Just because...totally weird by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Just because...totally weird

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Monday, February 4, 2013 13:53
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013 5:27 PM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Here's a truly weird one, and it's a Real World Event for me at least. I know I said we don't usually bring our woes here, but as it turns out it's not really a woe, it's just downright weird.

Okay. I've been after Jim to deal with our health care once he leaves work for months. I've had Medicare as my "second payor" (which wreaks all kinds of havoc with doctors' bookkeepers, who never seem to get it right!), but he never even signed up for it. He promised we'd talk about it this weekend, but predictably he didn't, I didn't push it, and fell asleep this afternoon--so there goes the weekend, he's unemployed in two days, and what do we do?

So I plunked down at the computer angrily and started trying to make heads or tails of what we do for health insurance. And immediately panicked. It's very confusing, I have meds, we both need vision and dental, I didn't even know what the difference is between a "supplemental" plan and "Medicare Advantage", and in a very short time was going crazy and really scared: How do I work out all this shit in two days???

Well, I found this page for California Medicare and went there. More confusion. It had a number to call, so I did--it was already after 6pm so I didn't know if there'd even be anyone there. First weirdness; when I spelled my hame, the woman who answered asked "only one K"? Turns out her name is Nicole and her family calls her Nikki!

That was just the start...it gets weirder. Lovely lady, very sweet and reassuring, I told her our situation and she said she'd work us through it. Apparently where Medicare is concerned, we're all individuals so have to figure out what to do for each of us. Didn't know that, either.

Complications:

--I'm still only 64 and on disability, which will make it ultra-expensive for me. Ouch, but the apparently cost will drop like a rock when I hit 65.

--Jim never bothered to sign up for Medicare when he became eligible for Social Security, so he has to do that before we can do ANYTHING for him!

Oh, joy. We went over stuff and she e-mailed me so I could send her a list of my meds to start with, then she will work up our options. I mentioned my bipolar meds and said I'd probably be getting off them anyway and have stashed up enough for a couple more months while I figure it out.

Then I get her e-mail and her last name is the same as my ex-ranger friend, my closest and oldest friend whom I've known since we were both 12! I list my meds and respond, telling her about how funny that is.

THEN I get her reply and she tells me she understand about the bipolarity stuff BECAUSE SHE'S BIPOLAR II TOO!

How's that for weird?? I mean, there are quite a few of us around, but still...!

Anyway, she's a doll and will work up stuff for me to talk to her about tomorrow, and you can only imagine how grateful I am...I was really in a panic. In a way it's a good thing; if I'd gone into all this and told Jim about it months ago (as I should have), I KNOW he'd have gone on working rather than get the (expensive, I have no doubt) health insurance supplement to Medicare. So now instead I have a personal connection with someone who knows all the ins and outs of this, Jim has promised to go to the Social Security office in the City TOMORROW and sign up for Medicare. It's gonna be tough (and we don't have that much to begin with, especially now without Jim's salary), but it will all work out in the end, and I'm still sitting her shaking my head at the serendipity, irony and coincidence of all this!

But it means I can go have dinner and will be able to sleep tonight, so I'm grateful. I'll tell 'ya, if I believed in "signs from god", this would do it, it's sooooo strange!

Totally unrelated; if there are any fish fanciers here, I had the thrill last night of discovering I'm a kirbensis grandma!! My female died some time ago, as did Choey's, and we've been looking for a couple of females for our guys ever since. I found one, got her about a month ago, and last night to my shock discovered SCADS of little "kribenslets" swimming around her. They are wonderful parents, and the three poor barbs in their tank don't know what the hell to do, they keep being chased away from wherever she moves the babies to! Fascinating watching them parent, and excited to watch the little ones grow.

I dearly love kribs, and mourned when my guy lost his mate, and at first he wanted nothing to do with the new gal (who's MUCH smaller than him, being younger), so this has been a real big treat for me, and once they grow up, I can sell them to various pet stores in the area (keeping the best little female for Choey, of course!). Choey's been researching, and says once they produce young, they keep right on doing so. What fun!

There; that's my NON-drunken rant for the day; I'm off to check on the babies, have dinner and go to bed. Whew!

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013 5:40 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Niki, that health insurance thing sounds very frustrating, but fortunately you got ahold of someone who sounds helpful and hopefully you'll be able to get it all sorted out.

You're going to stop taking your medicine? I hope that goes allright for you. Fish are neat, they're the only pet that doesn't scare me, since they stay in their tank and don't shed and don't get in my space and make me skittish. It will be neat to sell the babies to the pet store and it sounds like they'll keep producing babies. How's working at the animal rehabilitation place going for you so far? I know you were going to begin helping there one day a week!

I just want to say that I like reading posts about people's lives, its easier to feel like you guys are my friends if we talk about normal life stuff together. I like threads of that nature. I don't start them of my own because I doubt anyone wants to read mine, but sometimes I wish I could. That being said they are a lot more substantive and interesting if the poster isn't nailed, smashed, or otherwise tranked, hence my civil tone in this one vs. my uncivil tone in Jack's.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013 6:24 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Thanx for remembering, Riona, that's very sweet, very "human" of you. I didn't go to the orientation. In all honesty I forgot it, but when I thought about it, I didn't follow up.

You see, the first thing they'll want a new volunteer to do, probably for about a year, is work the "Baby Bird Room". This room has tables all around the walls filled with orphaned, abandoned, rescued baby birds. I worked it a lot, and it means going around that wall, cage by cage, feeding each species whatever it requires. I guarante that when you get all the way around the room, it's time to start all over again. It's funnier than hell and fun, but I realize there's no way I can DO it. I can't stand for long and I can't walk without a cane...juggling a cane and bird food at the same time would be absurd, and essentially I just couldn't do it. I've toyed with the idea of contacting them to see if there was any other way I could volunteer, but I'm procrastinating, especially because there's only one orientation a year, and I missed it. Eh, such is life.

I'll be okay, med wise. I made sure to stock up, and for a long time now I've only taken the Lamotrigine (generic lamictal) and venalfaxine (generic effexor) once a day, rather than the 3/2 times a day respectively I'm prescribed. I expect no problems. Bear in mind I'm only Bipolar II, I survived for 48 years before any meds, and, most importantly, my bipolarity disabled me because I spent my working life in a high-pressure situation; if I'd known earlier I'd have chosen another profession, and probably still be working. Since becoming disabled, my life has been very quiet and I keep it that way, I'm pretty much totally isolated from other humans except for her, when I run with BAM, and Jim and Choey. So I'm pretty sure I'll be fine...what will bring out the WORST of my bipolarity will be my effort to quit smoking, so I'm determined to do THAT before my meds run out! ;o)

You'd love kribs. They have more personality than most fish, and are more intelligent (for a fish!)...they'll come right up to the glass and watch you, and they get to know you. They get all pink when they have a mate--the female gets downright MAGENTA!, and their little faces are funny, as well as them being just plain beautiful.

Male Kribs without a lady around:

Male Krib WITH a lady around:

Mated pair (and she is VERY preggers):

I can't find any photos of one faced forward, but this guy faces right at you in the beginning. The second female is a daughter, so he'll only mate with his original mate; hence the difference in color:

They have this knobbly nose which is so cute, and they look right at you. You can really see how the little lady turns totally red at 2:20, she's REEELy ready to dump her eggs and wants to coax him to fertilize them, the red goes right down to her FINS--she's really coming on to him! You can see him nipping at another fish to "go away!" (2:10-2:15), which is what my pair are doing to the poor barbs right now. They're VERY protective, and good little parents; both care for the young.

Okay, that's it. I gotta get out of here and eat some dinner, it's getting late.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 7:38 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Tell me about it!!!

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 10:29 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Oh don't even get me STARTED on Medicare/Medicaid...

First thing, like, first, like now - get a LAWYER.
Doesn't have to necessarily be an evil psycho like mine, but having the threat is absolutely imperative when they suddenly decide to yank your coverage and backdate the revocation a month or so, or suddenly term your coverage for no reason, or just decide screw you we're not gonna pay, or suddenly decide you're no longer disabled, or that you've somehow reverted your age and demand you jump through four months of hoops to "prove" otherwise while they hold your coverage hostage, or....
Well, doing what they DO, you see.
*hiiiiiissssssssssss*

Get ready to fight, and fight like you mean it, ALL. THE. TIME. - dreading that trip to the mailbox, wincing at the notion of the next bit of unexpected, factually-ridiculous fuck-you-overy.

The general game is to pull the coverage on some flimsy pretext and make you jump through hoops for months, while they "accidently lose" all the paperwork you send them, and when you finally get that settled - do it all over again a week later, on and on and on and on.
(I should know, twenty YEARS of this bullshit, and right now they're more or less trying to say my leg grew back and I am perfectly fine, while simultaneously saying that my disability is so severe I don't require/need and cannot use a prosthetic so they won't shell out for repairs...)

Having a lawyer at hand will at the very least mitigate the bullshit tide, a little - even if it's just some data-monkey from legal aid, at least the threat thereof needs be present.

-Frem

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:18 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Totally weird, because I have been looking at health insurance options as well Niki, and shaking my head at how much money we will have to spend to get ourselves privately insured. Something we probably should have done years ago, but on reflection we've saved ourselves a shit load of money by not doing it.

The time looms inevitably. My husband has glassses, I need them. We all need substantive dental work and my husband will probably need a knee construction in the next few years. Neither glasses nor dental is covered by the public system, and knee reconstruction counts as 'elective' surgery, if you can believe it, which means you can be on a list for years.

So I feel your anxiety, but glad its working out for you.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:29 AM

BYTEMITE

Quote:
You can really see how the little lady turns totally red at 2:20, she's REEELy ready to dump her eggs and wants to coax him to fertilize them, the red goes right down to her FINS--she's really coming on to him!

*blink* *blink*

And someone even set up a video camera.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 12:11 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Oh, are you kidding Byte! Fish folk are as insane about their fish as dog/cat people! You can find tons on line and on YouTube--I THINK moreso Kribs than many other fish. People really love their Kribs, and I fully understand why!

Fish fanciers have probably as many websites and forums as any other interest, and they're lively, believe me. I've wanted Neon Tetras for ages, but couldn't seem to keep them alive. Found several forums and now I haven't lost a single one; I got enough info to let me make the perfect environment for them, and I admit it was fun doing. Yeah, I imagine people who collect or raise or whatever just about ANY animal have forums, wanting to talk to others just like we Browncoats do.

Mamma's been moving the little ones--geez, there must be 50!--all over the place, which is tough because I have to FIND them to FEED them (they take a special diet of MICROSCOPIC food particles...liquid even...until they're bigger. It's become a game of hide and seek, with Papa Krib right in my nose up against the glass as I try to find 'em. The poor Barbs, I wish I had somewhere else to put them, 'cuz both Mamma and Pappa seem to chase them away wherEVER they try to be. Parents...bah... ;o)

Frem, here it is again, as with guns...you're coming at this from your own experience, and we'll see whether we have anything like the trouble you do. I've only had ONE problem with an insurance company in my whole life; you've had to deal with really complex, extensive stuff, it's not like that for all of us. We'll see how it goes, but I'm not engaging a lawyer and the expense of same and expecting heavy battles.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 12:34 PM

BYTEMITE

Quote:
Oh, are you kidding Byte! Fish folk are as insane about their fish as dog/cat people! You can find tons on line and on YouTube--I THINK moreso Kribs than many other fish. People really love their Kribs, and I fully understand why!

Yes. I can see that.

Requesting privacy curtain for the aquarium.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 1:21 PM

PENGUIN

A supplemental plan helps pay for things like your deductible and the 20% coinsurance.

A Medicare Advantage plan is just another form of Medicare...sort of like a Medicare HMO.

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 2:07 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Yeah, I'm getting that. Little by little, with Nikki's help, I'm starting to make sense of this

!

Yeah, Byte, you'd think that's the LEAST I could do for them! But I have to go in 4 times a day to feed the kriblets, and damn, she's good at hiding them! I should strip the aquarium of all but two hiding places to make it easier for myself, but Mom and Pop would no doubt resent that. Sigh...being a grandma is SUCH work...! ;o)

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 2:25 PM

BYTEMITE

Quote:
Mom and Pop would no doubt resent that. Sigh...being a grandma is SUCH work...! ;o)

That's... ADORBS.

Except for the parents that are will to go to town in public with everyone watching. But the sentiment is not unappreciated.

I have recovered. The balance of vibes has returned to equilibrium and the prude is now at ease.

Also, good luck with medicare and medicaid, I am not familiar enough with either to contribute much to that conversation.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013 2:38 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

They're neat Niki, I'm glad you're having such fun with them. I try and remember what my friends are interested in and doing, so it wasn't rocket science for me to remember that you were thinking about helping with the animal rehab. I guess you'll find other things to do instead. How's Occupy going? I haven't heard about it in a while, from you or anyone else, I know you were enjoying that, making signs etc.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Friday, February 1, 2013 8:17 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Yup, Brenda, I have NO doubt you do! My deepest sympathy.

Jim had to go to an SSI office to get Medicare before we could do anything else. He went to the one near his office: It was closed. So the next nearest one was in Chinatown...oops! Took him three hours, he said there were TONS of people there, and he has problems with accents and broken English, so...oops again! He got it done, tho' (I'm proud of him). They gave him a form to give to his employers to verify he'd had insurance coverage all along (another "augh!" 'cuz where he worked got taken over by the City and is a total mess as a result! It may take months!).

I started crying around noon, and couldn't stop for long until after he'd gotten home and we'd gone over it all. I'm sure people thought I was nuts, as I took the dogs out with my bicycle for a run on Crown Road, riding along bursting into tears periodically.

It was stress reaction, I'm fully aware...stress being the biggest anathema for a bipolar. But it was also shock...the med problem is the worst, and now I know fully what they mean by "donut hole"!!! So I'm going to try and give up all but one of my meds being covered by the plan...hopefully titrate off the bipolar meds, pay for two cheaper ones out of pocket and try to replace another with an over-the-counter substitute. It's scary. Very.

I never hated rich people, or even particularly envied them, but I always hated insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies. Now I still don't hate rich people themselves, but I DO hate that they can afford good health insurance without thinking much about it!

We got a "high deductible" Medicare supplement, so we'll be paying for a lot, since it doesn't even kick in until we reach $2,110, and the Plan N (prescription drugs) is cute. Beyond even the donut hole, Jim has to pay $15 a month even tho' he doesn't take any meds and rarely ever has. If he doesn't, tnen needs it down the line, he has to pay for EVERY MONTH he didn't have it, plus a penalty!! The woman working with me said one of her clients got stuck on that one...didn't pay for four years, then got cancer, and got hit with the above. They've got us coming and going!

Looks like about $10,000 a year, plus everything we have to pay out of pocket (which will be far more than it has been up until now). I won't be going to the doctor unless I'm about on death's door from now on, needless to say, and our lifestyle dropped a little bit closer to "low class" from "lower middle class" than it already has. It's very frustrating that we have to pay for a lot of things we'll never use; but if we don't, we could lose everything to a catastrophic illness otherwise. Fuck insurance.

Jim took it a lot better than I'd expected; he's done a lot of accepting in the past few years and realizes he simply can't go on working; at 74 he just keeps getting more and more tired, even only working three days a week, and is at the point where he just can't keep on (and this is a guy who works as hard as humanly possible to stay in shape). He tried to reassure ME (a new reversal!) and said "we'll do what we have to do, and we'll get by".

But of course, nothing I've ever experienced has ever come CLOSE to the tragedies Six experiences daily or help me comprehend...whatever it is I can't could "never comprehend"...

Occupy no longer does our Saturday demonstrations; we demonstrate on individual issues at individual times and places, and I continue to make signs for them. Not one of the issues for which I made signs has been addressed, much less solved, of course. Frustrating, but we keep on keepin' on. As will Jim and I. Thanx for remembering, it makes me feel good; I try to do the same, but not as well as you do.

Re the Kriblets, Byte (I fully agree about the humans!), they're still doing their job as parents excellently. I guess my subconscious is worried about the poor Barbs (who they hassle incessantly), 'cuz last night I dreamed about them, that they'd had their fins bitten off (some fish will do that) and kept jumping out of the tank! Subconsciouses are funny things...you'd think mine would have focused on the Medicare problem. But then it probably did, and I just didn't remember the dream. Better today; turns out we have a couple of months to deal with all this, and I've got a good enough grasp on it that there shouldn't be any more shocks. Who's sig is it that says "With age comes acceptance" or something like that? Substitute "time" for "age" and, well, yup.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Friday, February 1, 2013 11:16 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Oh yuck, I wonder if there aren't some local folks who could help make sense of the process and perhaps cudgel better options out of them ?
One thing to get is the "Big Book" the 2013 MEDICARE AND YOU publication, cause while hard to make sense of, grinding through it may be well worth the trouble, and it doesn't cover all options.

While I don't use prescription drugs whatever unless on deaths very doorstep, that whole coverage-or-else extortive BS hit me too, and for your own protection do not ever, EVER deal with FirstHealth or any of their subsidaries.
And watch out for some serious scammery coming from the mailbox and the phone regarding part D coverage, as "slamming" (switching you to another plan without consent) is very common amongst them.
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0125-medicare-part-d-solicitation
s

Worth calling is CVS, of them all CVS Caremark offered me the best deal, has reasonable, sane, english speaking customer service.
Can't say much to the coverage, being that I am only using them as a roadblock to the extortion, and the local pharmacy has bungled two out of five of my ex's prescription fills, so doublecheck what's in the bag before you leave - still worth it though.

-Frem

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Friday, February 1, 2013 11:21 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

CVS IS what my plan is through, and it's the cheapest. And has been my pharmacy all along (after they took over my Long's...)

And yes, I know all about the "careful wording" of those trying to get me into their Plan D stuff...while waiting for my flu shot yesterday at the pharmacy, I read several of their pamphlets. Already knowing what I did, it was easy to read between their "ad speak" lines!

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Friday, February 1, 2013 11:29 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Oh, ouch...
Well, looks like it's time to shake down the local holstic folk and see what they got, cause that's about the only option left I can suggest.

-F

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Saturday, February 2, 2013 3:51 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Doll, absolutely, positively NO offense taken at being glad you're a Canuck, trust me! Those of us wishing we had a better health care system point to you guys all the time. There are certainly countries that, when I see what's happening in them, I'm glad to be American; Canada is not one of them, but I understand the feeling completely.

And yes, yes, yes. I have a good friend I made on line and happened to visit in Washington on my way to Canada once (long story; we turned around at the border so didn't get to see anything of your beautiful country). He's currently dying of cancer; it's taken, I'm guessing, two years or more of dealing with it before he got to this point. He's had to fight myriad battles to get this or that treatment along the way, and in my opinion the stress of such things shortens one's life and gives the cancer the edge.

That's as much as I will say; at this point, discussing our health-care system as it stands (and to a degree until we can improve Obamacare, like we had to improve SSI and Medicare, which were also horrible bills at first) would be both a waste of everyone's time to read and DEFINITELY not for PG audiences. I'm currently trying not to think about it at all.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Monday, February 4, 2013 1:52 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Hi Niki, it sounds really frustrating what is going on for you guys. I'm really thankful for my health insurance, OR is one of the better states for it (not perfect, but better). I've been very fortunate and have had few glitches in getting the things I need. Last year I experimented with a naturopath for my mh differences, went off my regular medicine. That ... didn't go well, so I gave that up and am doing the regular thing again. I had to pay for the naturopath etc. out of pocket since my insurance only covers a few naturopaths and none that specialize in mental health differences. But I gave up on that due to a lack of success and getting more and more suicidal, that wasn't going to end well. :)

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, February 4, 2013 1:53 PM

BYTEMITE

*twitch*

Naturopaths.

*grumbling*

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