Friday, April 29, 2016

Catching Up

A few things to get caught up on for the week.  I had my annual physical Monday morning.  All the blood work came back as normal, my cholesterol was off a bit.  The good cholesterol was down some.  Lack of exercise most likely.  Not enough to make any changes to the statin meds.  My fault, been pretty sedentary since my surgery.  The doc and I discussed a few things and he was gone.  No real exam, listened to one spot on my chest.  Very short time and I feel like I didn't really get a physical.  Don't get me wrong, getting out quickly is a blessing.  But I don't see how he can find anything wrong if he isn't thorough.  I know he uses the blood tests as the main info about how healthy I am, or not.  Is it that way with every doctor?  Every physical I have ever had has gotten shorter and shorter to where it is now just a check up.  I wonder if the new federal coding has had any effect on this.

The truck was taken in for the brake job Thursday morning.  It was about as bad as I was prepared for, new rotors, wasn't cheap.  I added a front bearing repack at their suggestion.  After that many miles and never having it done, I just did it while they had it.    They also got the recall on the airbags fixed.  Good to have this behind me.

Have been experiencing some issues with the gums around a wisdom tooth.  This happens, but not too often.  The dentist was content to just leave it alone.  Early Thursday morning it woke me up.  The whole side of my face and head hurting.  Took some motrin and the pain eased enough to go back to sleep.  This has gone on longer than usual and is much worse.  I assume I will have to have the tooth/tusk removed.  Since it is so far back it is hard to brush and almost impossible to floss around.  On occasion it will get a little inflamed, but this is more.

I called my dentist and have an appointment Friday at 8:30 AM.  Our dental insurance is no longer good with this dentist.  In fact we haven't been able to find a dentist that will accept it.  Had it for 20 years and now no one will take it.  I have to wait until open enrollment to sign up for a another one that will be accepted.  A full year of wasted premiums and I will have to pay out of my pocket for this visit.  Just what we need after paying for a brake job.  SMH.

Happy Trails

3 comments:

Old NFO said...

Glad the truck is fixed! Re the tooth, I just went through that. Luckily they knocked down the extraction price since I was paying cash with no insurance.

Harry Flashman said...

I have Ameritas. It doesn't pay much but it limits the outrageous amounts an "in network" dentist can charge. I go to a dentist in a town in the next county, as no dentists in my county accept Ameritas. This in spite of the fact that it is the dental insurance provided to all Georgia teachers and school system employees. You pay for it, of course. The good old days of getting insurance as a fringe benefit, with no deductibles and no coinsurance, are long since history.

Just got my truck back from having a new brake booster installed. Now its hard to shift. I think I will have the transmission fluid changed, see if that helps, and if not I am probably looking at a complete rebuilding of the clutch pedal assembly, about $700.00.

I was in the ER at our local hospital a few weeks ago. I never saw a doctor. The just short of shuttled me in and out without doing anything for me. Bill was $750, including a "pharmaceutical" charge of $20.00 for a single Ibuprofen tablet. My insurance paid all but $150, which is my share for any emergency room visit.

Randy said...

Old NFO-I got a little discount for paying cash also. It was still much more than I exected

Harry Flashman-My truck is go just fine, hope you are on the mend.

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