Why I Need Health Care Reform

This has nothing to do with the health reform bill that is going to be voted on in a few short hours. Instead, this has to do with the bureaucratic bastardos at my insurance company who are overruling my doctor's decision to put me on a subcutaneous pump with anti-nausea meds.  Their reasoning is that I'm trying to move (in my own words) from a handgun (Zofran) to a nuclear bomb (the pump). They want to see a longer demonstrated line of meds we've tried and that have failed.  The Zofran is keeping me from vomiting constantly, but does nothing to get rid of the constant nausea and dizziness.  Tried the Phenergan suppository (yuck) on Thursday night -- it made me feel sicker and I spent half the night in the bathroom. Let's cross that one off.

Now, I don't totally disagree with the insurance company's general reasoning.  It would be better to not go to the nuclear bomb if something smaller would work.  In my situation, however, I'm at such a dramatic lack of health, that we need to find the remedy that will be the most effective and work in the shortest amount of time.  Now is not the time for onesies-twosies.  I have missed two weeks of work, and have not left my bedroom, let alone my apartment in a week (that, to go to the doctor).

My doc, who I totally love, can't believe how difficult my insurance company is. She just keeps going over all the things we do have documented on my chart that speak towards getting the pump (weight loss, spilling ketones, threatening dehydration, can't keep any food down but toast, stopped all prenatal vitamins, stopped my happy pills (Zoloft) which leads to me crying while watching C-SPAN and a general lack of non-rational behavior, constant nausea, constant vertigo, etc.) Told my doc that they probably don't even care about the weight loss, because their thinking is probably well, she's so fat, that she's probably healthier now.  Just realized that I have now lost 15 lbs (unfortunately not documented medically) in 4 weeks. May bring this number up to the doc on Monday to add to the chart.

I've found that my apple juice/water has been helping to hydrate me.  I'm nowhere near hydrated, but am much better off than I was with the ginger ale.

My mom helped me to shower and wash my hair this past week.  G-D bless her.  Instead of standing up in the shower, I sat down, facing away from the faucet, and we used a handheld sprayer*, so I could tilt my head back rather than forward while washing my hair.  Feeling clean made me feel so much better.

*We bought and installed the handheld sprayer before JD's first foot surgery, since he wasn't able to get his foot wet for X weeks.  I forgot that we still had it because I don't use his shower normally.  For anyone having showering issues (for whatever reason) I highly recommend this, it was really cheap and we bought ours at Home Depot and installed it ourselves.  If we can do that, anyone can.

Ka-Ching!

Onto some good news, shall we? For once, the economic downturn/depression/housing bubble burst has come up with a silver lining. For the fourth year in a row, our property value, and therefore, our estimated property taxes, have fallen. This means that our mortgage company will be escrowing less money, lowering our monthly payment. Plus, we got a check for the extra leftover in the escrow account. Ka-ching!

So, there's two unanticipated sources of cash -- the savings on our monthly payment and the escrow check. Last year, trying to follow Dave Ramsey's advice and working towards debt-free-but-the-house, I took the monthly savings and put it towards an increased car payment each month. I will probably do that again this year.

As for the escrow check, I believe that it will go towards the purchase of the (angels singing) China Cabinet.