Slings and arrows of outrage...

At the beginning of the year we had to change medical insurance because our plan was discontinued. Only two options, an HMO or "traditional" were available; our benefits rep recommended the traditional one so we had more control over our doctor choices. We knew it would come with a higher co-pay for office visits and have dealt with that through the year.

Thursday, on the ice, Dottie went to pick up a veggie platter for a party at work on Friday. Some kid in daddy's 4-wheel rolled up alongside her in the grocery parking lot and lit the tires. It slid sideways towards her and she jumped to get out of the way. This is right after she stepped out of her car with the handicapped plate and was walking away from the handicapped parking place (she has a replacement hip and and knee).

Friday her left foot was tender. Saturday it started to swell. She stayed off it most of the day after that. Sunday it looked like someone had slipped a third of a baseball under the skin on top of it, but she wouldn't go to the ER, not knowing how much that would cost us. She wanted to wait for Monday to go see our regular physician.

She called in sick, then called the doctors and got in. They sent her to the lab on premises for an x-ray. The lab said they had gotten an e-mail from our carrier and that they would only pay for foot x-rays done by "National Foot Care" and told her go back to the doctor's to find out where they were.

The doctor's office had no idea. She called me, and I went through 5 phone books and couldn't find them, then went online and Googled and came up with that name and that Ford, Chrysler and Delphi are participants, but there is nothing listed for GM employees.

So the doctor's office sent her to the emergency room...

It wasn't broken, they offered her a "boot" and she turned it down because she knew it wouldn't be something "clean" to wear at work. They offered her painkillers, she turned them down because with only one kidney, she avoids any "extra" things to make it work harder when she can. They were a bit worried about her blood pressure, as it was in the 170/ something range...she is on meds for it and usually it's in the "normal" range. She pointed out to them what she had been through that morning and they didn't seem so worried!

So besides working my 9's 6 days last week and this I've been trying to make sure that there's absolutely nothing for her to do when she comes home except put her leg up.

I will be checking in with you all as I get time...sorry I haven't been around more!

And just so you all can grin a bit, the ornaments are slowly climbing the tree as the ones on the bottom get carried away by Frankie and rehung higher and "deeper" in the tree, lol!

alan