Yes, it can get worse

So Raj calls me late last night - some doctor who said he was a psychiatrist saw him.  No name, no card, no change to meds (even though one of his blood levels is too high), and he figures I'll probably get a bill from this dude.  In the meantime, I've been calling every psychiatrist in the Humana Choice Advantage network, leaving messages & begging for ANYONE to see him.  I receive one of the following answers - not taking new patients, refuse to work with Humana, or they ignore me.  I call the nurse at his facility today to get a name on the mystery nighttime visitor, and try to figure a few other things out (e.g. why they gave him another chest X-ray, ignoring the one from June, etc.).  The next thing I know I'm on speaker phone, with Raj, several doctors and nurses.  In between all their beepers & cell phones going off, I hear various questions & answers, but none of them can tell me whether the "new" psychiatrist is taking Raj as a patient (or if he's in our network) or if I should keep the appointment I finally made for him tomorrow with the only psychiatrist I could find.  What DOES happen is that Raj is put on 1 new med, discontinuing 3 others that I just paid thousands of dollars to fill.  They've also ordered a blood draw, but don't know what entity is doing it, when, or whether they're in network.

This, all during dinner, while the dog decides she must defend me from the evil phone receiver by barking and peeing on the leg of my chair, the timer is going off, some random delivery is at the door, kids screaming to smash the HUGE spider, and every pre-teen in IL is texting my daughter about homework.

I even spent 3 hours on the phone with Humana this morning, working through error after error, one claim at a time, reciting Medicare and healthcare reform law to "Larry" who must be the only customer service agent who is old enough to understand my questions and concerns - he sounds at least 90, and I don't think he has teeth.

As if all the above drama isn't bad enough, there's a lawsuit now involving my kids' school/district alleging misuse of authority, sexual harrassment, cover-up, . . .  which brings up all kinds of horrible memories of my experience as a teacher, and the garbage my mom went through for so many years.  I can't believe how fresh it all seems in my mind.  I guess I have a lot more to work through from that time of my life.

At least today, the pain in my wrist lessened enough so I could change the burned-out lightbulbs (the CFLs, of course), so I have lights in the entryway and kitchen again!