healthy summer, step 2

I hesitate to write this because several people who read this blog have serious medical issues. WAY more important and life threatening than mine. If you're one of them, go ahead and skip this post. It's just the mad ramblings of a (hopefully) healthy person.

It was health day.

At 6:45 am I was having my biometric screening done at Quest. I walked up (hill) and up the stairs. I was 10 minutes early for my appointment. I wanted to have time to "rest" before they took my blood pressure. They took me right away. And guess what? My BP was normal—117/72. We had discussed the situation and she decided to do it right away, and then we could redo it, if need be, at the end. I hadn't even taken my meds yet. This convinced me that I am taking way too much, and something needs to change.

Then I decided to do my online class. I got that message again about "You have a new communication available with the Benefit-store that may require action". Every time I click this link there is not a message center. It puzzles me. So I decided to investigate. Lately, I have nothing but time on my hands.

I don't go to these sites often, so I always have to figure out what the password is. Even though we theoretically have one password system and portal. We don't. My benefit with this school is health care. So I went to the healthcare area. No messages. So I decided I would click on ever link and see if I could follow the breadcrumbs. Nothing. The only thing left to click was "pay my bill". I'm pretty sure it's deducted from my paycheck, but okay, lets see where that leads us. I clicked correspondence and all those "You have a new communication available with the Benefit-store that may require action" messages were there.

It had taken me 15 minutes to find it. I clicked on it. It said I owed $500. Say what? I clicked on all of them. Each month it was $63+ dollars and the balance kept going up. I was 7 month behind. WTF? I've been using my health insurance for months without issue. Clearly they wouldn't cover me if the bill isn't paid. And I was heading out for an expensive mammogram.

I then look at my pay stubs. But first, again, I had to figure out how to access them. I never look at them. They are taking $100+ out a pay for health insurance. That's what I thought. WTF?

I call. We talk. She puts me on hold. We talk more. She puts me on hold again. Bottom line is the AFLAC portion does not come out of my pay, since the company doesn't contribute to it. I chose it because it covers long-term illnesses and hospital stays. At the time I thought that was important. But it isn't. Well, you'll see later why. But I'm stuck with it till December. At some point don't you think they could have sent me a past-due notice instead of the useless one? Now it's set up on auto-pay.

The iinsurance issues and talking to my sister Barbara, took up the time to leave for the mammogram. I didn't have insurance for about 16 years, so it's probably close to 20 years since I had my first one done. The tech asked why now. I told her Obamacare. I now have insurance. And I want to get people off my back. It will take two days to get the results. So it will probably be Monday.

Now to schedule the colonoscopy. I've never done that before. I've heard wonderful tales about it.

And I need to find a dermatologist. I have bunches of moles to remove. I have the ones on my face like mama's. I don't want those turning black like hers. And some on my belly that are annoying. And although my sister tells me there is nothing there, I'm fairly sure there's one under my bra strap. Of all the tests and the doctors in the "summer of health", this is the one that terrifies me the most. I spend a lot of time outside, and only use sunscreen occasionally. (I lost my bottle in Kentucky or Ohio! Still haven't bought more.) Even if I do use it, I forget to reapply. Plus I miss-spent my youth coating myself with baby oil and laying in the sun. We were nuts.

If I get all that done, it is plenty for one summer. The doctor is going to have to wait till next year for that gyno referral. It not like I have dozens of men parading thru my bedroom.

Hopefully the results come back fine for everything, but even if they don't it won't change the way I run my life. I dislike doctors a lot, and more importantly, I don't trust any of them ... one reason the dermatologist has been on the to-do list for three or four years ... at all. I don't trust hospitals either, so I won't sleep at one. (Why did I buy AFLAC?) Especially after my mom's stroke. That was a clusterf*ck of epic proportions. So if things are bad, nature, most likely will just take it's course.  Which makes it pointless to have the test, right? It's just wasted resources.