Insurance Woes!

Howdy, everyone!

Just thought I'd vent a little bit and tell you about my day.  It started out with me calling my doctor's gal that handles referrals and she started out by telling me that Care 1st (my insurance) does NOT cover the psychiatric doctor that I have an appointment with in one week!  When were they going to tell me this?  I then proceeded to tell her that when I called the doctor's office LAST WEEK that they were working on getting on the authorization code from the insurance company so I can go to my appointment.  I figured it was in their hands and didn't worry any more about it.

Today, however, I find out differently and that my insurance doesn't cover it.  Here we go again!!  I was just in a panic by this point.  What am I going to do?  The psychiatric evaluation alone cost $400.00.  We can't afford that!!  I didn't have time to work on it by making phone calls, because it was almost time for my hubby's psychiatric appointment so we had to go to that.  If you are late or a "no show" they charge you $75.00!!  So we go to that.  He tells me on the way there that he thinks his skin picking is worse than BEFORE seeing the doctor.  He has four new open sores on his left hand.  As if we didn't have enough problems!!!!  Grrrr......

After the doctor's appointment (which he has referred him to a psychologist, which I wanted in the first place so Frankie can try to figure out WHY he does this!), we go put his prescriptions in at the pharmacy and they call on the cell phone that one is too soon and the other requires a doctor authorization, which they have already started the process on.  Thank God for small wonders!!
We then go to the grocery store to stock up on drinks for preparation for Thanksgiving.  Frankie now has to get one of the store carts now as my legs are sooo bad and I can barely stand to stand on one of them for a few seconds.  The other leg is just as bad.  The neuropathy is sure at its max with the burny, fiery pain in both legs.  The were very helpful in Fry's though.  People holding doors for me and at the checkout the employee helped us checkout!  Then, when we were at the car, another employee helped by loading our groceries into the trunk for us.   He even returned the cart for us.  I couldn't believe it!

We get home and while waiting for our lunch to cook, the phone rings.  It's Banner Bariatrics and they were returning my call.  I told her what happened with the other phone calls and she was very surprised by it.  She stated, "I've worked at this for 10 years and Care 1st DOES accept your insurance.  They obviously didn't put the right diagnosis codes in.  I'll talk care of it myself!!"  I thanked her profusely for helping me.  She gave me the number to cancel the psychiatrist appointment, because unfortunately, the authorization may not be done by that time.  So I called up the psychiatrist and canceled and rescheduled the appointment.  I told her the situation and she said that the earliest appointment was December 29th.  I took it!!!    Hopefully things will continue to work out OK for me!!!  Although I have to wait another month!!

Hope your day has gone great and are excited about Thanksgiving.  It'll be great to have friends and family over to celebrate.  And my grandma is coming in December!!!  I'm so excited!! :0)  I've missed her so much and we'll have so much to catch up on.  :)

One more piece of exciting news:  Gina from the blog "My Life in a blog" has given me a blogger award!!  Isn't that sweet?  I'm just beyond words right now.  The award is profiled in the left sidebar of the blog.  Thank you so much, Gina!! I love it!!

Alright, I hope this post finds you all in good health and happy spirits.  I'll write again soon!!!

God bless you all!!
Until next post,

 
                                                      

Lake Havasu, AZ

Howdy, fine friends!

I figured I had a little bit of time before waking my husband for his allergy shot and doctor's appointment to blog about when my mom, grandma and I went to Lake Havasu.  This was in the same trip as when we went to Oatman, AZ.  I blogged about that not too long ago (it's in the blog archive if you're interested).  Anyway, I believe this trip was in the late 1990's.  It was in the spring time, but Lake Havasu always is warmer than Yuma, AZ, which gets REALLY HOT in the summertime.  I loved our trips, though.  Every last one of them.  They are precious memories burned forever into my brain.  Especially now, because my mom is no longer with us.  Here is the famous "London Bridge" that actually IS from London!  They sent it over to us as a gift long ago.  Why the USA chose Lake Havasu to have the bridge, I don't know.  Anyway, it is a beautiful bridge.  The first picture was taken under the bridge.

Isn't it a beautiful bridge?  I thought so, too!!  Thank you to London!!  The next few photos were taken ON the bridge itself.  It has a little lane for walkers, which is what we did since we figured we'd enjoy it more instead of zooming by in a car and not seeing much.  And I could take better pictures, too.  Ya gotta have photos is my motto!!

Here was the entrance to the bridge.  It has a big plaque on the stone wall explaining the origins of the London bridge.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my good digital camera (they were really expensive in the 90's!) so I couldn't get the detail than what I can get on my digital camera now.  My hubby and I will have to go back retake these photos someday.

 

Here is a close-up of the plaque at the entrance.  You can read a little bit of it.  Looks like it came over to the USA in the early '70's?   Hard to tell.  Now if we had my good camera (instead of film!) we could read the whole sign with little effort.   We DEFINITELY need to get back over there and take digital pics!!

These two photos were both sides of the bridge.  It even had flags of the UK and street lamps that came with the bridge.  How cool is that?!

 

Ready to go under the bridge and see the shops, Lake Havasu, and assorted other goodies?  This photo was taken at the entrance steps to go underneath the bridge.

This photo was taken on the steps going down underneath the bridge.  It was like a whole village down there!!  Cottages, shops, boats.....boy, a person could get used to this!!  Something for everyone.

Look at that sky!  Not a cloud to be found.  Here are some of the cottages down below.  It really does look like its own village.

Here is a paddle wheel boat that offered "cruises" down the lake.  I wanted to go on one, but my travel companions didn't want to at the time....probably because of the cost to get on one.  Or maybe it was too full at the time we were there.  Good ole' "fibro fog."  And I've got it BAD today!!

Mom in front of a candle factory.  You could smell the heated wax from outside on the sidewalk.  What a great aroma!!  My mom and I loved candles and even had a small collection of them.

Okay, okay.  After MUCH prodding, here is my photo taken by the same candle factory Mom was standing in front of.  With how I look now, I'd LOVE to go back to yesterday.  I just didn't know how lucky I was back then.  Isn't that true for everyone?

What goes down, must come up!!!  Here is an adorable picture of my mom and grandma coming up the stairs and heading for the parking lot.  Just a few more steps, guys!  You can do it!!

Okay...I hope you enjoyed my "memory lane" thoughts and pictures.  I hope I don't bore anyone with this.  You know the joke about everyone hating seeing pictures of someone else's vacation.  Although I never minded it.  I love talking to people and hearing their memories.  That is why our trips were so important to me.  Especially the more recent ones.  Those were the ones that Grandma told Mom and I all her memories from long ago with Grandpa and her adolescent life at home with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Lois.  Those stories were such a hoot!!  Grandma lead a fascinating life and I loved hearing every last, juicy detail.

Alrighty....gotta go to get ready to head out in our lovely 70 degree weather. I feel sorry for you in the cold states with snow and ice!  Yikes!  I remember those days well when I lived in Michigan.  Grandma would call from Arizona and say something like, "I'm wearing shorts and have the windows open!"  We would be soooo jealous!!  Mean of her to do that, don't you agree?  And then here I do it myself on the blog.  Sorry about that! (LOL..._)

I can wait in the car while my hubby is getting his shot and read my book.  And then we are off to his first appointment with the pyschologist.  I don't know if I told you about his problem with skin picking?  He has been doing it for years now and it is a nervous habit of his.  He's got little scars on his arms and legs from past pickings.  My mother-in-law and I are at our whit's end with this.  He's already got a staph infection from picking off the scabs on his arm and I am afraid that in this "germy" world of ours, he'll get something worse that antiobiotics can't cure.  We're tried everything to get him to stop...."time-outs" from the computer, scoldings, reminders....the list goes on and on.  I hope this psychologist guy can help us.  I told Frankie to "open" up his heart to this guy and tell him everything.  He said he would.  We shall see!

My twitch is almost gone.  It doesn't seem too bad today.  Wooooo Hooooo!  Good riddance, is what I say!!  So it was the fear of not being able to lose 10 pounds (set by the doctor, no less!) by my doc appointment the end of November that had me stressed over my limit.  When I found out I had lost 12 pounds, it was like a weight (no pun intended!) off my shoulders.  Thank God!!

Hope you all have a great day!
God bless!
Until next post,

Last Stop: Laughlin, NV

Howdy, folks!
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.  Here it is remaining on the cooler front, more like fall, minus the pretty colored falling leaves.  That's what I miss about Michigan is seeing those beautiful colored leaves and smelling the scent of fall....burning leaves, crisp air....ah, I can imagine it in my mind's eye and I remember it very well!  So to those of you that actually have a season called fall, ENJOY IT!  It goes too fast and it so pretty!

Pretty soon Frankie and I will go to my cardiologist office and get my medical records (hopefully the surgery clearance note will be in there!) and then we will come back home, scan the records in (as I INSIST now on having a copy of everything) and make the 30 mile trip to Gilbert.  Isn't it ridiculous that doctor's offices don't use their fax machines?  Why do they even have one?  They might as well use it as a paperweight!!  And yesterday, my husband called for a psychologist appointment (he has a problem with picking his skin and causing these sores that scab over, then he picks the scab off, it makes a bloody mess and the whole thing gets infected and we have to go to the Urgent Care for antibiotics. We've gone through this song and dance for as long as I can remember) and he had to go to a website and print out new patient forms.  I had to do that with one of my doctors, too.  I think it's a new thing out now....the PATIENT prints out THEIR own forms and uses THEIR OWN INK AND PAPER, thus saving the doctor's office money!  Isn't that just dandy???!!!!!  What's gonna be next? We have to supply our own needles and alcohol pads if we get a shot at the doctor's office?

Ok, I'll quit ranting now.  Our last stop in my grandma's cheer-up plan for when I first came to Arizona without my parents (it was my first time away from home and I'm an only child, so I am very close to my parents) was to Laughlin, NV.  This is another gambling city that I sometimes think is even MORE popular than Vegas.  Every time we'd go, it would be just packed everywhere!  When my parents moved out to Arizona, me, my grandma and my mom would go about once a year.  So I've combined some of those pictures in with my original pictures I took on the trip with just Grandma.  Hope you enjoy them!  I'll start with the original ones first.

This is the hotel-casino Grandma and I stayed in.  It's was called the Ramada Express, but it has since changed names, I heard.  I loved it there, though. It had a train that went out the hotel and gave you great views of the main drag in Laughlin.  Here's some pics of the hotel, train and the views:

Here's the train "station."  You boarded the train here.  It ran once every 20-30 minutes, if I remember correctly.  Best part of it:  it was FREE!!!!  Gotta love free stuff!!

                              All aboard! The Ramada Express is at your service!!

 

Here's a view from the train.  Isn't it pretty?

 HOT MAMA!!  Isn't she one FOXY Grandma?  I thought so, too.  She bought the PJ's in Mexico and they were so silky. I loved the feel of them.  She was NOT too thrilled with me taking the picture, but sometimes you just have to "let go" and just have it done!  Hehehe.....

Doesn't Grandma look lonely?  I forget what we were waiting for, but it must have been a long time because Grandma doesn't look too happy right now.  The final two pics below of the original batch are of the Colorado Belle Hotel-Casino.  Grandma has friends who always stay over there.  It's so cool with the nautical theme!!

Mother taking her smoke break.  She wasn't allowed to smoke in either my or Grandma's cars!  So we had to stop every so often so she could smoke.  Didn't matter if it was rain or shine!  I was so happy when she gave up smoking in March of 1999.  And more importantly, she STAYED quit.  Way to go, Mom!

Here I am (standing) winning my loot.  Yeah, right!  I'm not much of a gambler. I worked too hard for my money and I hated to put it into a machine that more times than not, kept it!!!  They also have a rule about not taking pics in casinos, but I didn't see a sign up at the Colorado Belle, so I had just one taken of me.

Mom enjoying the view off the little foot bridge on the banks of the Colorado River.

Mom and Grandma looking at the fish that swam through a pond to the Colorado River.  There was a ferry you could take that would take you over to the other bank of the river or to Bull Head City, which was on the other side of the Colorado river.

Here comes the ferry!

The Colorado River.....and I think you can see parts of Bull Head City.

Mother with her collection of coins.  I've titled this picture, "Brother, can you spare a dime?"  I remember it was raining like the dickens in Laughlin that day and Mom's glass lens on her glasses fell right out of the frame and we had to look all over the pavement for it.  When Mom bent over, her coins went over with her, and all over the pavement!  So I was collecting the coins and she and Grandma were trying to find her lens.  Her lens rolled underneath a truck's back wheel.  She retrieved it and off we went.  Time for new glasses, Mom!!

We always had so much fun on our trips and it's those memories that keep me going through all the pain of fibro, the fear of my upcoming surgery and just the hassles of life.  I would so much rather be laughing than crying!!!

Well, folks, gotta get ready and get my medical records.  Hopefully this will be the last trip for records!  Let's keep our fingers crossed.  Hope you all have a blessed Thursday!

God bless!

Until next post,