Rich Z (WebSlave)

Rich, I've been thinking about your bruising. I've had issues for years with bruising, blood vessels rupturing in various places with varying degrees of severity. Had everything tested many times, could never really get a satisfactory explanation. I know that you have a reason in the meds you're taking and I'm not about to contradict your doctors on the need for them.

Maybe some of what I've learned might help you. Doctors at different points have suggested some specific supplements. I've found these to be helpful. First, Vitamins K1 and C. There are a lot of Vit. K2 products around these days, but you need K1 for clotting. Bilberry & grapeseed extracts are also useful. Topical arnica gel can help heal the soreness from bruises which are bothersome. I know too well that bruises triggered from inside, as it were, as opposed to being bruised because a tree branch fell on my head, can take longer to heal and be more uncomfortable while they linger.

There's a fair amount of science backing these particular supplements, especially from Europe. You should absolutely check with your doctor before you take or discontinue any supplements. I know you know, but I'll still state it; natural substances aren't inert or necessarily harmless just because they're natural. (They wouldn't do anything at all if they were.) Your situation is very different from mine, but these things have helped me. Not fixed, but definitely improved things.

Sent from my SM-A716U1 using Tapatalk
 
Actually I was taking an OTC supplement that contained vitamin K1, put it also has potassium in it, so I had to discontinue it when I started taking that Ramipril. Plus I am not sure taking something that promotes clotting while I am also taking a blood thinner to help prevent clotting is going to be a real good idea.

I will tell you, the more I read about medications concerning side effects, incompatibilities with other drugs as well as things commonly considered as beneficial (citrus, bananas, etc.) the more I am really hating being on any drugs. And heck, then I read about the chemo drugs that Connie has been taking and it about makes my hair stand on end. A lot of this stuff seems like it is designed to fix one problem and cause three more. Sort of a pharmaceutical gold mine of keeping people having to continually buy their products.

Well, I only have to be on blood thinners for a year, and I don't intend on staying on that Ramipril for very long. And as for the atorvastatin I am also taking, heck, I don't know about that. Apparently there is a risk of long term use causing liver problems. On top of that, I have been reading it can causing ringing in the ears (tinnitus) which I have had for decades from playing in a rock band in my younger days, and shooting guns a LOT when I was younger. Seems to me that the ear ringing gets worse later in the day after I take the Ramipril, so maybe this is one of those compatibility type problems where the effects are stacking.

Like I said, not crazy about this drug stuff even one little bit.

I have always suspected that doctor's make commissions off of the drugs they prescribe, and whether true or not, it sure seems like doctors are very quick to try to get you on as many drugs as they can. And then they will prescribe drugs with warnings to NOT stop taking them until you consult with your doctor first. Who, quite likely, is just going to tell you to continue taking them.

Heck, I am even afraid to take Tylenol for a headache, or occasionally when I have felt very congested late at night from sinus drainage, Benadryl. Who knows what can happen with that witch's brew drug "soup" in my system? :ack2:

One of these days I fully expect to just spontaneously burst into flames from the chemicals inside of me. Might just be a matter of me hitting the right (wrong?) chord on my Genos keyboard arranger and the frequencies interacting with the drugs will make me go **POOF** like a lit flare!
 
Yeah I suppose K1 might be less than desirable if you're on a blood thinner. I souks probably not yet and communicate with humans when recovering from a migraine . The grapeseed and bilberry extracts don't promote clotting, though. They reduce bruising by helping to strengthen the blood vessels themselves. There is excellent scientific data about bilberry extract in this regard.

Sent from my SM-A716U1 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for your suggestions and hope the migraine goes away soon. I get them myself every now and again. Interestingly enough, when I had my heart attack, they gave me some aspirin laced with nitoglycerin while in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. For a few days afterwards, I got all the earmark preliminary visually disturbing signs of an impending headache but they never developed into an actual headache. So something in that nitro stuff must trigger that sort of visual reaction in me. Even after the effects wore off, I still had visual anomalies. My vision would just jump. Hard to explain, but it was like having a computer with a bad video card with sections of the display jumping around. Very odd effect.

I actually was taking bilberry for a while as a vision health sort of supplement. We ran out, and I don't think Connie has ordered any more. I probably told her not to, since I was feeling maxed out on pills to be taking.

I don't think I ever have taken any grapeseed extract. When I was breeding the corn snakes, I used to give it to both the snakes as well as put it in the water bottles for the rodents. About drove Connie nuts having to put a couple of drops into every rodent water bottle, though. She was taking care of the rodent colony, and this just made the process longer for her.

I will admit that when I went in for that second stent, I was VERY apprehensive about it. With the easy bruising I was thinking my arteries could be darn fragile and not take well to having things shoved through them to the heart. Getting a coronary artery to rupture while implanting a stent would have been one of those "complications" that my cardiologist mentioned. Things could have gotten real ugly then. And honestly, I was half expecting that to happen since I felt my vascular system had been weakened by the pills I had been taking since the heart attack. But, none of that happened, fortunately.

But honestly, the thought has crossed my mind that since I had those arteries in my heart blocked, what are the chances that arteries in other parts of my body don't have some sort of blockage too? Surely there isn't any reason why ONLY those coronary arteries would be affected, is there?
 
That's interesting about the nitro. Back in the day my dad carried nitroglycerin for heart problems. I was his shadow, and it was often just him and me out someplace on the farm. I don't remember when I was first taught how to give him one "just in case." I didn't realize it was still in use for emergencies.

I had a migraine rx at some point that included some cousin of belladonna which I found scary as heck but very effective. Since my shock in 2015 I've had a lot of weird migraines as compared to the ones I used to have, and a lot of weird visual nonsense including fun times with double vision. The Foreigner version was much more fun, lol. But I don't usually have that much visual migraine aura, though. I get olfactory aura, a charming scent of burning hot electrical wiring. I've sent my poor husband on many a search for a stench only I can detect.

I do understand the worry about what else is going on in veins I can't see. I had the first idiopathic blowout in a thigh vein when I was in my early 40s. That was followed by a few others in other places, including a thankfully minor but totally terrifying stroke. Lots of tests and lots of medical bills later, and all I can tell for sure is few things I don't have. Can't really say what the problem is. But the bilberry and grapeseed extracts have helped. At different points I've run out of one or the other, and if it's not replaced, I'll start having trouble again in a couple weeks or so. Restart the supplement, and things will improve in a couple more weeks. I learn slowly but I do learn (sometimes). I haven't run out of these in a couple years.

That was a ramble. Sorry. The supplements haven't fixed the logorrhea. Anyways, I hope you keep recovering and Connie keeps getting through things with success.



Sent from my SM-A716U1 using Tapatalk
 
Yesterday I picked up the mail at our post office box, and in it I got a bill from a urologist. What?? I vaguely remember someone coming into my hospital room to ask me about the blood in the urine I had after that second stent. I told him it was likely because they OD'd me on blood thinners and by 10pm or so, the problem had resolved. He just nodded his head, made some notes on his clipboard, then walked out saying he hoped I was feeling better.

So any sort of doctor can just walk into your hospital room, uninvited, and then charge you for it? I certainly did not ask to see a urologist. I was pretty sure I knew what the problem was. So I am not sure if I should just throw the bill into the trash, or send it back with a piece of my mind attached in a memo, telling them where they can stick that bill.

Oh yeah, I just thought of something. Right before I was about to be discharged, some girl came in also claiming to be either a urologist or representing a urologist. She asked the same questions, and I gave the same answers. Wonder if this means I will be getting another bill from either the same urologist or another one looking for easy money?

Heck, the last time I totaled up in my head what the list prices are for both Connie and I this past few months, I came up with around a half million dollars. That was not even including the prescription medications we have gotten. Anyone going through what Connie and I am without having health insurance might as well just eat a bullet, as the bills will just destroy you financially. Fortunately our Medicare and CHP supplementals are paying most of the bills, and most of that money coming out of pocket is coming out of our Health Savings Accounts we both set up years ago. But those accounts are starting to run thin by now. I am thinking, perhaps naively so, that I am pretty much out of the woods with my heart issues, but heck, Connie is certainly FAR from seeing that light at the end of the tunnel. I have to stop reading stuff online about the average prognosis of ovarian cancer victims or just as certainly, my heart is going to just stop cold one of these days reading that stuff.

Hell, the Biden administration wants to help with debt forgiveness for student loans? Screw that! Put that money towards people with crushing medical bills where it will do a WHOLE lot more good. People who got student loan bills did so voluntarily. Many people who have gotten severely into debt with medical bills likely didn't have any say in the matter when they got struck down by severe health issues. Yeah, I know some people could present the argument that many severe health issues were caused by choices in life style. Maybe so, but how many people who first got hooked on cigarettes REALLY expected to get lung cancer from it? Most people think they are superman until they get hit in the gut HARD by kryptonite.

Ah, just bitching. I was reading an article in the local newspaper the other day written by a woman who runs some sort of grief counseling business. This article just happened to be about the grief from losing a loved one. So I read it, although I never read any of her articles before. Sheesh. According to her, when Connie goes (hopefully not for a while) my future is predicted that I will just become a mean and bitter old SOB. Well heck, you mean I will get WORSE?? :hehe:
 
Aw, dammit all to hell...

I went to exercise the Onan generator today, and the damn thing won't start.

That was after I discovered that one of the mosquito magnets was out. Propane tank was empty and the battery was dead. So I fixed that. Then a few hours later, the other mosquito magnet was dead. That just needed the propane tank replaced. So we are now out of propane tanks that are full.

A day or two ago (time and days just run together now) I hear Connie yelp in the kitchen. She said her potato peeler just broke. Looked like part of the metal sleeve holding the center rod in place just broke off. We looked around for it, but couldn't find it. RED FLAG ON THE FIELD!

So while I am looking for potato peelers online for her, she comes into the den. I just happened to be looking at automated potato peelers, so when she saw my computer screen she just yells out "Oh, HELL NO!!" She isn't all that keen on contraptions, even labor saving devices, when it comes to the kitchen. When I calmed her down and said I wasn't really going to buy anything like that she told me of the next calamity. She said yesterday when she was washing dishes, she heard the garbage disposal make a racket like she had dropped something hard in it. So she shut it down and didn't think anything of it. Till today when she tried to use it again, and it just hummed and didn't run. So that metal piece we couldn't find apparently dropped into the disposal and had now jammed it up. So, here we go....

I had to bring over some tools and especially an inspection camera (you really NEED something like that at the strangest times) so I could try to see down there inside of the disposal. Not the easiest thing to do anyway. All the while I am thinking that I am going to have to pull that disposal out to try to work on it, and even then, quite likely I will have to wind up ordering a new one anyway. Sigh..... But anyway, I didn't have a clue about what should look normal looking down into a garbage disposal. But there was a flat piece of metal (I was expecting to see a curved piece like what would have broken off of that potato peeler.) that looked like it might be jammed in there. But getting it out was a different story. Yeah, I could get my hand in there, but didn't do me a lot of good. I had a long pair of needlenose pliers, but I couldn't grab that piece of metal. I then tried a much smaller paid, but that meant sticking my entire hand down there and then there was just barely room to actually use those pliers. I couldn't grab it, but I did manage to move it, and then the rotating part of the disposal could then be moved manually. But that piece of metal was still in there somewhere. So what the heck. I was pretty much convinced I was going to have to buy a new disposal anyway, so I told Connie to stand back, as I was just going to turn it on and see what happens. Miraculously, it worked. I guess that piece of metal thankfully just passed on through. Either that or it is still lurking in there waiting to jam up again.

But it seems like every day there is a new headache popping up. This is on top of our medical issues, especially Connie's where it seems we are just in some sort of limbo right now. She is getting bouts of depression, worrying about why it seems like no one gives a damn about her from all the doctors she has been exposed to lately.

Speaking of which, the new drug the oncologist is talking about using on Connie has as a COMMON side effect some nasty skin effects on the hands and feet, especially where heat and friction are concerned. Dr. Ellison said that applying cold to the hands and feet will help tremendously to reduce or neutralize that problem. So as soon as I learned this, I checked around and found cold pack gloves, and cold pack socks. Found this on Amazon, so I order the whole set. Status showed they would all be delivered on Tuesday, 09-06 with free shipping. Well, OK. But I don't know when Connie will be getting that chemo treatment, and I noticed that they offered faster delivery for $15 more as an upgrade. So heck, I decided to go with that. But wait, the delivery date hadn't changed. So I got on their chat and talked to someone about that. They said that the absolute earliest that package could be delivered was on Tuesday, 09-06. Well damn. So I wanted my $15 back. But they can't do that until the package actually ships and they can issue a refund. Why in hell they can't do an adjustment before hand baffles me, but honestly I just am not an Amazon fan anyway, so par for the course. I will just have to wait till Tuesday.

Then yesterday I checked status on that Amazon order, and it was showing delivery on Wednesday. WTH??? So again, I contacted Amazon via chat, and talked with two people there. Both said that on their screen they are seeing delivery on Tuesday. I refreshed my screen, tried a different browser, and even tried on the laptop, but I was still seeing delivery on Wednesday. So OK, guess I just have no choice but to wait. I figured if they shipped by Satuday using FedEx or USPS, Tuesday delivery was still possible. Monday is a holiday, of course, but I figured it was doable.

So I checked today, and delivery is showing for Tuesday again. Yay! But wait a minute! Shipped is UPS. Again, WTH??? There is no tracking number and it does not show as have been shipped yet. Today is Sunday. UPS is not open. Monday is a holiday. UPS is not open. So how the HECK is that package going to be delivered on Tuesday?

Here is the thing, I NEED that stuff before Connie gets her chemo treatment. Of course, as a side note, Dr. Ellison wants Connie's cardiologist to sign off on her getting that Doxil treatment. Connie emailed the cardiologist assistant on this past Thursday, but Dr. Ellison's office hadn't sent over the paperwork yet. So Connie got one of Dr. Ellison's staff to send that over. The assistant acknowledged receipt and said she would get that to the cardiologist and they would get back to Connie. Nope, didn't happen. So now what? I am thinking that the cardiologist is thinking Dr. Ellison can just go fly a kite. Oncology drugs is not her responsibility, and quite likely she just doesn't want her name on anything if the possible heart effects that Doxil can cause come to be. So I don't know what is going to happen. Connie doesn't know what is going to happen. Hence her feeling like she has become a hot potato that no one wants to grab onto. But if things suddenly do break loose and Dr. Ellison wants Connie to come in on Wednesday for chemo, and we did NOT get those cooling packs on Tuesday, then we have to postpone the treatment. Since it has been over a month since Connie's last treatment, are those cancer cells rallying because of the lack of continued treatments?

I swear, with all this going on, I am about to pop a blood vessel in my brain. Honestly, I do feel a tightness in my chest from the stress, so maybe that is getting ready to pop too.

I think that if it weren't for the fact that I might not be able to stop, I would just start screaming....................................
 
So, just to forcefully stick my own foot down my throat (yum! the taste of toes!) I just got an email notice a few minutes ago stating that the Amazon order I mentioned above has been shipped today. :face_palm_02:

This IS Sunday, isn't it? Honestly, I wouldn't bet a dime that it is with my brain so frazzed. Maybe I should go out and see if that generator starts up too.

:crazy03:
 
WebSlave said:
So, just to forcefully stick my own foot down my throat (yum! the taste of toes!) I just got an email notice a few minutes ago stating that the Amazon order I mentioned above has been shipped today. :face_palm_02:

This IS Sunday, isn't it? Honestly, I wouldn't bet a dime that it is with my brain so frazzed. Maybe I should go out and see if that generator starts up too.

:crazy03:
Click to expand...
A worker at the Amazon ship center put your package into the UPS trailer, hence the "shipped" status. UPS will pick those trailers up and move them; their big trucks do run on Sundays and holidays even though they don't do deliveries and their ship centers aren't open.
 
bcr229 said:
A worker at the Amazon ship center put your package into the UPS trailer, hence the "shipped" status. UPS will pick those trailers up and move them; their big trucks do run on Sundays and holidays even though they don't do deliveries and their ship centers aren't open.
Click to expand...

Well, tracking info on the UPS site is still showing "The delivery date will be provided as soon as possible."

I feel like the entire world has turned against me to try to drive me insane.

It is probably working, but I am already too insane to recognize it. How would you know?
 
Well, sheesh. The package showed up today, after all. :face_palm_02:

I guess I am just on the razor thin edge lately. When I am tasked with doing something for Connie, it is the most important thing in the universe to me.

Haven't even looked at the generator problem yet. Besides the fact I just don't want to deal with yet something else on my plate, the weather station says if "feels like" it is 112.6 degrees out right now. I was just out there, and I agree. But I should put the station in the garage and see what it thinks about being in there. Coming outside is like coming out of an oven. Yeah, I have a small portable AC in there, but it is nowhere near being up to the task. If I needed to be in there during the hot part of the day during the hot part of the year, I would see about a better cooling solution. But if I need to work in there, midnight to 3am will have to do. Wish I could work on the generator during that time period, but I would have to have so many lighting systems out there, I would be tripping over wires and break my fool neck.

Besides, what does it matter? If a hurricane shows up on the radar, we would just bail out of here anyway. Presuming that Connie would be up to the trip, of course. If not, well, I can't even think about crossing that sort of bridge right now.
 
I was in a pretty foul mood today for some reason. Just woke up not feeling like I wanted to reenter the world at all. Probably just stress eating away at me.

I decided to at least do a little something outside, so I pulled off the side panel on the generator and sprayed the spark plugs with "Break Free" for when I want to pull them out. LAST thing I would need is for a rust frozen spark plug to snap off in the engine head! I also checked the oil level, as I know the engine has a low oil shutoff switch in it. Which meant taking off the other side panel. Oil was good, though. I did a visual scan of the wiring, looking for rodent chews, but I have made it pretty rodent proof, and there were no signs of rodents anywhere. Just for chuckles, I tried to start it again, but no go. On a hunch, I tried starting it again, and watched the throttle rod that controls the amount of propane fueling the engine. Hmm, not moving at all. So while hitting the start button, I reached around and moved the rod manually. Started right up.

Long story short, I lubed up the rod linkage, hoping it isn't getting bound up in the fuel control electronic module that actually controls that rod. So far seems to be starting up fine. Still popping sometimes upon start up, so I am planning to replace the ignition system anyway. I found that the popping had popped the air cleaner off of the carburetor, so I have to keep an eye on that. Might as well replace that air filter anyway, while I am at it.

So at least one good thing happened today. Rest of the day? Well, BLAH.... :crap:
 
Got another statement from my health insurance carrier today. Not a bill, just showing me what doctors have sent to the as billings and what they paid and what I am supposed to pay.

Interestingly enough, there are several doctors that I don't have a clue about who they are or what they are charging for. One of them is charging $1,160.00 for something called "Observation services, doctor". So who the heck was that?

Another, "Services on discharge day", charging $453.00. I supposedly owe $40 for that. When I got discharged, I just picked up my things, tidied up the room, and walked out with Connie and our friend Rickey.

ONEBLOOD, INC wants $85.00 for "Blood bank physician consult". Eh?

Another doctor wants $214.00 for "New doctor office visit", of which I am supposed to pay $40.00. That was on 07-20-2022. I didn't go to ANY doctor's office that day, as I was discharged from the hospital and went straight home.

Same day (07-20-2022) another doctor is making a claim for "New doctor visit, 45+ minutes". This one wants $289.00, of which I supposedly owe $40.00. Again, I never went to ANY doctor's office that day.

Now I did get a bill from some urologist. I do remember someone coming by my hospital room asking how I was doing. I told them I pissed blood right after the surgery, but by 10 or 10:30 that night, everything was fine. Maybe that is one of the doctor's mentioned above? Well, I certainly did not ask to see a urologist. I did get a bill from a urologist, but I can't see any reason to pay it. I didn't ask for any such services, and certainly did not invite anyone to come to my hospital room.

So how does this work? If you go into a hospital, any Joe Blow doctor can walk by your room (maybe not even bother going in) and then can send your health insurance a bill for that? I do remember one guy coming in, sat down in the chair, asked how I was doing. Made a couple of notes, then stood up and said to let the nurses know if I needed anything, and left. I don't know if that is the one who charged $1,000 for observation, or the other guy who said I was in his office for over 45 minutes. :shrug01:

Maybe I need to contact Capital Health Plan and ask them about this. Seems like some of these doctors have quite a racket going on. The Mafia doesn't have anything better! Oh, they do have a phone number I can call if I see anything that might be considered as "dishonest billing". Wonder what sort of hornet's nest I will kick up by doing that? I guess as long as they don't try to shake me down for money, then heck, why give myself another headache?

Anyway, year to date billings to my health insurance now stands at $165,096.38. DON'T have a heart attack if you don't have health insurance! If I actually got a bill for that amount, my heart would have exploded right then and there.
 
What a load of horse :censored: !

That happened to me when I was in for my spinal fusions. In my woozy, post-anesthetic state, people kept wandering in, asking silly questions, and billing our insurance for hundreds of dollars. I disputed most of them, and didn't have to pay. Apparently, you need to keep a list of in-network providers with you at all times.

Also, they kept pushing for tests that I didn't think I needed. Don't know if this happened to you. I had a slight fever after surgery, and they wanted to do blood cultures. Post surgical, low-grade fevers aren't uncommon, but they were acting like I had somehow gotten staphylococcus in my bloodstream. My fever went down on its own, within about 12 hours. What a money grab! 😡
 
Well, I am sure that partially explains why health insurance is so darn expensive. :rolleyes:
 
WebSlave said:
Anyway, year to date billings to my health insurance now stands at $165,096.38. DON'T have a heart attack if you don't have health insurance! If I actually got a bill for that amount, my heart would have exploded right then and there.
Click to expand...

Connie got her health insurance statement in too. The amount providers have billed her plan is $338,712.02. So DON'T get cancer if you don't have health insurance, neither. And really, really, REALLY hope not to have both medical issues show up at the same time in one family. :ack2: :ack2: :ack2: :ack2: :ack2:
 
Made a BIG mistake tonight. Been reading up on Stage IV ovarian cancer, the chemo regimens recommended, and the overall likely survival rate of the patients. I thought that stuff would be easier to take now, since some time has passed since Connie's original diagnosis, but nope. Still just as tough to take. I wonder if there are any sort of parental guidance controls I could engage on my browser to block such sites from my reading them again?

Well after reading that stuff, somehow I wound up on a webpage related to a new term to me: Widowhood Effect

Also containing some pretty disturbing information:

With the widowhood effect, older adults grieving a spouse’s death have an increased mortality risk compared to those whose spouses are living. This effect has even been documented by researchers. A 2013 study that appeared in the Journal of Public Health showed that people had a 66% higher risk of dying within the first 90 days of losing their spouse. This discovery held true for both men and women.

A previous study from 2008 drew a similar conclusion, finding that surviving spouses had up to a 90% chance of dying within the first three months following the death of their spouse.
Click to expand...

:eek:
 
I hope both of you have long happy years together left to you.

As far as your billing, remember the changes for my son's recent hospital stay. After his stay in the ICU I'm sure the bill itself must have been massive. It ended up at about two thousand bucks as the cost to him and friends chipped in on that, plus the hospital arranged the paperwork so he now has free health insurance.

I hope the final bill to you is a similar positive experience.
 
Thank you.

Connie has already reached her limit of out of pocket expenses for her insurance, so except for Schedule D drugs, everything else should be paid for by the insurance company. I think, anyway. Figuring out such stuff can be complicated. Until January 1, of course, then is starts all over again. I am only about a third way through my out of pocket payout cap. But I don't expect much more, if any more medical expenses (knock on wood) for myself.

Honestly, I was VERY concerned that the oncology center would come after us for the amount not paid for by our insurance. But I read last night that contractually, they are not allowed to do that. We are only obligated to pay what the insurance company states is our copay amount, and nothing more. At least that is the way I read it.

Section 1.3 Our plan does not allow providers to “balance bill” you

As a member of Capital Health Plan Advantage Plus, an important protection for you is that you only have to pay your cost-sharing amount when you get services covered by our plan. We do not allow providers to add additional separate charges, called “balance billing.” This protection (that you never pay more than your cost-sharing amount) applies even if we pay the provider less than the provider charges for a service and even if there is a dispute and we don’t pay certain provider charges.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top