I'm continuing to heal from my unfortunate up-close-and-personal-meeting with the sidewalk, and can use my wrist for many things, but neck pain has been really bad; So it appears the impact to my neck was a secondary (and longer lasting) injury.  The outside bruises have healed on elbow & knee, but I must have internal bruises - is this possible? - since they are still very tender.

I've been having a difficult time securing doctors for Raj's care.  Thank goodness we found a good PCP, but finding a psychiatrist in his network AND accepting new patients is taking a lot of work.  One of his blood levels indicates problems, but I can't find a doc to address it!  Today, the lung/sleep specialist said his apnea looks much worse, but symptoms are confusing, so we need to get him in for another sleep study.

The slats on Raj's bed at Emeritus fell through,  so I fixed them with a staple gun; then replaced them with new slats from Ikea.  Each of these solutions lasted about 5 minutes.  I can't afford a new twin bed, much less deliver/assemble it with my bum wrist & neck, so I'm not sure what I'll do next.

I've applied to several programs for financial assistance, with a wide variety of results:  Working with charitable groups, schools and churches is pretty straightforward and fair.  We don't qualify for anything that is income-based for our housing, since Raj is on the mortgage - no loan modifications, Illinois Hardest Hit, HUD, federal programs, . . . I can't even refinance!  We don't qualify for Medicaid or Extra Help on prescription costs or even AARP/Senior programs.  Bankruptcy wouldn't even offset the medical/housing costs compared to our income.

Even though we've met the out-of-pocket maximum to satisfy the infamous "donut hole" with Raj's Medicare prescription coverage, all meds continue to be processed with me paying the full cost!  We're supposed to be into "catastrophic" coverage or the final stage of the plan year, but I've had to appeal (sometimes several rounds) to get basic things covered, much less the latest "benefits" of healthcare reform.

The following is a vent - don't read if you're a wimp:

Why are people so naive to believe that just because laws were passed on healthcare reform, the changes will actually take place?!  I'm working both private insurance and Medicare Advantage claims, both before and after reform was enacted, and it's nothing short of a nightmare.  The only entities holding up their end of the bargain, in my experience so far, is the drug companies.  During the donut hole, the drug companies must subsidize half the cost for name-brand prescription drugs, or they can't be a Medicare-participating pharmacy.  There are new departments at insurance companies now, simply to add another level of hoops for the insured to jump through to get any claims paid properly (in my opinion).  When reform went through, no time limits were adjusted to allow for all the extra processing that claims need to go through under the new rules, so it's relatively easy for the insurance company to tell you that your doctor/hospital didn't submit their claim (or resubmit it with new or corrected info) in time.  Another tactic I've run into is no published contact info for the new departments that can actually work the claim.  I've had to "work my way" through the phone tree, customer service hierarchy, appeal process, etc. to GET to the new department; In my case, I have the additional step of providing HIPAA doc (POA or whatever each entity requires) to allow me access to Raj's medical info for each department of each hospital/doctor/insurance company I contact; Then it's a race against the clock to reach these folks before time runs out on getting the claim "fixed".  The premiums paid for the benefits of this coverage?  300% increase with healthcare reform, whereas it used to increase 10-25% annually.