Enveloped in ❤️LUV❤️

[mallorys_camera]

Dreamed I was in a foreign land, some place very exotic & enticing, and I was collecting addresses from everyone I knew so that I could write them long, fascinating letters.

The first thing I did when I got to this foreign land was shop for something to wear! I found these two dresses—enchanting, flimsy things of rose silk and lace. One of them had long sleeves; the other had straps. I put the long-sleeved one on and then tried to look for price tags. (I knew I was gonna buy the dress however much it cost, but I also knew I had to agonize over the price.) Since I couldn’t find the price tag, I looked around for a salesperson—

And the salesperson came toward me wearing a really hideous clown mask with a long pointed nose!

Everyone who shops in this store must wear a mask! the salesperson told me sternly. Put on a mask, or I won’t sell you anything.

I looked around. True, there were a lot of shoppers in masks. But there were also a lot of shoppers who were not wearing masks—and they were all men. From this I deduced that only women were being made to wear masks, and I was about to say something angrily about this when I woke up—

###

I think this dream arose from a phone conversation I had yesterday with my medical provider’s office. I’d contacted them via their proprietary online system because I needed a refill on my thyroid medication; they called me back: My own doctor was on vacation; the physician covering for her wanted me to come in so that they could decide whether to do blood draws—

“But that’s ridiculous,” I said. “You just did bloodwork in March. I mean, if you need to do bloodwork, I’ll come in for bloodwork. Though I don’t see why you would need to. Just read my chart! But why should I have to make an extra trip so that you can decide to do bloodwork? Are you changing my physician?”

“No-o-ooooo—”

“Because that’s fine, too,” I said. “Only you need to be transparent about it. Otherwise, all this is is an extra visit so you can bill Medicare—”

Stunned silence on the other end of the phone.

Better watch it, Patrizia, I cautioned myself. Or you’ll get a reputation as a difficult patient, and that’s not good.

###

Otherwise…

I did not finish everything I had to do yesterday, and it was incredibly murky when I went out to tromp:



Last night, I watched Le Retour de Martin Guerre for the first time in a billion years.

I didn’t marry my first husband because he looked like Gerard Depardieu in Martin Guerre, but I went out with him for the first time because he looked like Gerard Depardieu in Martin Guerre. Bill had—how can I describe it?—that same level of physical presence:



(I’ve also been watching Moonlighting, since Hulu is one of the few streaming services I haven’t canceled, and realized that Bruce Willis’s David Addison is kind of a prototype for Ben—)



In Oakland, I saw Barbara Angell, Public Policy Eleanor, and Booter in quick succession, all of whom were overjoyed to see me and enveloped me in ❤️LUV❤️.

How nice it felt to be enveloped in ❤️LUV❤️!!!!





And then I hopped the train back up to Sacto and spent a totally fabulous day at the Railroad Museum and exploring Old Town and the river with Deb & Ky:



And now I’m back in the quaint & scenic HV where there are Decisions To Make.

Comments

[bleodswean]

We just went through CRAZY drama with a local pain clinic that my mother saw three years ago, Medicare and Tricare. The fraud was astonishing and totally depressing. Every single month this clinic has been billing my mother's insurance....wait for it....$1,900 for pain consult. I discovered this while going through some statements we usually don't give more than a glance. But that's three years worth of fradulent billing and we called them and they got snotty and said my mother is getting pain consultations. I'm like...uh, NOPE. Then we called Medicare and they didn't give a crap. Called Tricare and they gave a huge crap but said we needed to call Medicare back and report it to fraud. This is a small town, as you know, so my mom balked, but my sister who is a bad ass medical social worker said f that noise and she took the statements and went down to the clinic and I would have loved to have been part of that. She said it was INSANE and they tried to make her leave the office. She told them she was going to call fraud and they said the billing department would call her after the weekend. After the weekend they called and acted like it was my mom not using her services correctly and that's she's OLD and blahfuckingblah and my sister said stahp and get your shit together and they said there would be no more billing....but that my mother was no longer a patient there.

The Medicare fraud in this country is outrageous and hence why D and I have to pay $2,300 a month for our health insurance with NO pharmaceutical coverage and 15K deductible. UGH!

[mallorys_camera]

WOW!!!!!!!

That is just fucking astonishing.

That noise you hear is me applauding your sister.

Tricare is the military healthcare insurance provider, right? Interesting that they cared but Medicare did not. Which of the two insurance providers is ultimately out-of-pocket, do you know?

I'm curious: What "services" was this clinic allegedly providing to your mother? Prescriptions?? Massages? Electric cattle prods?

I wish I didn't have a chronic medical condition because I would prefer never to visit a medical provider again in my life, they are so dishonest. Not to mention condescending.

[bleodswean]

And, P, it's not the only fraud we've found now that we are combing through statements. The podiatrist charged $4,000 for xrays and special sneakers and NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. When we called, we got the same kind of crap - she's old, she didn't understand what was being prescribed, she didn't follow up. So many lies. This would never happen to me because my insurance is TOTALLY UP MY FREAKIN ASS about all the things I have done...this would have been stopped immediately. It's a private pay insurance, but when it's medicare....it's a free for all.

The pain clinic couldn't really say what they were offering. It was all over the place, especially when it was my mother on the phone!!! Like fast-talking grifters. And this annoying insistence that she had met with a doctor and approved of this consult....NONE OF THAT HAPPENED.

I know, I'm with you. I would never go back. But now that D has gout and I've just been diagnosed with eosinophilic asthma we are caught in the system....

[bleodswean]

Oh, and yeah, Tricare is the military and they told us that they pick up what Medicare doesn't and that once you get on Medicare everything goes through that financial filter first. Hard to know what Tricare is responsible for...but I would bet it's substantial.

When my sister gets wound up it's a sight to behold. Cool, calm, rattlesnake.

[asakiyume]

I feel like you're not wrong about the billing opportunity though. grrrrr.

Love your smile in that first photo. You look about 14. Or maybe I should say, the 14-year-old shines through.

[mallorys_camera]

I mostly identify with being about 12. 😀 Though, of course, I know a lot more now than I did when I was 12.

[smokingboot]

You deserve to be immersed in ❤️LUV❤️ and rose silk and lace, you do not deserve the service of clowns! I hope it gets sorted quickly.

[mallorys_camera]

Ha, ha, ha! 😀

Thanks! ❤️