I know I know...what the fuck? Two posts in one morning? Both by the Banshee, the elusive LizardQueen...the E of B&E...yes yes...another post by me. Because I have anger. Anger at Insurance Companies...
Anger issue #1 - This one is regarding me. As I have made known, I have been suffering with cluster headaches. These are not fun. These are fucking debilitating when they hit. And when they hit I look like a freak. My eyelid and side of my face (that the headache/eye pain/jaw pain) is on swells up and I can't fully open my eye on the side. However, instead of being able to get a referral immediately to a neurologist, I have to go through 3 months of drug treatment by my primary doctor. I am a month and a half through the drug treatment. I have to keep a log of when I get the headaches (because I still do, not with the same severity and not as often) while on the drugs. The drugs I am on are an anti-seizure medication and I am very thankful for it's existence. It's a wonderful little white tablet of chemical goodness that makes me happy. I also consume around 5 liters of water a day. If I don't consume these 5 liters of water I feel sluggish and I end up having a headache. It pisses me off that I have to go through this but I will go through it and finally when I get to the neurologist I will have gathered enough information on these fucking things that I will be armed and ready. So while the insurance dictating how my doctor can care for me pisses me off the next one is worse.
#2 - This one concerns my son so therefore it is worse. My son was born with a concave or sunken chest. While this is something that can be and most of the time is just a cosmetic issue. There can be physical issues that go along with it. The one thing I was told to watch with him was his breathing. He has not ever had a problem with his breathing, he didn't ever get winded earlier than other kids when running. He's an active boy, has played hockey and baseball and generally runs around like a madman. (As 7 year old boys are wont to do.) However the past 2 weeks, after gym and after recess, he has had difficulties breathing (actually during and after the activities) He has also recently gone through a growth spurt and shot up a few inches (all of his pants are now too short...how does this seem to happen overnight??) Anyway, so I ended up at the doctor's office with him yesterday. They have to treat him for "exercise induced asthma" first. He has an inhaler to use 15-20 minutes before activity. However, he should only use this no more than 3 times (3 different occasions, 2 puffs 15-20 minutes before activity) if he still has difficulty breathing then I stop the inhaler and return to the doctor. I guess then they'll order further testing. This pisses me off. I don't see why they can't order the CT Scan to take a look at his chest cavity for heart and lung placement to see if there are restrictions on either now that he has grown again. This seems more logical, but no they have to treat it as a breathing problem with activity (which could be exercise induced asthma) before they can probe further.
The fact that insurance companies are able to dictate care is just wrong. Doctors are the ones who have the training and the knowledge, however, they aren't allowed to run the diagnostics they feel necessary until they jump through the hoops laid out by the insurance companies. It's just utter and complete bullshit.
*sigh*
So here we go...I have a little adventure with my son. Maybe it isn't the sunken/concave chest causing the breathing issues...but I'd be pretty damned surprised if it wasn't.
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