Won't look down, won't open my eyes
Oct. 13th, 2017 04:11 pmSaw the surgeon yesterday, and she has approved me to lift things again, so Blues is now at my mercy whenever I want. Nonconsensual cuddling has already begun. I think he liked it the way it was because in order to cuddle him, I had to lure him onto the counter so he was at chest height; that meant he got a treat every time. He's the biggest treat whore in felinedom. (I should probably check out that Animal Planet show My Big Fat Pet Makeover…)
She thinks the incisions that refuse to heal will eventually get there. We talked a little about exactly what part of the colon she removed, and the future plans to monitor me. She said I'm basically the walking embodiment of why health care is so important, because the tumor was found on just a random, routine colonoscopy. The sad part is that next year I probably won't have anything at all.
I had one good piece of news in all the bills and statements that have begun arriving, which are terrifying (the hospital bill for the surgery and the room are well more than $100,000, I don't know what my co-insurance will be yet but it's not gonna be good). One of the first bills I received was from Myriad, the company that contracts to do the genetic testing in the gene program at my clinic. According to the insurance company statement, it was out of network and would cost at least $3,600, and I'd asked repeatedly, of both the Myriad and Dr. Smith's office people, whether insurance would pay for it because I wouldn't be able to. And they were vague and unhelpful and all insisted that if insurance wouldn't pay, they would call me and I would have the right to say no or yes. But no one called, and then Myriad sent a statement that the bill was for $8,000+ freaking dollars. I went into the hospital stressed and terrified about this. A few weeks ago they sent a letter to me, which I assumed was the bill, and I've been dreading having to call them and discuss all the obfuscation and misinformation and how I didn't think I could handle it.
But then I got this call, which I assumed was them nagging me to pay, except it was that the letter was actually them asking me permission to pursue this with insurance and signing to allow them that. So I called them back a couple times and finally connected with someone who told me that the insurance company had given them prior approval, which is why they were pursuing the claim. I told them I'd been really childish and avoiding opening the letter because I thought it was the bill, and that I'd signed it and sent it back the day before. Then he said, "Regardless of what happens, you won't have to pay for it." And it felt like a heraldic choir singing behind me and the sun shining through dark clouds. Because this is all scary enough without adding this test, which I never wanted to do anyway, into the mix solely because a bunch of people wouldn't tell the truth. (I keep hearing Will Smith going "Tell de truth! Tell de truth.")
I'm trying to get in the mental space for writing more on the next chapter of Celluloid Hero but it's still like pulling teeth. It's easier to work on the crummy book I'm reading and all the nonsense with that. But I did finally get to some of the backlog of writing related things, like answering an Ask over at my tumblr about how to write action scenes. I think it's funny that people tell me often how visceral and cinematic the action scenes in my fic are, because I find them excruciating to write (sex scenes, too, but someone once told me sex scenes are just action with genitalia, which is hilar). So I put my thinking cap on and tried to come up with a good answer for them; who knows if they'll find it helpful.
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rachelmanija has info on a campaign to get the solo ability to declare war out of Assface Drumpf's tiny-fingered vulgarian hands over here, Pull the Football, Save the World.
Does anyone have experience using ko-fi? With all the financial terror that's coming up, I'm considering it, but since I'm not popular I can't imagine it having much use or impact…especially since we can't mention those things on our AO3 pages, which is where most people would access my stuff. If you've used it, do you think it's worthwhile for a person who doesn't have, like, a fan base? It seems most useful to visual artists, I guess...
She thinks the incisions that refuse to heal will eventually get there. We talked a little about exactly what part of the colon she removed, and the future plans to monitor me. She said I'm basically the walking embodiment of why health care is so important, because the tumor was found on just a random, routine colonoscopy. The sad part is that next year I probably won't have anything at all.
I had one good piece of news in all the bills and statements that have begun arriving, which are terrifying (the hospital bill for the surgery and the room are well more than $100,000, I don't know what my co-insurance will be yet but it's not gonna be good). One of the first bills I received was from Myriad, the company that contracts to do the genetic testing in the gene program at my clinic. According to the insurance company statement, it was out of network and would cost at least $3,600, and I'd asked repeatedly, of both the Myriad and Dr. Smith's office people, whether insurance would pay for it because I wouldn't be able to. And they were vague and unhelpful and all insisted that if insurance wouldn't pay, they would call me and I would have the right to say no or yes. But no one called, and then Myriad sent a statement that the bill was for $8,000+ freaking dollars. I went into the hospital stressed and terrified about this. A few weeks ago they sent a letter to me, which I assumed was the bill, and I've been dreading having to call them and discuss all the obfuscation and misinformation and how I didn't think I could handle it.
But then I got this call, which I assumed was them nagging me to pay, except it was that the letter was actually them asking me permission to pursue this with insurance and signing to allow them that. So I called them back a couple times and finally connected with someone who told me that the insurance company had given them prior approval, which is why they were pursuing the claim. I told them I'd been really childish and avoiding opening the letter because I thought it was the bill, and that I'd signed it and sent it back the day before. Then he said, "Regardless of what happens, you won't have to pay for it." And it felt like a heraldic choir singing behind me and the sun shining through dark clouds. Because this is all scary enough without adding this test, which I never wanted to do anyway, into the mix solely because a bunch of people wouldn't tell the truth. (I keep hearing Will Smith going "Tell de truth! Tell de truth.")
I'm trying to get in the mental space for writing more on the next chapter of Celluloid Hero but it's still like pulling teeth. It's easier to work on the crummy book I'm reading and all the nonsense with that. But I did finally get to some of the backlog of writing related things, like answering an Ask over at my tumblr about how to write action scenes. I think it's funny that people tell me often how visceral and cinematic the action scenes in my fic are, because I find them excruciating to write (sex scenes, too, but someone once told me sex scenes are just action with genitalia, which is hilar). So I put my thinking cap on and tried to come up with a good answer for them; who knows if they'll find it helpful.
rachelmanija has info on a campaign to get the solo ability to declare war out of Assface Drumpf's tiny-fingered vulgarian hands over here, Pull the Football, Save the World. Does anyone have experience using ko-fi? With all the financial terror that's coming up, I'm considering it, but since I'm not popular I can't imagine it having much use or impact…especially since we can't mention those things on our AO3 pages, which is where most people would access my stuff. If you've used it, do you think it's worthwhile for a person who doesn't have, like, a fan base? It seems most useful to visual artists, I guess...
