Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Jedi-insurance Mind Tricks

Yesterday morning I had another incident with my gall bladder. Some of your may recall that I had a previous attack, but that I’m putting surgery off. I’m still putting it off because I’m not entirely sure it’s not related to my gastric problems.

As you may recall my doc had prescribed Nexium for me, but I had to go “off” if when my insurance company refused to pay for it. Guess what? More tummy pain and a trip to the emergency room. Here’s the irony for you. The emergency room doctor recommended that I start with Priolsec, and work up from there. That way there’s a history of meds that have failed, and then it’s more likely that the insurance company will pay for the stronger meds, like Nexium. Here’s the kicker, though. Because Priolsec is and over-the-counter drug, the insurance company won’t pay for that either.

I feel like I’m in massive amounts of pain, and the insurance company is trying to get me to believe I don’t have a problem. It’s a scene from a weird corporate based version of Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi tries to tell me, “These aren’t the drugs you’re looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.”

Trouble is, insurance mind-tricks don’t work on me. The pain sure does, though.

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