‘NON-PANDEMIC HEALTHCARE’ – MOM’S UPDATES, SMART HELP FOR A NO INSURANCE WALK-IN

‘Non-pandemic healthcare’ puts COVID concerns “over there” for a little while, because all metrics show how effective the vaccination process has been, and Life has elementally started to "go on." After any ‘low grade depression’ while hunkered down or even re-socializing, concerns for elderly others, taking care of one’s own needs, and how an uninsured person pays for what’s necessary still constitutes healthcare considerations.

“I have to leave here with meds”

That was the point of a fall office visit, and my essential question was, beyond a $75 office visit, how necessary was anything else to get those blood pressure pills?

Recalling a 2019 appointment, when my ACA coverage had a $740 tag for bloodwork and whatever (I paid $20 for office visit), I appreciated a helpful worker taking care of my “no insurance but a long time client” situation when I showed up.

While getting my meds from my regular doctor as a walk-in was relatively easy, the customer service skills of Loretta, a listener and ‘pleaser’ type, is worth mentioning.

I used to think I was doing great when talking with senior center personnel, but it's as much their training to listen completely to seniors, who often can’t get straight to the point.

Allowing me to explain what I needed, it turned out I didn’t require a physical at all, just to be SEEN by a doctor, to allow a prescription to renew. So yay! for smart helpers like Loretta to make situations like mine just a regular thing.

Alternatives

After 16 months without being physically seen, an online service ($19) I tried could only renew my previous prescription for thirty days – its usually a 90 day supply plus refills. While I got decent telephone support (and some sympathy), and the online version (because of pandemic) had only been up four months, there was a frustrating number of screens to view without ever seeing a choice close to my blood pressure priority.

There were more expensive options, where video connection replaced lower cost version, but it was an ungood surprise at pickup to learn all the effort only gave me a month supply.

So yes, it turned out I didn’t need a physical, just to be SEEN by a doctor, for my prescription to renew. Two hours and one blood test (kidney function check vs. med) later, Loretta rang up a satisfied patient for $115.

(Still way) Healthier than most

This was the first time I’ve been beeped for temperature (97.2) during the pandemic, and I’d been hunkered down for seven months. I’m 64, 193 lbs. (same weight forever), and until an August bicycle accident, was riding thirty miles a week.

My BP was 132/82 that day, higher than normal by 15 pts., and I blame the first front person, at a different, clinic operation I tried before Loretta (Novant).

Person #1 was right in suggesting I could go elsewhere if the pricing ($99) answer she’d given for my visit – instead of Prescription Refill ($89) function from their web site – wasn’t satisfactory.

If she’d done as good a job explaining the difference, I’d have gladly given her my card without griping about it while driving seven miles and getting Loretta.

ACA coverage – better than I knew

I’ve appreciated having ACA coverage since it became mandatory, especially how it handled most of a $6,900 bicycle accident and a knee replacement that rejuvenated my lifestyle at sixty.

I've never needed to compare how much a $250,000 a year dentist covering a couple kids paid, but I lost my coverage last January because – after hoping a particular deadline falling on Sunday would work out – being a day late meant I needed to pay $970 for the first month of coverage.

As with many Americans, having a large unexpected bill was a real problem, and the economics of food and rent overruled insurance.

If that old “When you’ve got your health…” bromide still works, millions are indeed ‘skating,’ trying to make it through these crazy and stressful times. Seeing the worst kind of communicable health hazard like COVID-19 appear without any coverage was a yikes! experience.

The “better than I knew” aspect was getting a check ($13 and change) from Blue Cross/Blue Shield because ACA had only used 79.1% (instead of mandated 80%) of premiums in 2019, so they split the difference among the masses.

I got another check for $14-plus two weeks ago, and that’s got to change your attitude about all government programs as screwed up. NOBODY can point at the national healthcare that wide open vaccinating as a failure, not with a straight face.

People hear bike accident, they ask if you were wearing a helmet.

Yes, always, same for mask wearing, except when I’m moving 15 mph.

I’ve been “hunkered down” for seven months now, and had two bicycle crashes, one with actual injuries. That I was "out of pocket" a mere $8 for an anti-bacterial that a PA indicated I should get, to handle what she diagnosed as a bit of infection in leg, doesn’t encompass how ugly the possibilites could have gotten.

Ask questions, get answers

Things are less confusing and scary right now, but taking care of regular, non-pandemic stuff still counts. For many, that includes a loved one who needs extra attention, and speaking with people – ie. Loretta and my Mom’s doctor, who have specific information about specific situations - is still the best way to learn things.

Medical and nursing personnel know what’s going on, but they won’t just start providing a lot of “then this and then that” if you don’t ask. The people caring for Mom know she’s been a ‘fiesty sundowner,’ but even today while I was doing her lunch, they said nothing in quite a while. There’s no reason to think an elderly parent knows how they’ve reacted to a change of any kind.

Elementally, this is what my sales and journalistic training makes me good at, becoming a subject matter expert (SME) to the extent I can ask, “What about A, B, or C situations?”

When two brothers and I had 15 minutes of discussion with the doctor regarding the course of my mother’s medications, the reason for reducing or adding particular ones, and his most recent – that morning – meeting with her, we all got the facts at same time. BIG chunk of good intell there.

According to her doctor, she was admitted with a bladder infection – UTIs happen more than it should, she just won’t drink enough fluids – and antibiotics in seniors often change personalities.

Though she’d only changed meds four days to that point, “her lab work was good, and she’s still a little bossy, but not physical” was legitimate. They’re aware of not ‘bombing her out,’ and she’d probably need most of two weeks to adjust to what her body was getting.

trump says he was low-keying things (“its like flu”) to avoid panic about COVID. In real life, most of us want the straight up information.

There weren’t any visits there, but we've done lunch twice a week now at her senior community since early May. Only one vendor reported to have broken protection there during COVID, which brothers and I trusted.

I relayed things to brother #4 in upstate NY, and particularly at this point, knowing what you can’t see or affect is being handled the best way possible, makes a solid difference in stress levels for others.

A quickie story

Although it represents very different circumstances, before she moved to assisted living side three years ago, Mom was in the hospital with afibulation problems. Four oncology doctors (that’s cancer arena) told me that, after a “sugar scan” they’d waited three days to take hadn’t shown anything, “we’d still like to get a snip from inside the lobe.”

What seemed like an unnecessary step – with a rubber-hosed scope the size of my pinkie going down her throat – had me smiling though.

“Thanks for the explanation, I think I have enough information here to accurately pass it along to everyone else. I’m not sure I’d go for anything invasive like that, especially involving anesthesia, but Steve is the one you’re really going to have to convince.” (FYI – No.)

Legally and operationally, someone has the final say on higher order senior healthcare. Voting at times of high stress rarely satisfies everyone involved.

Passing Memorial Day 2021 with flying colors, caring

Our church-related (St. Gabriel Men’s Club) community group has been gathering again since early October, a bring-your-own-chair with beers and brots, fire pit and comaraderie for a couple hours in the parking lot. We have a significant mix of much older fellows, so everyone wore masks.

We didn’t have a Christmas tree sale (a 34 year tradition), the overnight Room in the Inn program (rated for 20 beds) for homeless is off, but we’ve still managed our furniture pickups for another ministry. Without doing the usual cooking and prep work as volunteers once a month, paying for food at the Mens Shelter was the best we can do.

My brother’s three days in South Carolina with his Mustang group one weekend became nothing. Yes I worried, how many people can you trust when mothers send kids who have been exposed to school? I’ve been lax about wiping surfaces for a long time, but how many people might he be exposed to, was there a “less careful moment?”

Mike's going to hit the RV roadway in July, hoping Canada will let him in. LOT of people are on the move, including me, finding a room is the plan vs. trying to consider long term relocation in next couple weeks.

There was always ZERO chance of attending a ‘super-spreader’ like trump’s Rose Garden events, but I minimized the moments here and there that become exposure, and that got me to March, and then the good supervisor at Novant said, "Sure, let's get you stuck."

The CDC changed ‘exposure’ from 15 minutes with same (tested or not) positive person to TOTAL 15 minutes in a day.

That was a legit piece of information, not to be discarded like trump’s continuing to hark back to “Dr. Fauci said no mask, now he says wear mask” like its sooo confusing. ‘Don’t’ was last March, not last week.

Being a good patient counts

Having $115 in checking account to pay for the office visit and a single blood test (checking for any kidney change) was a solid investment in my health. I didn’t have that available the week in August, when my bicycle tire torqued loose on a greenway ride, and as they say here in North Carolina, “I got tore up.”

A ‘skaters’ example of healthcare economics

A week after the accident, while doing a furniture pickup for that church group, a PA (physicians assistant) who pointed to a gouged-up leg and told me what I needed as an anti-bacterial to fight infection, THAT is a reason to use something. Within four applications, you could see results. Healthcare investment – $8, and thankfully, she was wrong about a possible torn ligament in my swollen ankle.

How often have YOU gotten by so easily with a total body smack health issue like this? https://cdtalententerprises.com/2020/08/18/bike-accident-low-grade-depression-match-us-mess/

Having worn a helmet since (luckily) just before the first time I truly needed it years ago, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is still a good way to look at things like COVID and masks.

That long-promised stimulus check is finally in the bank, and that’s an economic situation working out.

I feel for the millions who don’t have even that much control over what’s coming next. I’ve worked from a depleted refrigerator and cupboards along the way, but I *could have* gone to get groceries; it hasn’t been a choice between the food and medicine, or rent. No insurance, I sure dodged a bullet on that score.

A primary personal healthcare habit

Two bike accidents since the end of March lock down aside, I consider cycling a primary personal healthcare habit – it gets a major share of credit for my continuing good body maintenance. Regular shooting of baskets is a habit from way before any pandemic made solitary activities the rule, and after a week of lousy productivity, I recognized-rectified fact the CBD oil I neglected to order (300 mg) made a difference with ‘anxiety’ levels and focus.

‘A dark winter ahead’

The sheer math of projecting 100,000 infections a day over the 78 days from elections to when Biden (please God, give us a chance!) could put something in place instead of “herd immunity” nonsense, became an out and out a success, you can't argue with the numbers, especially when other countries are experiencing flareups.

I have three brothers and a mother with underlying factors that made COVID exposure a real threat. Mom was immunized in late December, brother Steve and wife Mere went to South Carolina in March, when they were doing 55+ n Lancaster.

Last Fall I brought flowers with a chocolate bar (cookies and cream) and a nice note for Halloween. She wouldn't get out for trick or treat, so the note said chew on this, because chocolate brings a similar reaction to being hugged, and this was best I could do because I couldn’t see her.

And now we can hug again. I was thrilled last week when she finished almost everything on the plate - including greens - and she was willing to put the chocolate cake in her own mouth. They comb her hair when I come, and she likes having me stroke it. We don't have to wear masks, and I no longer have a pandemic face gray beard.

Sure seems like being careful worked out along the way, especially that leg infection, and I have ACA protection again. The only perfect healthcare solution is petting the dogs or other pets. That’s always a freebie, an organic anti-stresser.

Gotta admit, getting stuck on March 18, good stuff.