The blahs

This is my last week at home with the ankle, barring natural disaster. I am REALLY getting stir crazy. My grandmother checked herself into the hospital a few days ago and it looks as though she will be going back to the same care facility. It took less than a month for this to happen; I hope they keep her this time, but the last time it was bungled so badly that I expect nothing. They've run a bunch of tests on her and don't know what the matter is. Though I'm not directly involved, it seems all I have to do is hear her name and I get a migraine--I've been fighting one for days.

I watched Michael Moore's movie "Sicko" yesterday, finally; it was great, but I have always been a fan of his, whatever medium he uses. Coincidentally, I had to call the insurance company today to try and find a laboratory in their network where I can have my bloodwork done. The insurance company gave me the numbers of four laboratories. Two of them were located in the Midwest. Two were in my state, but nowhere near being conveniently located; neither have Saturday hours, so I will have to miss work to get blood draws. It seems to be par for the course.

Insurance denied surgery today

Insurance turned it down flat. They want their six months of a diet. I'm in the middle of it, so no harm done. A little discouraging, but I wasn't expecting miracles.

the universe dangles the carrot...

The surgical place just called me to check in. They have everything insurance needs but that pesky 6 months' documentation and wanted to know my progress on it, so I brought them up to speed. They have 10 years of my chart notes and every other piece of the puzzle, so they had a confab, cleared it with me, and are sending it to the insurance company to see if they will approve it now rather than later.

I don't expect insurance to approve it now, but I'm already in the process of the documentation et. al., so what is there to lose by submitting it? Is insurance really going to read all 600 pages of chart notes before they approve this? (And why can't I find a job somewhere like that? I'm precisely the kind of freak that enjoys reading 600 pages of chart notes.)

I love that these people are paying attention! I knew I liked them. My psych eval was Friday, today is a holiday for a lot of people, and here they are calling me before end of business the next business day. The brownie points just keep a-comin'.

Too bad I can't have a real brownie.

The skinny on the pre-op psych eval

The first order of business was one of those true/false personality inventory type tests. I can't remember the initials, but it wasn't the MMPI, because I asked. It had five letters and was similar, though. One of the questions was "true or false, I have been on the cover of several magazines recently". Whoa!!!!

The next test seemed IQish; I felt like I was taking the SATs, because the first page was all vocabulary: "circle the word that is closest in meaning to the first word", with four words to choose from. The second page was a bunch of number and letter patterns where you filled in what would be next in the sequence. 12345 54321 etc. Not sure what that was about.

We went over my whole life history. (There's nothing like telling a total stranger your life history...smoke 'em if you got 'em.) He was nice enough, but I do prefer to see female health practitioners whenever possible; however, he is the only one my insurance covers at that particular practice. There was a big certificate on his wall that said he was certified to treat sex offenders, which gave me pause for a second. (I guess *someone* has to treat them; we can't just euthanize them all, much as I'd like to.) Explaining my early life to someone I don't know feels impossible; it isn't that simple to explain to people I do know. I just tick it off like a shopping list, which seems to be easiest for all concerned. I only used one Kleenex.

The difference between this and the two other psychiatric evaluations I've had in the past was asking what my weight was at different points in my life. He also asked who would take care of me after the surgery, how was I paying for it, things like that.

The guy is a psychologist, so he's not going to prescribe me drugs, and I'm not seeing him again. I only did this because insurance requires a psych eval. He said he treated it as a pass/fail test. Diagnosis is probably only a concern if you are entering some kind of ongoing treatment. He said I "was a resounding pass" at the end, anyway. He did recommend a sleep medication, and told me I might want to talk to my doctor about it, because my sleep or lack thereof was his biggest concern.

I can't speak for him, but I think we both left that room a bit more tired.