Quik Hitterz

An extended thought to yesterday's post- possibly the 2nd biggest scam to insurance is college text books. These people have to be raking in the loot! I'm glad they finally offer an option to rent books for the semester but this nonsense of expensive books that you either get stuck with or sell back for pennies on the dollar is outta control! I guess there are websites out there for selling used text books but I am too lazy to figure out that option... I'd rather bitch.

Oh- big scam #3 is OEM's selling OEM parts. "We can charge whatever we want because we are the only ones that have it!" I see this one at work all the time...

While I have a few weeks of downtime between semesters I have gotten back into the James Patterson Alex Cross detective series. After reading a few books into the series earlier this year I got hooked. Right now I am about half way through the 14 book series and this week I started reading Mary Mary. If any of you like a solid bad-a$$ detective solving some gruesome murders, check out one of these books. If you haven't heard of James Patterson, he does have one book that went to the movies- Kiss the Girls (with Ashley Judd!) Thats about as far in depth as I'll go talking about the series but you can always Google for more detailed info...

Oh man- this weekend I pulled a complete bonehead move and busted my arm...at home...in my house...sober. I won't get into the details of how I smashed my forearm into the 2nd floor stair-rail-gate-thing deal but I think I may have cracked my radius or ulna, whichever one I hit. Man, it hurt so bad when I did it- I wasn't sure if I was going to faint or vomit but I danced around like a loon in crazy pain for several minutes! From there, after some rugged caveman reasoning, I decided to go mtn biking to test the damage. Surprisingly it did not hurt that bad (maybe because my whole arm went semi-numb) but I did learn that the faster I went on the bike and the harder I pushed, the less my arm hurt. So that was Sunday. Monday and Tuesday has yet to see the pain and swelling subside. Maybe Wednesday will provide a clearer decision on going to get this sucker checked out. My gut feeling is that it may be cracked but besides it being swollen and looking awful, it hasn't kept from doing much...besides bitching... Man, I hate going to the doctor...

What else? Oh- Char's birthday is Thursday. I may have a thing or 2 up my sleeve...

in...Shadysurance

Man, I'm usually not one to rant on here but BCBS has got me full-on hot! Ok, so I had a ton of tests done on my heart at Mayo- like last year. Every test that I had done was first ok'd by Mayo with my insurance before it was performed. Wait a second- let's first think about hospitals and doctors and the word "investgative." Now when you go to the doctor with a problem, don't they have to run "investigative" tests to figure out what in the hell is wrong with you? That is what I always thought. If the doctors knew exactly what was wrong with you as soon as you told them your symptoms then I'm sure they wouldn't need the millions of dollars worth of "investigative" equipment. Right?

Ok, so getting back on track here- BCBS denied a claim for an MRI on my heart and dismissed it as "investigative." This was after the Mayo had called to get it approved. At the time, BCBS said that that kind of test did not need approval. But a few weeks after the test the rules changed, it now needed approval but the BCBS rep assured me that the test would still be covered. That was BEFORE my written appeal just came back- DENIED! WTH? Not only did BCBS and their physician reviewer deem that test as "investigative," but they also went back and decided that another claim that they had PAID to Mayo should have been denied and now they want to go back and request a refund. Man, I always thought I had great insurance because they had always covered so much (even though the ridiculous deductible and co-pays go up annually)- but this is retarded. Not to mention that the MRI was the final test that confirmed the HCM diagnosis.

So now I have to formulate a game plan but I know it will start with a 2nd appeal. I always hear so much about insurance issues that people have, especially people with my heart disease once they start getting hardware bolted into their chest. Ironically, I just read yesterday about the top reasons for bankruptcy and the #1 cause was medical bills. Not that I have any crazy bills (yet) but I can see how nightmares can come from punk-a$$ insurance companies.

Well, now that that's over with- enjoy a slick shot of my roll dog plowing through her share of my Bluegrass Brewing Company American Pale Ale.

Cheers!

Should I?

I just ran across my blog in my favorites list and when I opened it, I thought about posting regularly again. Maybe I will this time. I'm not sure why I think I'll have any more time than I usually do- especially considering that I'm toying with a full-time school schedule at UNF for the fall semester along with my full-time job. Wait, full time? Well, the time is about to expire on my $25K+ in GI Bill money and I need to pick up the pace. I've really been moving slow the last few years with school, most in part due to my training and racing schedule. But now that there is no more racing (for now), why not go to school full time? I've had the luxury of not needing to be in any kind of hurry with school but with the new revelation that there will be interference between my job and the defibrillator, I need to get hot on something. Another thing, the GI Bill is paying over $1300 a month to go full time- that is just plain hard to pass up. But I'm just not sure if I can handle a full class load- I only took 2 classes over the summer and while they were not very hard, they just ate so much time. Hell, I just need to suck it up.

Anyhow, I thought that my blog would be boring without talking a lot about the trials and tribulations of training, racing, traveling and tying it all into my life with Char and Avery. Ok, so the training and racing is gone on my part but Char and Avery (sometimes) still train and race and that is a huge part of my life. Plus, I still manage to stay very fit and that is kind of interesting. But I still have a cool job, I still have a heart disease and I have some possible big things coming in the near future. I also still ride my bikes quite a bit so maybe- just maybe, I'll take you guys Biking with Big Blue once again...

Long time

Hell, I've been thinking about coming back over here and doing something- like writing a thing or 2 every now and then. Maybe I will at some point. But I got caught up in Facebook and posting pictures and whatnot over there. That novelty seems to be wearing off too. But it's easier on FB- instead of my lazy butt actually writing something, I can type a quick update, make comments here and there and upload pictures whenever. I'm all about easy.

Ok, so now I'm back in school at UNF and still doing the usual with Char and Avery. I workout a lot more, had the testing done at my work for the defib/EMI and still have not had surgery. The EMI testing showed too many bad places at work that could cause problems and not allow me to do my job fully. Crap- back to the drawing board. I have forwarded the tests to Mayo and we are going to set up an appointment to figure out a game plan. Decisions, decisions...

What else has been going on? Well, I guess if you are on Facebook then you know. If not, then you probably forgot about this blog months ago. I will say this- I have the bug to compete again...in something. I have managed to get half way fit with my heart working like a champ. I just have to figure all of this life stuff out while keeping my head above water...

Later...