsy results back, and zero rejection. So my next appt is in two months! I have to get labs drawn on wed, but that's just too make sure the bp med change isn't too hard on my kidneys. I'm back on lisinopril and no more hydralazine or amlodypine. In less than 48 hours my bp was back to being beautiful- I kind of wish they hadn't changed it in the first place.

This led me to feel more comfortable trying to ramp up and do workouts again. I was not motivated by the treadmill and exercise bike, so I signed up for an online site that has turned videos, including dance, pilates, and yoga. I did one 30 min video yesterday and sweat more then I have in years - and probably pushed more than I have with the machines, but actually enjoyed it. Tonight at 9 I was energetic so I tried another video, and this time for a warm-up and cool down. In looking this plan much better. Once in in better shape, I think I'll like the treadmill and bike more, and there are other types of workout videos for ruining and sculpting if I want.

We also went to a park to walk with the dog, and had an outdoor picnic on Saturday, and today we went to an outdoor, socially distanced church service and it was nice to see people, then had an outdoor board game with one friend and an online boardgame with another later today. Nice full weekend.

Hope you have a good week!

6 months!

 I had my 6 month clinic check-up today.  If we are going by date, tomorrow is actually 6 months post transplant.  If we are going by day of the week, it was yesterday.  Either way, 6 months!   Hard to believe it has been that long, and in some ways it seems longer. 

I decided to use a full sick day today for a few reasons.  First, so I didn't have to worry.  We got out of the house before 7:30, and were checked in by 8am.  It was a new nurse who checked me in this time.  My two favorite doctors were on today (both women, one an attending, one a fellow), so it was nice to know I would be heard and my ideas would be taken into consideration.  I voiced that I felt my current bp med regimine is not optimal, and that I would prefer to go back to something that had been working prior to the food poisioning.  They heard me out, and decided to try it!  They even got rid of one of the meds that I don't think does much of anything (I guess we will see). I was the first back to get the biopsy, and it went smoothly again.  I really appreciate them overloading my neck with lidocaine, as it makes it not too bad.  As has become my tradition, I took tylenol and an ativan right beforehand to help me stay calm. 

One of our main questions was about our siblings weddings.  The doctors stated that, even indoors, when everyone is masked the chance of infection with covid is extremely small.  They said I can do an n95, and don't have to do a full respirator (think gas mask), and the face shield I can do but they would not suggest doing alone.  They even said I can hug masked people!  The doctors were also open to the idea of us having smaller meet ups with folks inside as long as everyone was masked (me in the n95) and no one is actively coughing/sick.  This was a huge relief.  Additionally, it sounds like a few of the heart transplant patients have gotten covid and done much better than expected - to the point that they think some of our meds might be protective.  This is another huge relief. 

We walked out around 10am, and I walked up a flight of stairs in the parking deck! Then it was off to the Durham County Board of Elections to drop off our absentee ballots at the outside tent.  We voted! Do you have your voting plan set yet?  If not, I encourage you to figure it out. 

Then we went to a French bakery in that area and got some goodies. After that we headed home, and I crashed.  I took an impromptu nap on the couch for a few hours, then Peter made me a panini for lunch. 

It was a slow, good day.  I felt much more myself than normally on a biopsy day, and assuming everything goes well, my next appt will be in 2 months!  Thats crazy.

We attended a "surprise" Zoom wedding tonight.  The bride let me in on the secret so I could help her scheme and I could prepare a toast.  It was awesome.  Congratulations Stephanie and Cameron!  

I also got my flu shot in clinic today, an I'm running a very low fever (just over 99) and feeling a little achy.  I'm taking that as a good sign that my immune system can mount some response.  I'll keep an eye on it just to make sure thats all it is.  And the flu shot is a component vaccine, so it can't give you the flu.  

Happy Tuesday to all! 

Moving quickly

It seems like things are moving more quickly - time (how is it almost October already), the days (mostly because of so much to do for work), how quick I can walk (yay).  Things are moving more quickly, and yet it still seems like sometimes the days are really long. 

We have settled into a bit of a pattern.  Peter wakes up before I do, but around 7:30 he checks to see if I'm going on a walk with him.  The vast majority of days I say yes, and I get up sometime within 10-60 minutes, take my morning pills, and get ready for the walk.  We take Stella, and our normal route is about half a mile.  We've noticed that it doesn't take quite as long any more.  Then we get home, Peter gets to work, and I make myself tea and grab something for breakfast, then finish gettting ready for the day and get started working.  

We have incorporated the farmers market into our schedule, and its nice to be able to go out Saturday mornings.  Because of covid, many of the vendors are offering pre-orders during the week.  We tried it this week, and it was nice to get things without them being sold out.  Planning to make beef stroganoff this week, and do something with the lovely patty pan squash I found last week.  That same vendor had small pickling cucumbers, and I got about 3lbs last week.  I was able to sterlize 6 jars on Wed and make the pickles on Friday.  I still have a few sweet dill jars, and one hot dill jar, from last year, so I decided to do savory.  I made 2 jars each of dill and garlic, dill, garlic, and shallot, and dill, garlic, shallot, and basil.  Last year I tested a bunch of flavors with quick pickles, and if I remember correctly these were my favorites.  Either way, it will be nice to have savory pickles too. 

We've been getting more information about our siblings weddings, and I finally got up the courage to ask my team if there's anyway they feel like it could be safe for me to attend.  I was shocked when they responded that they think it could be possible, if I wear a respirator with face shield, the other guests are masked, and we stay distanced.  I have clinic tuesday and will get more information, but I'm hopeful.  The nurse who is assigned to me said that, basically, the whole point of getting the transplant was to be at family events like weddings, so they want to see if there is a safe way.  Of course, theres still some doubt on my part because it is a risk, but I also do trust the science.  Obviously things could change as it gets closer to the weddings, but at this point I'm hopeful that we can make it work. 

Peter and I decided to sign up for Stitchfix after talking to our friend, and we both got our boxes this past week.  It was kind of fun seeing what someone picked for us, and we each decided to keep two items.  I'm not sure that we will stay with this long term, but we are both going to give it another month.  Both Peter and I tend to be clearance/bargain shoppers, so its weird to pay full price for something.  

We got our absentee ballots and the plan is to drop them off at the Durham county board of elections in person on Tuesday.  I felt pretty emotional voting for Biden/Harris, and hope that they get elected so that a plan to get covid under control can happen (among other things).  I'm saddened by the news of the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and feel a strange mix of emotions overall.  

I was finally able to focus long enough to edit Grandma Neukirch's Storyworth (Storyworth is a company founded by one of my Dartmouth classmates.  You pay a fee, and then pick questions to be sent to a loved one every month.  At the end, it gets turned into a hardcover book.  I highly recommend it - we did one for my grandpa last year).  One more round of editing, and then we can send to print.  The plan was to do that in February, but it got sidetracked with everything going on.  

I completely get that covid fatigue is settling in.  But please stay safe.  Wear masks around other, especially indoors.  Be wary of going to restaurants indoors or big family gatherings - that is where a lot of cases are coming from now.  We are doing socially distanced, mask wearing, outdoor meetups with a few friends in our yard.  Our setup for that seems pretty good.  

This coming tuesday I have a clinic biopsy, and wednesday marks 6 months post transplant, which is incredible.  I'll keep you all updated as to how things go.  Assuming the appt goes ok, from there I go to every other month appointments.  That seems crazy to me! But also nice to not have some much time related to medical things. 

What a week

 This last week has been really good.  I got in morning walks 4 days last week, with one day missed being because I didn't sleep well, one because I was going to have a long work day so was conserving energy, and the third the day after the long work day and I was tired.  

We have a few "couple" friends down here.  The ones we see most, Colleen and Matt are going to be moving.  Its both happy and sad.  Happy,  Colleen got a job up in Boston!  She finished her PhD this spring, and her job offers went away with universities closing down, so this is great.  It's sad because we won't see them as often, and also because we are in the midst of playing pandemic legacy season 2.  They came over on Friday night, and using our outdoor setup where we have a canopy over the deck, our outdoor table, and fan set up so the air is blowing away from me, we played while masked and enjoyed a dim sum dinner.  We actually won our game after having lost the last 4 times (the game is legitimately hard).  So now we have 4 more 'months' to play to finish (the game is broken up into 12 months, and you can play each twice).  While Colleen will be moving next week, Matt will be here at least another month.  So we are planning to try to play the rest of the board game with Colleen video chatted in.  It is a cooperative game, so it won't totally be the same, but will be much easier to video in one person versus 2.  We are really hoping to finish the game, as we've put in a lot of hours on it so far.  Initially, my surgery got in the way as I was hospitalized, and due to the actual pandemic we haven't been able to have Colleen and Matt in the house, so that has made it so there have been big chunks of time between games.  Either way, it was nice to hang out with them.  Since we know we will be going to Maine again for years come (just not this one), its good to know that we can stay in touch with them. 

We were up late Friday night playing, so I slept in a bit on Saturday.  AT&T came in the early afternoon to hook up fiber internet, as we've been having issues with ours from Spectrum.  When they were done, for some reason I had a hankering for an Italian sub.  The issue being that I can't have cold lunchmeat.  Peter needed to run an errand, so i tagged along.  I looked at some menus along the way, and we decided to try Jersey Mikes, since they have both hot and cold subs.  We went to the one closest to where Peter's errand was, and as Peter was going to go in and order, we noticed that despite a sign saying masks are required, there was someone in the store without one. This was a complete no go.  Luckily, there are a bunch of these around, so we went to one that is close to a park with a pond.  Peter went in, and the staff was really nice about grilling up my meat & cheese, then putting it on the bun.  We went to the park in Cary, which was TEEMING with people, so there was no way we were getting out of the car to eat.  I was quite hungry at that point, so we ate in the car with a view of the pond.  The sub was good and hit the spot.  It's nice to know that is an option for the few times I feel like a sub.  We decided to try another park that has a smaller pond with a walking trail arouond it on the way home.  This one was surprisingly not too busy except for the basketball court.  We did two laps around the pond, which is about a quarter mile each lap.  The day was beautiful, and we are thinking we should do this more often!  We headed home then, and invited our across the street neighbors over for a board game.  We did the same set up in the back, and it was nice.

This morning I actually woke up and was somewhat functional before 8!  We did a morning walk with Stella. After that, I put in our Instacart order (I've started to just add things throughout the week so it does not take as long in the moment) and had a cup a tea. My childhood friend Tabatha sent me a subscription box that has 4 loose leaf teas in it.  I was suprised and excited, and the first one I tried, an Oolong from Thailand, was delicious.  All the teas are locally sourced from small farmers, and it comes with cute little cotton bags for steeping made in Kansas of NC cotton.  I'm looking forward to trying the other three - a lady grey, a green tea with toasted rice, and an herbal with a blood orange flavor.  I also love the idea of a washable steeping back - I got four with this months.  I don't know if they send the bags every month but if they do that will be nice in the long run. The instacart order was ready sooner than expected, so Peter is off to go get it.  It is now not quite 10am, and I am feeling pretty darn productive so far.  We have plans for our next door neighbors to come for a game in the early evening, and to do a virtual game with my cousin Liz and her husband Brad sometime this weekend.  

In terms of work, I had a few just about, or over 8 hour days this week.  We also launched our new online coaching training, which has been what I've been putting in a lot of hours for the last three weeks.  It's been adapating the material we already have from a 4 day in person to a 6 week online setting, and learning to use Sakai, which is an online system Duke uses for course.  It was a bit of a learning curve, but I'm really happy with how the site looks and I'm hoping that the new coaches find it easy to do.  We have our first online training session next saturday.  

Hope you are enjoying your long weekend, that you're finding a new normal where you can socialize safely, and that you're productive when you want to be.