Short one today?

We'll see. I have not been writing as regularly as before - each month seems to taper off from the previous. Yesterday was my 6 week since the last scan checkup. He wants to press on my lower belly, and it just tickles so much I don't think he gets a very good feel. He gave me technical terms for some of my minor symptoms-they are all minor but cumulatively they suck. I don't remember the terms but it was somehow comforting to know they have occurred enough in others to warrant a name.

Anyway, the checkup was positive as were the blood test results they called me with today. Let me tell ya, Sarah the nurse there put that needle in my arm so smoothly that I had to ask if it was in,

I could go on here about what seems a myriad of little side effects, but that feels like whining. I will tell you that limitations the side effects put on my life are depressing. My routine, established the hard way after fighting it, is good mornings, twilight zone wobbly afternoons after the pill, and then a good evening and tuckered out about 10pm. If I try to vary much from that routine, I pay a price for a couple days, so . . .

This morning after Jacki left I could hear water running slowly through pipes. Slower than a running toilet, faster than a trickle. I tracked it down. Water at a fast drip seeping from the bottom of our water heater. I have seen this before and I know what must be done. So, my next thought was "How do I fit this around my mandatory routine?" Much of the rest of the morning I spent sopping up water, sucking it out of the carpet, and finding a duplicate heater to fit the explicit size requirements of the space where it must fit. It will be available in the morning, and I have a skilled guy who will install it for $50. Total cost then is a bit over $310. Cold showers.

Money. I learned yesterday the group rates from my ex employer, which I still get through COBRA, nearly double as of the 1st of November. $948 a month for a man between 56 and 59. One of the very early actions Obama took in office was to subsidize COBRA payments for people who lost their jobs. Instead of $948, I am responsible for $331 per month. Of course, as of Nov 1st a new deductible cycle begins for a few thousand. The entity I distrust the most is the insurance company. What possible right do they have to almost double rates?

I was a headhunter in the health insurance industry for 3 years. I worked on many sales person positions that included compensation from $100,000 to near $1,000,000 per year. Sales people! During those 3 years the CEO of one of the 3 largest Insurance companies received a bonus of over $1,000,000,000. Count those zeroes. Billion. There are software companies that specialize in ER, ICU, maternity, admissions, on and on, all with a different software, none of which will talk to the other software. All of those specialized software companies have sales people and Executives, all making six figures or more. I talked with hundreds of those people and would occasionally ask them about patients. None of them see patients and rarely hear anything about what impact their product has on what this is all supposedly all about. I did hear a great deal of talk, like, 100% of those people, about money. When looking at almost any position with direct patient contact and many many supporting roles, I always heard about patients.

Did I mention the hundreds of positions in the insurance industry whose only reason for existing is to decrease the amount of money doctors, nurses and health care professionals receive and even positions focused solely on making every effort to reduce the insurance benefits paid for health care we do receive. Even more extreme: every insurance company has positions dedicated to going back over claims paid to try to find where too much was paid and get it back from the patient. I'm not making any of this up, nor exaggerating - insurance companies are about pure unadulterated greed. After 3 years, I became aware that the industry is just plain slimy greed. Maybe it started as a way to get more people covered, but it became infected much like big banks. Billion dollar bonus - where oh where does that money come from? What do cancer victims with no coverage do?

I changed to the oil industry where at least there is little doubt what they are about. However, instead I found people like geologists who loved rocks when little and now get to learn about them for a living.

In about a year my COBRA coverage will run out. 6 months later Medicare will kick in. I I am really scared about what that 6 months will do to our ability to get medical care and the financial hit that may well happen.

Wow! I could go on and on, but the bottom line is I am embarrassed about how our great nation allows insurance entities to determine who gets what care. We can do better. Our nation's moral fiber demands that we must.
Bill