Now that I am without insurance and must have my mother pay for my doctor visits and medication, I have learned some things. I have learned that Neurologists don't want to see people who don't have insurance, we might not pay. Physical Therapy is $70 a session at the least expensive place I could find. I also have to find a doctor in Georgia that will actually try to refer me to an Orthopedic doctor and see if they can also cajole a Neurologist to see me, instead of a lawyer...
I have researched what the cost of a CAT scan is, as well as an MRI and I'm not sure about even going to these ghost specialists... we are talking $4,000 for a CAT scan and an MRI is around $6,000. Yes, even with a metal plate in my neck, I can have a MRI. The plate is titanium which isn't magnetic, the only issue is they can't do images to close to the plate or they will get an echo that will ruin the image... and then I paid for nothing. I say I, I mean my mother.
I received a mass email the other day from "Joe Biden" asking me how I like our "Affordable Health Care" reform and then told me to take this test. I took the test and it said I was eligible for pre-existing health insurance. I wrote back to old Joe and let him know... we don't have "Affordable Health Care" in Georgia for pre-existing conditions... let alone unaffordable. I would like to know where this "little Timmy" lives, and how much his parents pay. I can't get insurance for 6 months, and when that time is up I can get insurance for $500 per month and it doesn't cover 1/4 of my pre-existing needs.
I was talking tiny strides physically, when I changed to the new Physical Therapy clinic in Asheville. They said if we kept moving forward, I might be able to get some mobility back in my arm, shoulder, and neck. They said it was crucial to keep moving forward because there was so much fluid built up in my neck, shoulder, and arm that it was creating extra pressure and my lymph gland wasn't working. The fluid could cause more damage and obviously it's a problem when your lymph gland doesn't work.
They had gotten me used to 20 minutes of touch and about 3 inches of movement. To me, that was tremendous. No one had been able to touch my right side for almost 2 years. My skin, muscle, and nerves were so hypersensitive that when someone lightly rubbed(feather touch) my right arm, it felt like I was being stripped of my skin. So, 20 minutes of feather touch was huge to me. As I am writing this, I am starting to cry... I have lost that and gone back to before.
I will not regain my use, I will not ever wake up with out crushing pain... I'm 36(okay almost 37), and I will not be able to go kayaking with friends again, or hiking, or biking, or camping with my son. I will not be able to change the light bulbs in the ceiling of my home, or reach over for the remote. Most of all, I won't be able to wrestle with my kid. I know he's 19, but he's my baby and we used to love to box and wrestle. He forgets all the time... just before he grabs me I yell and he stops and we look at each other. Sometimes he cries and sometimes I do.
I know... I know... I should be grateful my son is alive and that I can walk. Both are certainly miracles. And, I am grateful... beyond measure. But, gratitude doesn't fix my body and mind, pay for my son's neurological, endocrine, pulmonary, and psychiatric needs... or pay the bills, or college tuition. It doesn't work for the practical living stuff. However, it does help one keep from going completely mad and either offing oneself or going on a 10 state killing spree... ha ha, which I can't do anyhow. I mean, I can't lift my arm up to take of my t-shirt, I have to do a half lean thing... how could I manage to hold a gun or rope? Sorry, not funny... I have adopted a rather morbid sense of humor these days. I wouldn't kill anyone even if I could.... well... never mind.
Sedgwick CMS, AT&T, CWA, and Carolina Spine & Neurosurgery have ruined my life. My Manager's blatant lackadaisical attitude towards every aspect of her job, including neglecting to follow the contractually expedient and efficient protocol that was supposed to provide me with the information and direction I needed to begin my Short Term Disability. Because of her neglect I began this process 3 steps behind, which cost me 2 weeks of pay as well as setting the tone for the rest of the bullshit to follow. Sedgwick's manufactured "truths" which cost me my disability. Although, I countered every one of his "truths" with letter's from the REAL doctors stating that Keith Adams lied and never spoke to them, as well as stating that the "facts" of my diagnosis in their documentation is not the diagnosis on the medical notes sent to them. Also reiterating that I was medically disabled and unable to work. Not one doctor, THREE! Nope... not relevant, their "doctors" paid by them, bonus for rewriting my doctors notes by finding snippets and creating sound bites that say what they want them to say, so they can deny me. I mean really, 3 weeks after spinal surgery... discectomy, bone graft, and skyline plate with screws, the first week I was able to leave the house because of risk of infection, Sedgwick said I should be able to go back to work now. Your fixed... go handle people's cell phones. Cell phones that people hold up to their ears and mouths. Cell phones people use after they go to the bathroom and don't wash their hands, cell phones women have pulled out of their bra's on a July afternoon to hand to you. Oh, and money... Yes, negating the damage done to one of my main nerve roots, shoulder, and head... just the risk of infection getting into my body and attacking my open spine. Go to work, it's been three weeks. You got your stitches out... the open holes will heal eventually. You've got that neck brace to hold your head up, you'll be fine. That was honestly their approach and their feeling. They actually said that I could work with accommodations. My doctors, and Physical Therapists hadn't even gotten into work accommodations yet, because I was in a precarious condition and they weren't doing anything more that to try to get me comfortable. When I asked Sedgwick what those supposed accommodations were that would make me be able to work, I was told they didn't know. This was 3 days before they dumped me(after which was my 3rd appeal). Then they said my Manager was handling my accommodations. I asked them if they didn't know what they were and my doctors had yet to determine when I was able to go back to work, thus apparently unable to provide said accommodations, how would my Manager handle accommodations that weren't yet determined. They couldn't answer that, just said you have to return to work in 3 days. I told them that I wasn't going back to work, I didn't have a medical release and since I didn't have a medical release I didn't have accommodations, and since I didn't have any of the aforementioned I gave notice of appeal. If you read my previous posts... you know what happened. CWA did nothing, I called my Local President and he wouldn't call me back, I called my District President and she wouldn't call me back or return my emails. They did however take their dues from the couple measly disability checks I received. AT&T... well, let's just say from my Manager to my Benefits Coordinator there was an enormous amount of "I'm sorry, I can't do anything about this. This is up to the Benefits Coordinator." The President/CEO didn't bother to acknowledge any of it, as I sent several emails to him. But, hey... they hired these criminals, so what do you expect. My Neurologist refused to acknowledge the continuation of my symptoms and my complications... he sent me for 2 Myelograms, the first they punctured my spinal sack and I had to lie flat on my back for a week and had an allergic reaction to the contrast leaving my stomach distended like a 6 month pregnant woman and hives all over my lower back and stomach. When the first one came back he called me and said his work was perfect. I went back months later after it felt like a rubber band snapped in my neck and left me in MORE excruciating pain curled up in a ball on the floor. My Neurologist x-rayed my neck and showed my best friend and I how straight the plate was and that C-5 was healing but C-6 wasn't healing as well, but his work was perfect, see! I said that I believed the work he did was perfect and that I wasn't questioning that issue, however there was apparently something else going on. He said I had to have another Myelogram. I asked if that was absolutely necessary and told him what had happened before. He became nasty and asked if my throat closed and had to be rushed to the hospital. I told him that allergic reactions are not limited to anaphylaxis. He said, do you want to get better, do you want to know what is going on or not! So, off I go and again, another allergic reaction. He calls back and again says his work was perfect. I asked him if he had bothered to look for anything else, he hung up. Now, ask yourself, this is the man that read my initial MRI and thought that 2 shattered vertebra looked like 2 severely herniated discs... how closely did he look at anything post-op? To my defense, I did not know he was the person who read my MRI until much, much later. He dropped me and his PT department hooked me up to electrodes or just put a floaty cervical collar on me and left me to float in a pool. He screwed up and he wanted me gone.
Now, here I am... just having found people that were figuring out what was going on and I lost my insurance and I am quickly going in reverse...
Where does the injustice and indignity end? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? When do I get my justice? According to my research... I don't. It's bullshit.
