Category Archives: health

The Retired Life

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A Day or Week in the Retired Life

A friend of mine once told me he had to retire because he had so many doctor appointments it was the only way he had time to keep them all.  I’m beginning to see what he meant. It was a  celebration when I finally got my insurance straightened out- Medicare parts A & B and an Advantage plan with my old insurance company, Aetna, Now it’s time to reschedule all of the appointments I missed while I was uninsured. 

Aetna seems to be afraid that I’m going to croak on them or something. They call me 2-3 times per week to see if I have any questions. They sent a visiting nurse to my home to check on me. And they email me every day! Oh and did I mention the letters? They’ve killed a few trees to stay in touch. 

As for appointments I’ve had an annual physical, am scheduled for blood work, scheduled an eye exam and a mammogram. My doctor suggested a follow up with my pulmonary guy, my nephrologist and my hematologist. She  tossed in a vascular specialist for good measure so I put my foot down. 

Update on the Cable Decision

I got my tax refund so I felt comfortable taking $100 to buy a Roku TV. It was so easy to set up. Just plug it in to an outlet and sign into my streaming accounts. I still have my old TV hooked up to cable but so far I don’t see any reason to keep it up. I have a couple of  my shows that will be adding new episodes so I just want to see how quickly the new ones hit the stream. If its a couple of days I won’t even add a live TV option. I’ll just stream what I have.

photo credit- Deb Neumann

 

Only Murders in the Building

The first day I had the new TV hooked up I checked out  the Hulu Original, “Only Murders in the Building” and ended up binge watching all the episodes.  So I think this may work out well. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Just a little Housekeeping

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 February Housekeeping

Good morning Friends! I’m just doing a little mental housekeeping. It’s been quite a journey since the layoff. I thought maybe I should bring everyone up to date. I’m still learning stuff about being a senior. 

My Part C Medicare

After much back and forth over prescription coverage. medi-gap and Advantage  Plans (part C) everything finally got settled and effective Feb 1 I was officially in a Part C Advantage plan with Aetna. The first thing I noticed was that a trip to the pharmacy wasn’t quite as frightening. Instead of paying $1200 for my prescriptions the most I’ve had to pay was $85.00. I was prepared for the BIG BILL because I was told I would be in the Donut Hole and I made too much money in 2021 to qualify for a state funded supplement that would pick up the difference between the co pays and what is charged when the dreaded Donut hole opens up. Don’t know why it’s been so reasonable but I am not going to complain.

Home Visit

Last week I got a call from Aetna asking to schedule a home visit with a nurse. Last time I had one of those I was recovering from hip replacement surgery but it was ok with me if they wanted to come by. The visit took about and hour and we reviewed my meds and then she checked my vitals including measuring blood flow in my feet! She gave me some good information on things that are covered like rides to doctors and for me, the big one, paying for housekeeping. I guess Aetna will pay for a house cleaner once or twice a month and someone to run errands! All I have to do is ask my doctor to submit a request.  I already have a house cleaner that keeps me from drowning in cat hair but if insurance will pay that would be awesome.

 

FYI for anyone who might find themselves in my shoes, the nurse said go to the hospital and claim you are sick. They have a social worker there to enroll you in the correct insurances. The hospital has to be able to bill someone and they take care of it on the spot!

Pets

Banner and Balboa are doing well. They entertain me endlessly. Banner has even decided to sleep on my lap a little and stole few minutes with me at bedtime until Balboa reclaimed his place. 

Mail

Now that the insurance is resolved (It only took 3 months) my mail volume has dropped off considerably. Glad to be done with that. It was a full time job keeping up. 

Future Plans

Now that the big headache of the insurance is done and my unemployment is coming in, I need to cut back on unnecessary expenses. So

#1. I plan to cut the cord. Yup, I’m going to drop cable and go to just streaming. I need to replace the TV in the bedroom but my savings from the cable bill should pay for a new TV in about 2-3 months then it will be home free.

#2. Drop unused streaming services like Disney Plus. I never watch it

#3 Cancel On Star. I’m not driving long distances these day so consider it a luxury not a necessity.

#4. I already dropped a couple of blogs/websites that I don’t use so no more domain renewals. 

I’m sure I’ll find more little subscriptions that I don’t use and cancel those as they come up. Simplify Baby. That’s the name of the game.

 

Progress on My New Life

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Making Progress

Isn’t it amazing how much progress you can make when given the right information? I finally got the information on COBRA from my former employer, a month to the day after they laid me off. Plus it was 18 pages of small print! My company insurance ended 11/30 so I’ve been uninsured since then. That can get expensive fast as I just had to pay full price for 2 prescriptions. They came to almost $350.00.

Medicare

I have Medicare Part A. I’ve had that since I turned 65 but I never added anything else since I had insurance through my employer. I got laid off in the middle of “Open Enrollment” so there were a lot of resources out there. Each one gave you different advice/information.  I did learn that I had to add Part B before I could get in an Advantage Plan. Thus began a frustrating quest to get signed up for Part B. 

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The advice was to sign up online. One advisor even walked me through the links to get to the application. No luck. They system said my information on file was different from what I entered. That was the last straw. I took myself down to our local Social Security office and got in line.

Social Security

 

The wait turned into 2 hours for about 10 minutes with the social security representative. My meeting was quick because she just told me I couldn’t sign up online and handed me a form that my (former) employer had to complete stating they had been providing insurance and the effective dates.  So It’s back to Redfin again. Until I get that Part B coverage . No Advantage yet.

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The Form

I must give credit where credit is due. Redfin set up a “Transitional Assistance Team” and provided an email, I sent the form to that email and got an immediate response. They sent to the Benefits Team. I expected that to take a few days but no,  they got the completed form to me the same day! I printed it out sent it off to Social Security immediately. Fingers crossed they are quick.

COBRA

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It all depends on how quick Social Security moves but if they get me my new card, I can select just dental coverage through COBRA and keep that a couple of months while we finish up my implants.  By being able to select the coverage I want it becomes much more affordable.

Life Insurance

I never considered Life Insurance as I had plenty through my work. Now I had none and being old and diabetic made me high risk. You’d think I was going to die tomorrow!  After collecting my denial letters I lowered my expectations and picked up a small policy to cover burial/ cremation expenses. No memorial service, no urn. My poor family will get handed a baggie of cinders.

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Still to Do

The insurance was the BIG item on my list but the only other thing I can think of is to close out my 401K. There’s not much in there as I’d shifted my attention to buying stock. My investment (Stock) account, which was my retirement, has to sit until the stock market recovers.  I kept investing even as the stock price fell because you buy low and sell high. Right?  I’m optimistic about the future of that account once this recession is past. 

 

Just a Little Behind

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Behind?

I’ve had a rough couple of weeks so I’m behind on my research for my next vacation. The first glitch came two weeks ago. I was really cooking along. I’d gotten a couple of locations down and prepared my posts then all of a sudden I couldn’t get into my site!? It took a few days to track down the culprit. Blue Host, my web hosting company, had done an update and I’d also done an update and they weren’t compatible. Once I finally got to the right person it was fixed in a snap.

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But it was now mid-week and work commands my attention then. 

Life interferes too

So Saturday rolls around and I have a long list of errands to do including the aforementioned mentioned research. Idaho & Indiana are next on my list. I made the unwise decision to start my weekend with my annual flu shot. While I was making my appointment for that the CVS website recommended a COVID booster. It’s been awhile since I had one so I marked OK on my appointment. I was smart enough to ask the pharmacist if it was stupid to get both the Flu shot & COVID at the same time. She looked at my shot record and said I’d  “probably” be fine. Then Stabbed both arms, COVID on the Left, Flu on the right. I got two cute little Band-Aids  and left.

Cartoon character a woman getting a vaccine Vector Image

OOPS! Saturday afternoon the chills started, my ever present cough became unbearable and all I wanted to do was sleep. Nothing got done except cuddles with the kitties. I promise I won’t get both shots at the same time again!

Rain Rain and more Rain

As if those delays weren’t enough I think I’ve been transported to Seattle and the Norwest Rain forest. All it seems to do here is rain. I wake up every morning to drizzle. We had 2 sunny days this week. All the rest was rain. Well the good thing about it is that its not snow and the weather folks can’t complain about drought. Now they just warn of flash flooding.

And the Last Straw

My Dad always said he drank beer because he saw what water did to pipes. (He was a plumber) I have the unpleasant opportunity to see that for myself as the kitchen faucet split. Apparently the cover is plastic and it just gave out leaving rusty, nasty pipe to look at.

 

So its Saturday again and raining and my plans to dig into vacation planning have to take a step back so I can go to Home Depot for a new kitchen faucet.  At least it isn’t leaking and I have a contractor who will do the replacement for me. Could be worse I suppose.

Know that I am working on that vacation research and will update when I can. Maybe next post!

A Day in The Life in Quarantine

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Life in Quarantine

Another day in Quarantine. The pandemic continues and they say the worst is yet to come. We are all trapped in a bad version of Groundhog Day (the movie) I do the same thing every day over and over. I always thought I would make a good Hermit. But looks like I was wrong. Humans are social animals. That’s why solitary confinement is such a strong punishment in prison.

Pacing 800 Sq Ft

I pace my condo at odd hours. I’m not sleeping well. Probably because I don’t do anything. It just keeps raining so I haven’t been able to walk around the block. Its midnight and I’m up again to wander to the living room. I stay out of the kitchen. I’m not hungry but what else is there to do besides eat. Then I wander back to the bedroom. I tell myself I’m not getting my 8 hours of sleep but my body isn’t tired. I want to go jogging or mountain climbing or anything to just get out. Is this what prisoners feel behind bars? Maybe I’ll finally learn to meditate?

The Phone Never Stops

The worst part of this is that all the other folks I know are feeling the same thing. There is this underlying anxiety. For some of my friends its becoming overwhelming. Where I escape by  reading books or writing blog posts my friends don’t seem to have these outlets. They relieve their stress by calling and texting me. They want me to reassure them and they want me to entertain them. Sorry folks I’m in the same boat you are and you are interrupting my book! On the other hand I get to yell at telemarketers for my stress relief.

Do you Have a Mask?

The CDC says we all should wear a mask if we have to go out. I don’t have any masks. I didn’t stock up when the pandemic started. Its not mandatory yet but it sounds like its headed that way. I bet robbers will be sorry when this pandemic ends. Right now they have a perfect disguise that is blessed by society. Oh, that’s right, the stores are closed! Not much left to rob.

So how is your day in Quarantine?

So how is this quarantine thing working for you? Do you have family or pets to keep you company? I’m going to spend the rest of my day trying to find a mask or two so if the sun ever comes out I can go outside again.

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy. This too shall pass.