This week I learned that Medicare is stupid.
Well, I actually learned that Medicare will not cover in-home IV antibiotics, and instead requires patients to be hospitalized for the duration of treatment. But I think “Medicare is stupid” sums that up fairly accurately. Welcome to bureaucracy: making patients miserable AND wasting exorbitant amounts of money all at the same time!
I will be spending the next 3 months researching Medicare plans and deciding which ones to sign up for by the time I’m eligible in January. Also, I am SO OVER doing massive health insurance research every. Freaking. Year. Especially since there’s a strong possibility that I will end up paying even more money for the privilege of staying alive once I switch over to Medicare. I really need a better hobby.
(I mean the insurance gymnastics, not the staying alive. Staying alive is a good hobby. I plan to do a lot more of that.)
As I mentioned in a previous update, I felt pretty good while hopped up on Prednisone. Sadly, the good times faded pretty fast once I tapered off it. I now have a lovely dry, hacking cough. My endurance is also slipping, and my pulmonary function numbers reflected that. The discussion now is whether to continue pursuing aggressive treatment with limited return, or to see what happens if we back off on the aggressive treatment. There are pretty much 2 possibilities with the latter option: 1) Nothing happens, I continue muddling through at my current functioning level, and we see if I can live with that; or 2) I start slipping even further, which would show that the aggressive treatment is helping to prevent things from getting even worse. I asked my doctor if we could delay this little experiment until after the Jewish holidays, and hop me up on Prednisone in the meantime so I can manage all the traveling and socializing and such. He agreed, so it’s back to the Prednisone life for me! Yay!
The current goal is to somehow make it through being around hoards of people over the course of various holidays without picking up any respiratory infections. Wish me luck!
Well, I actually learned that Medicare will not cover in-home IV antibiotics, and instead requires patients to be hospitalized for the duration of treatment. But I think “Medicare is stupid” sums that up fairly accurately. Welcome to bureaucracy: making patients miserable AND wasting exorbitant amounts of money all at the same time!
I will be spending the next 3 months researching Medicare plans and deciding which ones to sign up for by the time I’m eligible in January. Also, I am SO OVER doing massive health insurance research every. Freaking. Year. Especially since there’s a strong possibility that I will end up paying even more money for the privilege of staying alive once I switch over to Medicare. I really need a better hobby.
(I mean the insurance gymnastics, not the staying alive. Staying alive is a good hobby. I plan to do a lot more of that.)
As I mentioned in a previous update, I felt pretty good while hopped up on Prednisone. Sadly, the good times faded pretty fast once I tapered off it. I now have a lovely dry, hacking cough. My endurance is also slipping, and my pulmonary function numbers reflected that. The discussion now is whether to continue pursuing aggressive treatment with limited return, or to see what happens if we back off on the aggressive treatment. There are pretty much 2 possibilities with the latter option: 1) Nothing happens, I continue muddling through at my current functioning level, and we see if I can live with that; or 2) I start slipping even further, which would show that the aggressive treatment is helping to prevent things from getting even worse. I asked my doctor if we could delay this little experiment until after the Jewish holidays, and hop me up on Prednisone in the meantime so I can manage all the traveling and socializing and such. He agreed, so it’s back to the Prednisone life for me! Yay!
The current goal is to somehow make it through being around hoards of people over the course of various holidays without picking up any respiratory infections. Wish me luck!
