I had the day from hell, and I wish I could figure out why.

[murielm99]

My doctor had prescribed Tramadol for my pulled back muscle. It was working. Then, yesterday evening, My neck broke out in hives. The hives started in the back, extended around the front, and have now crept up my neck to my face. I even have welts on my earlobes and behind my ears.

Fortunately, my doctor was on call. Of course, I quit the drug. He told me to take benadryl, and that he would call in a prescription for something. I went to the pharmacy today to get the prescription and to refill another routine prescription. They could not even process my prescriptions. I am on COBRA now, and somehow that has been messed up.

The COBRA administrator is actually very good, so I called her. She is on leave. I explained everything to her assistant. She was supposed to call me back. When she did not, I called her again. She was waiting for an answer from the drug people. I asked for that number and she would not give it to me. I spoke to someone else in her office. After insisting on a number for the pharmaceutical people, they gave it to me. After speaking to two more people, they told me that all they needed from the COBRA administrator was an email that said I was active.

The assistant would not even answer her phone. I spoke to the other person again, and she could not do anything because the offices in the East had closed. By this time, it was 5:20 p.m. in the Midwest, where I live. I spent the entire afternoon on the phone.

My doctor never did call in a prescription. He went to Florida. The on call doctor would not help me, because he does not know me. He needs my history. Why is he on call, then? He said that my doctor's office had faxed him a piece of paper, but he could not go by that. He was quite arrogant.

I started out being nice to people. By the end of the day, I was not very nice any more. I hope I can resolve things tomorrow. I am paying $430.00 a month to continue my benefits, so they should continue.

Did anyone else have a frustrating day?

[Celebration]

1. ..........

:hug:

I'd love to know the number of hours annually that people have to deal with insurance companies. Multiply that by the minimum wage and let's add that to our already exhorbitant national health care costs. It is such an economic waste, as well as adding to stress levels and therefore additional need for medical treatment. Someone needs to find a dollar amount for all this since we seem to measure everything else in terms of GDP, etc.

Better luck today!

[BlueIris]

2. Holy crap! That is way beyond. Once you're "regularly" insured again, I'd get a new doctor.

And explain to the old one why he lost a patient.

As for days from hell...yeah, mine was f-ed up, too, in some weird ways. For starters, we had a complete power blackout in our downtown area. As in, complete. And the entire thing. I had to drive home among many confused drivers, trying to navigate intersections without stoplights. It was insane.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Tramadol side effects include rash, itching

Here is a link to some info:

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/tramadol-side-effects.html

Sorry to hear about the medical insurance mess. I hope it's been straightened out. These companies are horrible.


I had a fairly frustrating day, but on a much smaller scale. I came down with a virus after feeling slightly dizzy and off kilter all day. Dragged myself out to buy groceries, then remembered my husband took the debit card in order to put more money in his Metro commuter card account. Went home, went to bed, aching all over. Had Gatorade for dinner. Still feeling crummy.

[WhiteTara]

4. Mine started with Verizon

and I spent over an hour with them. I cried, ranted and raved during the entire process. I think they have given either one or two months of free service from it all. But, it took so much time. I can't believe all this shit that we have to go through every day just to keep on living.

[Howler]

5. (((Hug)))

:hug: I hope you have a much better day today murielm99.

[MorningGlow]

6. Oh you poor thing

:hug:

YES, the healthcare runaround is insane and completely frustrating. No wonder you ended up being "not very nice" by the end of the day--especially because not only are you irritated, you're in pain!

Any progress today?

I just got off the phone with a healthcare company myself and would like to punch something very hard. Mr. MG had a healthcare program for six months last year (January to June 2010) while he was a contract worker (before he was hired permanently by the company he's with now). During that time I had some bloodwork done. I got a $210 bill for that bloodwork A FEW DAYS AGO--more than a year later!--and it's the first bill I've received.

The healthcare company was IMPOSSIBLE: "You're not in the system; you were never in the system." Etc. After 10 minutes of wrangling with the woman, I finally wrung out of her that she was only representing ONE program under this company's umbrella, and we could have had a different program. But she couldn't look that up. Now I have to go digging through more than a year's worth of paperwork to find ANY information about this stupid healthcare program we were on for a blip in 2010. SIIIIGGHHHHHH....

Anyway, just know that you're not alone, Muriel. :hug:

[murielm99]

7. Today, I spent some time with them on the phone again.

I had to leave this afternoon. My husband got a return phone call from them, with an alleged answer. When I went to the pharmacy with it, the young lady said, "Oh, dear, this can't be right." She has worked there for awhile, and she is not stupid.

She called them and spent TWENTY-FIVE minutes on the phone with them. She got answers, and saved them in the computer. I did get my prescription.

Things will probably improve from here.

It sounds like a large number of you had frustrating days yesterday. I wonder what is going on.

[MorningGlow]

8. Glad things are looking up for you!

Zoinkers what a tussle!

I spent another 23 hours on the phone today (well, felt like 23 hours anyway) trying to get a live human being to explain my $210 bill. Had to call the consulting firm Mr. MG used to work for to see if THEY had a viable phone number--they did--got a real human...only to find that there was a $200 deductible on labs and other outpatient services, so we gotta pay. x(