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Many of you might remember that one of the things that lead up to my having a complete meltdown both physically and mentally was Express Scripts.

No, seriously they were a major contributor. 

The insurance plan I was on, had things set up so that we HAD to use Express Scripts for anything long term.  Or at least that was the way everything came across.

Well, Pill Pack to the rescue.  Not only do they package everything in a convenient box and everything every two weeks, but they do all the pharmacy benefit fighting for you.

For example, when I needed Celebrex and the insurance company was insisting on killing my doctor with paperwork — called a prior authorization — Pill Pack stepped in and handles it.  They have even hunt down manufacturer programs that reduce the cost.

Now I still get my insulin from the local pharmacy, just for the convenience factor all around but when I do have them ship insulin they do it in a cooler with gel packs the right temperature.  Express Scripts put the vials in a package, surrounded it with frozen gel packs and hoped for the best.

And best yet, the Pill Packs have always arrived in time.  There were a few times I wasn't sure that they would get to me in time, but yes, every two weeks I have pills to start when I need them.

They do have a couple of options for traveling and vacations. They can either ship early or they can ship to your vacation site. I haven't tried that yet, but I have full confidence.

Here' their website:  http://www.pillpack.com

For most of my adult life, other people have controlled my time.

That's okay when you have an office to go to, and you are getting paid for a set amount of time and work.  It hasn't worked for me for the past few months.

My weight is going up and my A1C sucks.  So I'm taking control.  First, I've set office hours for CTY, and I'm also setting two days off — Tuesday and Wednesday.  Now that doesn't mean I won't respond to students those days, and in fact will still do email etc.  Those are the days I am going to do doctor's appointments, etc. and I'm not going to tutor those days. 

It also means that I'm going to go to the gym / pool in the early afternoon.  That means I don't need as many calories in the morning and can use my lunch calories for the workout.

Doctor's appointments, hair appointments, etc are going to happen those days.  Those are going to be days I focus on me. 

I have already tried a few days like this and it is working out well.

I had tried wrapping my head around her working while I was swimming, and with the opening the new pool in Farmers Branch, I finally did.

They have an indoor lap pool and therapy pool.  It's wonderful.  She sits in a cage outside the pool.  The first few days she had trouble scenting me — I could tell because she would whine and even howl.  I would stop by her cage and talk to her.  It only took a few days to figure it out. 

I've even been able to do water aerobics — really fun, but way to structured for me — especially timing right now in my life.

My routine right now, is to do some Johns Hopkins work, do some housework, then go to Planet Fitness for strength and cardio, then the pool.  The pool is just a couple of blocks from Planet Fitness.

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Dulce is working again

My husband has started his 3rd week back to work after major surgery and physical rehab.

I'm trying to stop focusing on him, and start taking care of myself.  I've upped my game at the gym and have added the pool.  I saw my endo last week, had a horrible A1C, and he did some major pump tweaks that help.

I still need to be focusing on checking my blood sugar throughout the day.  I tend to stop in the evenings.

I'm going to take a small trip this weekend.  I have the first two stops already planned.  I have a lot of travel in my head, just need to take the time, and do it.

Today, I'm going to try water aerobics — and finally seeing my primary care physician.

I started using Dulce again a few weeks ago and she has upped her game.

Yesterday we were at the endo's and she alerted on another patients high blood sugar.  Today she alerted on another person's low blood sugar.

Really interesting and I am not sure how I feel about it.  I kind of liked it when she only alerted on me.

I am using my diabetes alert dog again.

I stopped because public reactions to her were affecting my sleep. Encounters with people who didn't get it were disturbing me. Besides, I could afford CGMS.

Things have changed. Current insurance doesn't cover them and they cost almost $300 out of pocket.

Dulce is hanging out at the house and available.

The gym people love her and miss her. New tea place that just opened adore her. No problems at any place. We were even at a Starbucks in line in front of two constables and neither cared.

In fact, one asked to visit with her.

She has awesome public skills still. Right now she is chilling on a blanket in front of an exercise bike.

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Yeah, my Facebook peeps know what is going on, but I have been out of touch.

Back at the end of February, my husband had to spend some time with a neurosurgeon.  Trust me, this is never a good thing.

My focus since then has been taking care of him.  Not the spoon feed thing, but getting him to appointments etc.  Currently he is recovering, on short term disability and doing physical rehab every day.

Yes, it’s fun.

But it has been okay.  Quick recap – I had been teaching high school at a large urban district, and was driven out a year ago.  I took a job with a mobile app, which was fun, but it got bought out by google and they are in the process of shutting it down.  Right after I took that job, I took a pat time teaching job with Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and that has been a god send.  I have been doing 28 hours a week with them, teaching and recently added writing courses.

More later, I hope.

Those of you on Facebook know that my husband has been facing a medical crisis.

He had had a headache for several weeks and then had a major change in personality / behavior.  I had been requesting that he contact his doctor before that change because he wasn't getting better.  Of course, I was ignored.

He has United Health Care Choice insurance which we can't figure out exactly what the term Choice  means.  However, Baylor Scott White System is in network.

I've done research and different insurance experts at Baylor Scott White have been helping.  He has a deductible of $2000, which was alarming, I'm used to $1000 deductible.  He also has an out of pocket maximum of $6250, which I'm sure we hit the first day in the emergency room, if not there, in the operating room/recovery room.

So here's what has happened.  He has seen his primary care doctor twice (office visits of $30 copay).  We were sent for a CT scan and have paid co-pays and full price for the scan itself and for the reading.

We were sent to a specific facility and doctor (both in network).  We'll pay copays for emergency room and full price for any of that care until we hit the deductible.  Then we'll pay just copays and 20% of anything.  Once we hit the maximum out of pocket, we don't pay any more.

So far, here's what we got:

2 primary care visits
At least 2 CT Scans
1 emergency room visit
consult by trauma residents
brain surgery and recovery
Surgical ICU for at least 2 days
Regular hospital room for the remainder of the vists
Daily visits by neuro surgeon and by trauma doctor, PT, Speech Therapy, and one visit by Social Worker for plan.
Follow up visits with neurosurgeon, primary care physician
Out patient therapy

It could have been worse.
 

I have an appointment with my endocrinologist next week. In my calendar, I had recorded a lab visit. Apparently, the appointment clerk didn't as I didn't get a reminder call and when I got there,
there was no paper work.

Fortunately a quick recovery but it took extra time. Time I don't want to give up.

I called my contact lens place and told them I wanted a different prescription than what was last prescribed. It is the previous prescription, which I have been wearing. I wanted to know if they wanted to see me first. They scheduled an appointment and told
me they needed call back to update information which I did.

Then another one called to see if she could talk me out of the appointment – she did but it was almost enough to get me to order them from Walgreens and I might yet.

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