Adventures in the Health Care "System" 4
And here we go again.
There will be yet another ultrasound on Tuesday to find out what is going on "in there". At this point I'm not sure I'd be all that upset if they started talking about a hysterectomy. Just so long as it fixed the problems. Oh who am I kidding of COURSE I'd be upset but considering what the blood work had to say about hormone levels and the functionality of that particular organ all it appears to be doing at the moment is taking up space and it isn't doing that all that well. Damn it. That'll be another $200+ bucks thank you.
The bill isn't in yet for the massive blood work done in early May. I'm pretty sure that'll be an ugly one even with the preferred lab "discount". Soooo, at present I am less than $500 away from the first $3,000 of the deductible. You see, we cough up the first $3,000 via the HSA, the last $2,000 comes from an employer funded HRA. So really I am not out of pocket the full $5,000 but I have to get reimbursed the last $2,000. Confused yet? God knows I am. And of course in order to be reimbursed one must first pay the bill.
Now this next test has absolutely nothing to do with the swelling of the right leg issue. There is minor end-of-day puffiness on the left leg but it is the right leg that has to be the over-achiever and puff up like a blow fish if I skip the medication for more than a day (yes I did experiment and determine that fact). My fear there is that the tumor has in fact come back. Okay "tumor" is misleading, vascular malformation (blood vessels that are a little too fond of spending time together that decide to buddy up and grow new cozy friends in a big mass snuggled into the muscle) is the correct term. If it is back and pressing on nerves or whatever that MIGHT explain the swelling and assorted odd tingling that I have noticed once in a very great while. BUT the knee has always been the primary culprit there and it appears unaffected. Besides the doppler scan went looking for blood clots and didn't find any rogue blood vessels hanging out in gangs. Considering all the network of vessels it did show methinks it would have picked up something weird like that. So still... no viable theories and no answers.
Think I am going to try to resolve the other issue first. It may not be as expensive as the leg thing - and we want to hit the magic $5,000 number BEFORE heading into really costly territory. Okay we don't WANT to head there at all but if one simply must...
So that trip to the ER on the first leg swelling episode? The full bills there are not in either but the scan was $85 much less than expected. The five minutes of the doctor asking if I was having breathing issues and telling me to stay off my feet for a couple of days was $275. Be nice to have his hourly billing rate!! There will probably be a bill for simply showing up and sitting there for several hours too.
Now the anti-health care reform bill folks out there are probably thinking "Ah ha! If we had universal (i.e. government run) health care you'd still be waiting for service, for tests, etc. like they do in Europe" Well guys, I do have at least one friend over there and that really isn't the case. Oh sure there will always be that handful of horror stories but we have those here too. There are people here who can't get the tests they need for one reason or another (typically insurance company related) and yes people here die waiting for treatment too. But can you imagine not having coverage? After all this I certainly can't.
I don't have answers. I am pretty well broke trying to pay all this off. I am frustrated and my body is still telling me something is wrong even if no one but me is listening. But I do have the satisfaction of being able to call, get an appointment and at least get the run-around because I do have coverage - they aren't turning me away. Acting like it is all in my head yes, turning me away no.
There will be yet another ultrasound on Tuesday to find out what is going on "in there". At this point I'm not sure I'd be all that upset if they started talking about a hysterectomy. Just so long as it fixed the problems. Oh who am I kidding of COURSE I'd be upset but considering what the blood work had to say about hormone levels and the functionality of that particular organ all it appears to be doing at the moment is taking up space and it isn't doing that all that well. Damn it. That'll be another $200+ bucks thank you.
The bill isn't in yet for the massive blood work done in early May. I'm pretty sure that'll be an ugly one even with the preferred lab "discount". Soooo, at present I am less than $500 away from the first $3,000 of the deductible. You see, we cough up the first $3,000 via the HSA, the last $2,000 comes from an employer funded HRA. So really I am not out of pocket the full $5,000 but I have to get reimbursed the last $2,000. Confused yet? God knows I am. And of course in order to be reimbursed one must first pay the bill.
Now this next test has absolutely nothing to do with the swelling of the right leg issue. There is minor end-of-day puffiness on the left leg but it is the right leg that has to be the over-achiever and puff up like a blow fish if I skip the medication for more than a day (yes I did experiment and determine that fact). My fear there is that the tumor has in fact come back. Okay "tumor" is misleading, vascular malformation (blood vessels that are a little too fond of spending time together that decide to buddy up and grow new cozy friends in a big mass snuggled into the muscle) is the correct term. If it is back and pressing on nerves or whatever that MIGHT explain the swelling and assorted odd tingling that I have noticed once in a very great while. BUT the knee has always been the primary culprit there and it appears unaffected. Besides the doppler scan went looking for blood clots and didn't find any rogue blood vessels hanging out in gangs. Considering all the network of vessels it did show methinks it would have picked up something weird like that. So still... no viable theories and no answers.
Think I am going to try to resolve the other issue first. It may not be as expensive as the leg thing - and we want to hit the magic $5,000 number BEFORE heading into really costly territory. Okay we don't WANT to head there at all but if one simply must...
So that trip to the ER on the first leg swelling episode? The full bills there are not in either but the scan was $85 much less than expected. The five minutes of the doctor asking if I was having breathing issues and telling me to stay off my feet for a couple of days was $275. Be nice to have his hourly billing rate!! There will probably be a bill for simply showing up and sitting there for several hours too.
Now the anti-health care reform bill folks out there are probably thinking "Ah ha! If we had universal (i.e. government run) health care you'd still be waiting for service, for tests, etc. like they do in Europe" Well guys, I do have at least one friend over there and that really isn't the case. Oh sure there will always be that handful of horror stories but we have those here too. There are people here who can't get the tests they need for one reason or another (typically insurance company related) and yes people here die waiting for treatment too. But can you imagine not having coverage? After all this I certainly can't.
I don't have answers. I am pretty well broke trying to pay all this off. I am frustrated and my body is still telling me something is wrong even if no one but me is listening. But I do have the satisfaction of being able to call, get an appointment and at least get the run-around because I do have coverage - they aren't turning me away. Acting like it is all in my head yes, turning me away no.
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