khatru

The COBRA management company claims that Otter is listed as eligible for COBRA because he was terminated, not deceased. This is causing bloody hell with me trying to elect COBRA.

Furthermore, there will be a new COBRA management company as of next week. I had called them on Monday to ask if it made more sense for me to wait to elect COBRA until they are the company or if I should do it now and the person I spoke to seemed rather flustered and said I should definitely elect it before it got to them and let the system pull things over.

Current COBRA management company has '3-5 business days' for their resolution of issues.

*headdesk**headdesk**headdesk*

I would put this behind a cut, but I'm not sure how to do this on DW off the top of my head, and I want to stop researching how to do this and just put it down. If you want to tl;dr, scroll down to the line of asterisks.

So, circa 5 years ago now, I think, (i'd look it up in my doctor's patient portal, but I can't remember my password ...) I fell on my stairs in my house, and basically torqued or crunched both hips, both knees, and most of the muscles around them. It took me circa 10 days to be able to do the stairs out of the house so I could go to a doctor. I was 99% sure nothign was broken, especially after the house-call chiro came and checked me out.

At the doctor's office, they xrayed hips and knees, and went all pearl clutching over the fact that I have no cartilage left in my knees. I commented that that's odd, cause my knees don't bother me at all. In fact, I have had this pain in my hip for over a decade now. Oh, there's nothing at all wrong with your hips, your hips are fine, but OMG YOU HAVE NO CARTILAGE IN YOUR KNEES!!!!!!!!eleventyone

I went to see an orthopedist. Supposedly, Otter made an appointment to see a hip orthopedist. (There is another minor rant about over-specialization in orthopedics...) The ortho I saw started the appointment with, "There is nothing I can do for your knees." "Ok. But what about my hip?" "There is nothing I can do for your knees." "I hear you, and understand that. My hip hurts a lot, often." "There is nothing I can do for your knees." .... Seriously, this is verbatim. I kept looking at the other people in the room to see if maybe I was the one not talking english... I finally said, "Ok, what can't you do for my knees?" "Well, I can't give you a shot, and I can't give you (I can't recall), and I can't give you surgery, because you have lymphedema." "Yes, well, 90% of that is due to the fact that I've been sleeping sitting up for 3 weeks and my body is swollen due to trauma." "Right, I can't do anything for your knees."

Now, something good did come of this, because he asked why I hadn't ever had any therapy for the lymphedema, and I said, because I didn't know that existed? And I went and did research, because THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO FOR MY KNEES and found out where it was, and got a referral from my regular doctor because the orthopedist could do nothing for my knees.

Shortly after that, my regular doctor balked at renewing my pain meds, despite the fact that she had covered for my previous doctor, and renewed these same meds, any number of times over the previous 3 years. I must find a pain management specialist to give me these meds! Well, the pain management specialist in the group all but fled screaming like a little baby when I said the word Fibromyalgia. (there's more to that story too) It took us most of a year of arguing with the insurance company for us to find a pain management specialist who would deal with fibro that was within an hour's drive. Who, in the 12-18 months she saw me (before she kicked me out of her practice because I really do need actual drugs to manage the pain, as opposed to whatever counts as 'conservative measures') actually ordered an MRI of my hip to see what might be the pain. Oh, and of my lower back, because there was NEW PAIN that hadn't existed before the fall, that $authorities were saying couldn't be there, oh, and the pain I identified as being in my hip couldn't be in my hip because of where I said it was. (the pain only showed up when I moved my leg....) Lo and behold, I have a bursitis in my hip (that's how the current doc phrased it) and some degeneration but not all that much (Cue: "Your hips are fine, BUT YOU HAVE NO CARTILAGE IN YOUR KNEES OMG!!!!!") and I have a stenosis in my lower back, and the pain I have in my lower back is right along the nerves that are stenosed (i made that one up) and, in fact, seems to match up with the numb spot on my skin that only showed up after I fell.

Current pain doc is chill, and content to work with me and (within what he won't get audited for) give me what I want. He mentioned a steroid shot for my hip, which I hemmed and hawed about for a few months, and finally told him to go ahead and poke the insurance company. Starting this calendar year, I was all, "shot?" and he always had a (tolerably reasonable if annoying) reason why not. Recently it was that the edema had gotten bad enough that he really couldn't, and it didn't go away the most recent time I stopped the Mobic. So I was getting the edema treated, and then he would have it next time, and next time I had cold symptoms and....

So last time I saw him, he asked about my knees (since he wasn't going to do anything for my hip yet). And told me to make an appt to get them MRId and he'd see if insurance would be ok with both knees. (Cause, ya know, I'm using them both...) I had the MRI on the 5th, and it was the most delightful hour+ I've ever spent with one leg in the air (at a time, half hour for each plus fussing), being squished which upset my hips (remember my bursitisized hip?) and my shoulders (which I haven't mentioned, cause this is a story about my legs, but they're not happy either from being on crutches for 12 weeks back when I fell so many years ago...) and took the CDs immediately (yay!) and had the paindoc visit today.

Paindoc isn't used to looking at knees, he's spends more time with spines. So we waited for the musculoskeletal radiologist's report to be faxed over (circa 60 minutes). We looked at the pretty pictures, and his vague 'don't quote me' opinion was confirmed.

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To wit: All the menisci in both knees are torn. One is described as being 'macerated'. There is some arthritic growth behind each patella. The ACL on my right leg is torn. There may be a bony growth/"bone spur" in one knee (I don't recall which one). There's still some distance between the bones, due to the mangled menisci. Surgery for any of these, up to and including joint replacement, is not an option unless I shed lots of weight. And possibly not then, due to the lymphedema.

And, I finally got the shot in my hip. I don't know how long the needle was, cause I didn't look. I commented that the needle he was attaching to the syringe looked short, and he said it was only to get the meds into the syringe. It doesn't hurt - so far.

But that's why I decided to have sashimi tonight. And I had an ice cream cone, too, cause that happens with shots.

Next up: deciding if we can *afford* me to go low carb, since that's the only diet change that ever had any actual effect on my weight.