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| Author |
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| 25 new of 480 responses total. |
keesan
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response 346 of 480:
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Nov 28 21:48 UTC 2003 |
Today I got what is probably my fifth bill from U of M for Jim's routine blood
test done July 7 (he passed). First time I called and asked them to fix this
to 'preventive' so that the insurance would pay. They billed me again. Next
I asked them what happened and they said the doctor had to fax them the
correct code number for preventive. They billed me again. I had them talk
to the doctor's accounting person. They billed me again. I called the
doctor's office. She said not to call her again and the amount was supposed
to go towards insurance deductible. Our policy is such that routine exams are
exempted from the deductible (if billed properly). I had the insurance
company phone the doctor's office. I phoned the insurance company. They said
they had explained it all. I wonder who did what wrong this time. I will
have to wait until Monday to call U of M Billing and the insurance company.
I think it might be time to recommend to PPOM not to use this doctor. Three
separate billing problems already.
What really bothers me is that the accounting person refuses to accept
any responsibility and hangs up on me and says not to call again. The
insurance company is being rather helpful.
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keesan
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response 347 of 480:
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Nov 30 16:39 UTC 2003 |
This is the time in the cycle when the side effects start to go away.
My legs are less wobbly, as oftoday my hands are much less numb.
This cycle the headache lasted only one evening instead of 3 days (cycles 3
and 4) or 6 days (cycle 2). My left hand only had a few twinges of pain
instead ofbeing swollenfor 3-7 days. The pain in my ribs due to pleural
effusion is less frequent and less severe. The laryngitis wasa bit better
but is worse again now.
Jim has been sick for 10 days now - muscle aches, very hoarse,says he feels
awful or terrible, sneezing, coughing... I sneezed a few times this week but
don't have his cold or flu. Amazing.
I have gained only 1 pound in 2 weeks because he does not feel like cooking
and I did not feel like standing on wobbly legs, or cutting with shaky hands
(which are also getting a bit better now). There is still no sign of any body
fat or increased muscle mass. I must have lost a lot of internal fat.
I am strong enough to sit putting linux on a computer for hours, but it still
hurts to sit.
We are getting Chinese food delivered daily or cooked here since Wednesday.
Jim ordered more sticky rice pudding with jujubes.
I may go for my first walk in a week today while the sun shines.
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keesan
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response 348 of 480:
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Dec 1 17:32 UTC 2003 |
Today my voice is nearly normal and I can even sing. Jim also feels enough
over his flu that he volunteered to walk me.
First I need to make lots of phone calls about insurance.
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keesan
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response 349 of 480:
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Dec 2 05:09 UTC 2003 |
I phoned U of M Billing and they put me on hold for a while to check why I
was being billed more than 20% of $138 and then told me the insurance company
was paying part of this and someone at U of M had 'posted' it wrong. Who?
'The poster'. I owed $43. This is actually 30%, meaning the insurance
company also made a mistake (it is 70% of amounts over the deductible but 80%
of preventive care up to $400 that they pay), however I decided to pay the
extra $15 since this had been going on since July, just to end it. I paid
by credit card over the phone. I will check my statement carefully.
My hands continue to feel a lot better and today we went out walking in the
cold and wind, and even took a shortcut through an area overgrown with trees
and a bit hilly. It still wears me out. But my legs no longer feel numb.
My feet don't feel anything but pressure. I am hungry again. My big chance
to gain 2 pounds this week to keep up my average. Jim feels like cooking
again. He is happy with the linux computer I am making him to use for photo
editing and browsing (five browsers). He is also happy that he was able to
break a piece out of his printer so that it would work with the same
cartridges as a friend's printer that he is doing refills for, and that lets
him test the refills. And use the friend's old cartridges for everyone.
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davel
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response 350 of 480:
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Dec 2 17:06 UTC 2003 |
With Grace's arm we also, several times, just gave up & paid things. I think
that they dig in their heels knowing that many people will do that. I suspect
that it's not cost-effective in the end (for them), though. <sigh>
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keesan
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response 351 of 480:
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Dec 2 18:28 UTC 2003 |
Today I seem to finally have whatever Jim still has. I am coughing and my
throat is sore. I emailed the nurse to ask if I should delay Monday
chemotherapy so as not to infect other people. Jim had muscle aches,
very hoarse throat, and exhaustion as well as the usual respiratory symptoms.
We have been putting off visiting mutual friends with our visitor until Jim
was better and now we are both sick. She continues to cook for us.
I will try peppermint tea to stop coughing.
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keesan
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response 352 of 480:
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Dec 3 21:39 UTC 2003 |
My sore throat has passed but I am still coughing. I think this is not what
Jim has/had but something new.
Today U of M Billing phoned to say that my credit card number did not work.
Turns out they don't have a way to deal with debit cards over the phone. My
debit cards work fine for internet purchases. Also turns out that the $43
I tried to pay is not 30% of $138 but the discount off $182 to $138 and they
are still billing the full amount. I phoned the doctor and was told he
must have had some reason for billing this as non-preventive but he was not
going to talk to me and I was hung up on. I phoned the insurance company and
got the name of someone that the doctor' refused to talk to. I phoned ppom
and someone spent half an hour trying to help and phoned the doctor's office
and was told he 'exercised his professional judgment' in refusing to bill as
preventive a blood count and PSA that he had recommended to Jim because he
is male and over 50. If this is not a routine test, what is?
PPOM said I could send them a letter of complaint and they also gave me the
address to send an appeal to the insurance company to get them to pay this
even if it was billed wrong. I just wrote up 1.5 pages for each. I hope that
this doctor will be removed from the ppom list and that the insurance company
will take responsiblity for fixing the problem he has caused. The former
might help with the latter. If these were not routine tests they should not
have been done at all since we made it clear that we were there because the
insurance paid for routine tests.
I am getting tired of this but not tired enough to pay the full $138.
If the doctor refuses to cooperate, who is responsible for the problem?
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gelinas
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response 353 of 480:
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Dec 3 22:23 UTC 2003 |
(Have you stopped using that doctor?)
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klg
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response 354 of 480:
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Dec 4 02:08 UTC 2003 |
You may have covered this previously, but why are you receiving bills
for Jim's medical tests?
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keesan
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response 355 of 480:
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Dec 4 02:37 UTC 2003 |
We went to this doctor just once. I pay Jim's expenses. He is taking care
of me.
Is there some virus going around that starts with three days of scratchy
throat and coughing so hard you almost throw up? I thought I had what Jim
used to have but it is acting differently. I would like to be able to predict
if it will be better by Monday. I started coughing Monday and thought I had
a strep throat last night (which stopped hurting so much by morning).
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klg
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response 356 of 480:
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Dec 4 03:02 UTC 2003 |
You pay for his health insurance? Even so, wouldn't the deductible/co-
insurance be billed to the policyholder?
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scott
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response 357 of 480:
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Dec 4 04:50 UTC 2003 |
Sounds a bit like that I had a few weeks ago... never did figure out if it
was a really nasty cold or the flu.
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keesan
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response 358 of 480:
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Dec 4 14:00 UTC 2003 |
How long did the nasty cold last? Yes I pay for Jim's insurance and his
medical expenses as well.
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scott
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response 359 of 480:
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Dec 4 14:18 UTC 2003 |
Not quite three weeks, I think.
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gull
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response 360 of 480:
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Dec 4 16:15 UTC 2003 |
My strategy for a while now has been, whenever I feel unexpectedly
cruddy for no good reason, I take a day off work and sleep a lot. So
far I've been successful in avoiding getting truely sick this way.
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slynne
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response 361 of 480:
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Dec 4 16:42 UTC 2003 |
I had a pretty nasty cold in October that lasted for the better part of
two weeks.
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keesan
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response 362 of 480:
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Dec 4 19:06 UTC 2003 |
I hope this does not last three weeks as I cannot postpone therapy for two
weeks. Does it get somewhat better after the first week? So far it is just
four days of lots of coughing and scratchy throat, complicated by the
pharyngitis so at night I am wheezing trying to get enough air. Okay when
I am standing up. The week after chemo the pharyngitis is worse.
Scott and Slynne, do you recall how you felt after just one week?
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scott
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response 363 of 480:
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Dec 4 19:12 UTC 2003 |
Mine doesn't sound exactly like yours. First couple days maybe I felt a
little lower energy, and then a sore throat started to show up. The night
that I knew I was sick I had a fever over 100, then normal the next day. Then
a milder fever that night, after which it settled down to a bad cold. Colds
do tend to throw off my internal temperature regulation, though. After some
unremembered amount of time I developed a really bad cough, which at times
seemed like I was about to pull a muscle. Eventually things tailed off, but
the cough stayed on for a few more weeks until I went to the doctor. That's
when I was on prednisone for a week, to reduce thoat inflamation.
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slynne
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response 364 of 480:
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Dec 4 20:52 UTC 2003 |
After a week, I still had a cough but I felt well enough to go to work.
Mine started with lots of sneezing and a stuffed up nose. By the third
day, I had a slight fever and a cough. The cough is what lingered but
it went away around two weeks after the initial illness.
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keesan
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response 365 of 480:
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Dec 5 03:24 UTC 2003 |
Maybe we all have/had the same thing but responded differently? I have been
coughing for four days now, no stuffy nose but a sore throat two nights ago,
and no fever. I sneezed maybe five times the week before it started. I will
be on prednisone for five days next week. My big concern is that the
pharyngitis will interact with the infection and I will be choking on mucus
like I was second cycle when I had a cold. If I have a very runny nose next
Monday I might ask to postpone a couple of days.
Today I got notice from the insurance company that they are not reimbursing
me for the mattress pads recommended to prevent bed sores because they are
'for comfort and convenience'. Yes, it is convenient to be able to sleep.
I am now exchanging emails with someone who supports one of my favorite
programs, whose brother had lymphoma 25 years ago and refused to be treated
again after it recurred. Chemotherapy was apparently quite a bit worse then,
and the second time you get it they use worse poisons. His mother was cured
of leukemia for 15 years then died of a stroke. Leukemia is usually harder
to cure than lymphoma. His brother had an advanced case. They decided
against surgery after taking a look inside. We are discussing hospital diets
and the advantages of having a Puerto Rican restaurant across from the
hospital so visitors can bring cooked food.
He said his mother never regained her sense of taste. Mine is cyclical and
is worst just about now and returns around the beginning of the next cycle.
The other side effects are worst shortly after treatment and my hands are
hardly numb now. I have had only one finger with shredded skin at a time this
cycle (maybe 4-5 total) and no hand pain. The laryngitis was nearly better
until I started coughing a few days ago. Leukemia treatment is more frequent
so the side effects are worse and probably longer lasting.
I would REALLY like to get the last treatment over Monday. The thought of
this has been sustaining me recently through eating sour-tasting potatoes and
drinking sour-tasting water and walking 3/4 mile each way in the cold on feet
that I cannot feel, and pulling out clumps of hair when I know it is about
to get a lot colder.
The hot flashes don't seem to be quite as hot or frequent (down from every
45 to every 60 minutes?).
One leukemia patient said she had chemotherapy for a whole year and it did
not help. She was pretty cheery about it all, relative to how she could have
been. Her next step was a bone marrow transplant within 2 weeks. It must
have been nice to have that decision over with.
I am not coughing quite as much (yesterday I coughed so hard I nearly threw
up) but now my head hurts a bit. My eyes are sill runny. Jim made me some
more salt water gargle, which when I used it almost made me choke. But it
is much nicer tasting than the thrush treatment was.
Our visitor made a special trip here and tried to tempt my jaded appetite with
stir-fried bitter melon. It is green and has scalloped edges. I grew some
once and it had gelatinous looking red seeds. I tasted one piece and it
tasted exactly like prednisone and benadryl. Apparently bitter things all
taste the same, at least to me, right now. Jim put lots of chili pickled
cabbage on it and ate it all including mine. I managed to eat a preserved
egg and 2 small sour-tasting potatoes and some cocoa and baby cereal and
steamed bread today. As long as I don't lose weight for three more weeks I
am not going to worry.
Jim wrote his first program in C and compiled it on the basiclinux computer.
It is named 'hello'. Today we also got a script for reading man pages with
man2html going. After three hours of testing different parts of the script
separately (someone else wrote it) we reported that zcat does not operate
properly for us on strings surrounded by ' '. Turns out the characters should
have been 1` ` (back quote) which is located under the ~ - first time I ever
realized that character existed. I spent most of the day on the couch under
a warm down sleeping bag suggesting things for him to try, in between coughs.
My head has finally stopped hurting enough to read the bbs. Jim read it to
me earlier, and answered my email, and reported our problem to basiclinux,
and learned how to do all sorts of other things I had been doing for him.
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gull
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response 366 of 480:
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Dec 5 14:18 UTC 2003 |
A brief introduction to how quotes work in shell scripts:
Single quotes (' ') tell the shell "pass this on as a unit without
changing it." This is handy if you're passing arguments with special
characters in them, like filenames that contain spaces or ampersands.
(For example, rm File With Spaces.txt will try to delete three files,
"File", "With", and "Spaces.txt". rm 'File With Spaces.txt' will
remove one file called "File With Spaces.txt".)
Double quotes (" ") allow some processing, like replacing variables with
their values, but otherwise they act like single quotes.
Backquotes (` `) tell the shell, "run this command and used the output
as an argument." This is a very powerful feature and is used a lot in
shell scripts. It's as if you'd copied the output of the command and
pasted it onto the command line.
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keesan
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response 367 of 480:
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Dec 5 16:25 UTC 2003 |
Very helpful explanation. Jim said with single quotes it would tell him 'file
or directory not found' since what we had in there was a command and argument.
He got all excited about this and wants to write a script with back quotes
now. He was about to go shopping (by bike) before it snowed. Somehow
computers don't seem to save any time. It is now snowing.
So now we have a very small program and a one-line script that accomplish the
same thing as the man package and the groff package (8 MB).
Today my head does not hurt and my eyes are not as runny but I am still
coughing. I expect I will be enough better to do chemotherapy Monday.
My legs are much less wobbly than last week. My hands are less numb. My voice
is less weak. In three weeks I should feel the same but I won't have to go
back to square zero again if I am lucky.
Jim says 'works fine'. Must have been a very small script that he wrote.
He wants to try dosemu (Do I need to compile it?) and run his editor under
dosemu. Does dosemu work with programs that call BIOS and DOS functions?
The alternative is to rewrite his editor in C and recompile it.
Maybe I will try compiling lynx while Jim is out. He does not let me near the
computer when he is in.
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gull
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response 368 of 480:
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Dec 5 17:04 UTC 2003 |
It's been a long time since I used dosemu. I think it works with
programs that use BIOS calls. It'd be pretty useless if it didn't.
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keesan
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response 369 of 480:
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Dec 5 22:03 UTC 2003 |
Do you need to recompile the DOS programs or just load dosemu?
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gull
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response 370 of 480:
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Dec 5 22:06 UTC 2003 |
No need to recompile. You might try www.dosemu.org for details.
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