Blizzard 2.0!!

We're getting hammered again.

This time we're only getting 10-15 inches of the white stuff. However, this time it comes with 20-40 mile per hour wind!

White out!! (insert Wipe Out music here)

In the midst of all of this, I caught the stomach flu. It was pretty bad. Not quite as bad as the dreaded New Year's flu, but bad nonetheless. I didn't make it home from work before I started puking. Thankfully, my dearest Ellen and I carpooled, so she could drive while I vomited into a Target bag (Thank you...would you like to apply for a Target VISA card today?)

I think I may have lost a few inches of intestine as a result of the amount of puking I did. I shivered and shook and ached. Nastiness!

Clark

Hired!!

I've hired an attorney to settle or plead my case to a jury.

It will be months before things get settled of course. There are a lot of things that will have to happen, but I've changed. Every little twinge or feeling makes me wonder if I'm going to have a heart attack.

Stay tuned....I'm sure I can't post everything about the case, but I will do what I can.

Clark

Texas blogging

Yahoo!!!

I managed to make it back from my trip to Texas unscathed.

I worked hard and enjoyed some really good BBQ. I also ate one of the most delicious hamburgers (a tie with Five Guys) at a place called Terry's. It was built inside an old gas station. Very cool.

I had to leave early because there was a massive snowstorm coming to the DC area. That was fun....not! The flight was packed and bumpy. It left at about 9pm Texas time and arrived at about 12:30 DC time.

My dearest Ellen had all sorts of trouble while I was gone. The Grizzwold curse really took over while I was gone. Just before leaving my middle daughter had gotten some sort of stomach issue. We thought it might have been some bad restaurant food, but when my littlest one got sick with the same symptoms a couple days later (bad enough to have to go to the ER) we were sure it was a stomach flu. Later on my oldest got the same thing (and had to go to the ER as well because my dearest thought she had appendicitis) . In and around all of that, my dearest had to go to the dentist and eye doctor too. I am very proud of her for flying solo.

Clark

More on my heart problem...

The condition is called a Right Bundle Branch Block. You can go to the Mayo Clinic and read on it here.

In a nutshell, the right side of my heart has an electrical irregularity that causes the heart to pump inefficiently. The doctor says that since I was not being treated for hypertension or other heart related illness, the RBBB was probably brought on by the accident. The outside of my body was belted into the car, but as my body was being held in relative position, my gizzards and heart were banging around inside.

I now have had three "episodes" where I don't feel well and there is a heaviness in my chest (not pain, not insufferable). One in the car the moments after collision. One a few days later. One in the cardiologists office.

The cardiologist is taking a wait and see attitude towards my condition because I feel he thinks that it will resolve or not require invasive procedures or be managed. That's good because I take it personally when people want to poke around my insides to see if there is anything wrong. I'm not restricted on movement or anything, so that is good.

Sadly, I have no idea what the future holds. Fortunately, I don't have a Left Bundle Branch Block. That is worse than the Right one (see the Mayo Clinic article to know why). The fear of the unknown is unnerving.

I consulted a personal injury attorney and am considering hiring her to see if I have a case against the insured.

A man knows...

...when he's up against it.

I was in a car accident right before Christmas. Not severe, but the impact caused me some discomfort of the chest, so I was taken to the hospital.

Now I have a problem with my heart. I have no idea what the future holds. It's more electrical than functional, so I'm probably going to be having to watch it vs. getting a procedure for it.

I have a pretty good doctor, so I think I am in good hands.

I have to try and keeps things in perspective. So far it hasn't caused me to discontinue what I like to do. However, I have to lose more weight (I'm down 40, but I need to lose at least another 20).

Clark

It's been such a long time...

(all apologies to Boston)

Time flies...

Sorry that it's been so long.

While I find blogging therapeutic to an extent, the time to do it has been fleeting.

I've been so busy with work and softball. I have two new clients that I've been working with in Maryland to add to the third one. I've been running up and down the road to the tune of a hundred miles a day or more back and forth.

Softball has been pretty good. The travel team did fairly well. We won about half of the the games that we played, beating most of the teams that we should have. We will struggle at times because we are going to end up playing 14U teams that are a year older and stronger.

We have been caught up in the whole swine flu epidemic the past two weeks. My dearest Ellen had a cold for a couple days, then my youngest (now 5) got sick a couple days later at the same time I did. It all lasted about 5 days. Now my dearest and my oldest are sick.

I will try and post some more later...

Clark

This little piggie...

Caught the flu! Coincidentally, while a huge media splash about a hundred or so cases of "swine flu" virus H1N1 has been at the forefront. We've been hit by the bug.

It wasn't me actually, it's my dearest Ellen. She's down with the flu today. I was working from home since the Speck is in the shop and she came down with some nastiness overnight. So much for my quiet day away from the office.

Clark

Prescription Trouble

I’ve had a recent experience that I just had to share with all of you. You see, my new employer, as part of our medical benefits, has employed a mail order prescription drug company to fill all of our “maintenance drugs”. You know them. They are the ones we have to take every day (sometimes twice or more). The rule is that we are “allowed” to have three retail pharmacy refills of a medication before we are “required” to use the mail order pharmacy. The Insurance company makes it pretty easy to remember when you have to do that. They just stop paying for the meds.

My dearest Ellen has been trying to get in to see her endocrinologist in order to get the necessary prescriptions for the mail order pharmacy (they won’t take a transfer or photocopy). The doctor has been OK authorizing her refills, but we were up against “the wall” and had only one more refill before being cut off. The doctor could not see her for four months since it wasn’t an emergency. As a result, we hit the wall and weren’t getting her meds paid for. We were able to get an “override” for a retail pharmacy refill from our insurance company, but we were “cautioned” (more like scolded) that this would be the ONLY override we’d get. In the meantime, my wife decided to change doctors, finding one that would take her almost immediately. We thought she was in the clear.

However, the new doctor would not write her a refill prescription because 1) there were still active refills on her bottle and 2) the doctor wanted to take a gallon of her blood to check her “levels”. Back to square one. We contacted the insurance company to explain our plight. Needless to say we weren’t received well because we had ALREADY used our ONE “override” the prior month. ARGH! No amount of explaining could provide the necessary refill. We were weeks away from another doctor visit. I decided to go to my HR group and see what they could do. They were very nice about it, sympathetic you could say and they were able to get me in touch (via email) with a “member advocate”. I thought this was a step in the right direction and we’d have more meds than we could handle in a few days. I articulated our situation (not being able to see a doctor in a timely fashion and quickly running out of medication in the process and having no more overrides) in a brief email and waited for the response. This was our golden opportunity.

SLAM! That was sound of opportunity slamming the door. The “member advocate” should have been more aptly titled “Policy quoter”. She advocated following the insurance company policy and nothing more. One of the more impolite quotes from the “advocate” was “… if your wife is in need of her medication, her Dr. is the only one who can write a prescription for it. Without a prescription, her medication is not able to be filled at any pharmacy (retail or mail order)…” DUH! How about taking a step outside of your protective policy bubble and see if you can help me keep my wife from running out of her medication!!

We ended up paying out of pocket for a supply of the medication (50 dollars for the initial 20 dose amount with an option to get another 50 dollars worth more) on which to get by. We are still waiting for the doctor to get the blood test results back. That should take about a week. I’m hoping we get something before we have to exercise that other 50 dollar option.

I can hear some of you saying “Feh” at my chafing at 50 bucks of medication. Sorry, I don’t have very deep pockets.

Clark

Happy Holiday!

Hi folks, it's your old pal Clark again.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas (or Hannukah...or Festivus...or whatever you do this time of year) and a safe New Year. This Christmas was just OK. Money was way tight, so we really had to cut way back on presents. Still, the kids had a blast.

I got the worst flu I've ever had the weekend after Christmas. I honestly thought I was having some awful headaches. My heart was racing, I was wicked hot or cold, depending upon my fever. I begged Ellen to take me to the doctor, but she kept telling me they wouldn't really do anything for me. So I suffered. I had horrible things coming out of both ends of my body. The worst of it was coming out the back end...if you know what I mean. I was sick for about a week. I couldn't stray far from a toilet for 5 days. Even after that, my digestion was affected for about another week after that. I really couldn't eat anything with any substance. I ate a lot of soup and pasta and drank a ton of water and soda. Ellen said she had never seen me so sick (I don't get sick much).

I did manage to wean myself off of diet soda while sick (and without the withdrawals too!) I was drinking so much water that there wasn't room for soda. Your ol' pal Clark used to drink 4 or 5 diet cola a day. That's a lot of caffeine. Now I drink (on the average) 1 diet cola a day. I drink tea or water the rest of the time and indulge on decaf diet sodas (not colas) the rest of the time. I've also gone back to making fruit smoothies and drinking juices. Not sure if this is going to lead to any kind of long term benefit, but I think I'm the better for it.

Clark