Health Problems

Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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Asshole Chemo Oncologist has routine visit scheduled for this past Monday. I have radiation set at same time (keep in mind this is the SAME COMPANY in 2 different Las Vegas locations). The radiation people tell me to just show up early and they will shift around to work me in. Done. They moved me around so fast that I was early to the Chemo Oncologist. Lobby packed. So I know I'm waiting but whatever. Note in lobby says 'if you are waiting more than 15 minutes after your scheduled appointment let us know'. So I wait an hour (cuz I'm early and that is 100% on me) , then the 15 min. Then I ask how much longer and I'm told 'another hour' fuuuuuccccckkkkk that place. I noped the fuck out.
Now I go to radiation place next day (SAME COMPANY - different location) and ask what I need to do to get the chemo part moved to this location. They said they will request it of the doc but they have to approve to move me. I asked was this still America? What a fucking shit show.

Different BS. A 3rd party company , that I didn't decide on and never heard of , billed me an additional $277 for services rendered. I call to see wtf as I had paid them what insurance said I owed and figured there was a 3rd DOS floating around. I get talked in circles, I already confuse easy cuz 1. dumb 2. head drugs and finally give up. call INsurance and they call this place to find out they never sent the stuff to Insurance just to me. Fucking medical billing shit show. Can we burn it all down? More and more I want that extinction event asteroid to hit.
 
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KDow

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Kajiimagi said:
Asshole Chemo Oncologist has routine visit scheduled for this past Monday. I have radiation set at same time (keep in mind this is the SAME COMPANY in 2 different Las Vegas locations). The radiation people tell me to just show up early and they will shift around to work me in. Done. They moved me around so fast that I was early to the Chemo Oncologist. Lobby packed. So I know I'm waiting but whatever. Note in lobby says 'if you are waiting more than 15 minutes after your scheduled appointment let us know'. So I wait an hour (cuz I'm early and that is 100% on me) , then the 15 min. Then I ask how much longer and I'm told 'another hour' fuuuuuccccckkkkk that place. I noped the fuck out.
Now I go to radiation place next day (SAME COMPANY - different location) and ask what I need to do to get the chemo part moved to this location. They said they will request it of the doc but they have to approve to move me. I asked was this still America? What a fucking shit show.

Different BS. A 3rd party company , that I didn't decide on and never heard of , billed me an additional $277 for services rendered. I call to see wtf as I had paid them what insurance said I owed and figured there was a 3rd DOS floating around. I get talked in circles, I already confuse easy cuz 1. dumb 2. head drugs and finally give up. call INsurance and they call this place to find out they never sent the stuff to Insurance just to me. Fucking medical billing shit show. Can we burn it all down? More and more I want that extinction event asteroid to hit.
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The whole thing is such a scam. Same hospital system but every doctor's office had their own billing bullshit. Getting a bill for the first time and getting a notice from a collection agency for the very same charge on the same day happened more than once.

All the offices use the same collection agency and so I didn't risk double paying I just said fuck it and now I wait for everything to come via collection. They changed how medical debt impacts your credit and where I'm at now I really don't give a shit anyway but the whole thing is fucking bullshit.
 
Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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KDow said:
The whole thing is such a scam. Same hospital system but every doctor's office had their own billing bullshit. Getting a bill for the first time and getting a notice from a collection agency for the very same charge on the same day happened more than once.

All the offices use the same collection agency and so I didn't risk double paying I just said fuck it and now I wait for everything to come via collection. They changed how medical debt impacts your credit and where I'm at now I really don't give a shit anyway but the whole thing is fucking bullshit.
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that's what I ended up telling the person that billed me. If this needs to get to collections where I can deal with a professional that's fine but I'm not paying for anything that doesn't make sense. That same person wound up calling me an hour later and admitting that it was never sent to insurance but sent directly to me.
Weirdly I am not concerned about collections/credit rating. I *thought* I knew my back would eventually go out on me so we'd been paying everything down for years. The house / cars/ etc are all paid for , only outstanding debt is monthly CC that is paid off 100% every month (went cashless for COVID and never looked back). Didn't see the tumor coming but turns out I was already ready already.
 
C

Captain Suave

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Insurance is so fucked up. I just got a notice that they're trying to deny payment on the 18 hr inpatient stay for my wife's appendectomy. They say she should have been sent home despite her getting out of surgery at 9 pm and being on IV morphine until the next morning. We were home by noon as it was.

It's not going to affect us as our deductible is met, but the hospital is going to get screwed. And people wonder why hospitals are financially struggling and short-staffed while insurance profits are up...
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

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Captain Suave said:
Insurance is so fucked up. I just got a notice that they're trying to deny payment on the 18 hr inpatient stay for my wife's appendectomy. They say she should have been sent home despite her getting out of surgery at 9 pm and being on IV morphine until the next morning. We were home by noon as it was.

It's not going to affect us as our deductible is met, but the hospital is going to get screwed. And people wonder why hospitals are financially struggling and short-staffed while insurance profits are up...
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Say what now? If they deny payment the hospital is going to go after you for the remaining balance. That's kind of on every form you sign there. Or are you immune to collection agencies and getting your wages garnished?
 
C

Captain Suave

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moonarchia said:
Say what now? If they deny payment the hospital is going to go after you for the remaining balance. That's kind of on every form you sign there. Or are you immune to collection agencies and getting your wages garnished?
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We've been told is this is treated as a contract dispute between the insurer and the in-network hospital (no balance billing). The insurance company, hospital, and surgeon have told us that our part is done. The letter the insurance company sent says clearly that the hospital is not allowed to bill us beyond our deductible, copay, and coinsurance.

In any case, I'm not worried because this is obviously just bureaucratic fishing and any kind of review will find that this was medically necessary. There's still lots of recourse.
 
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Kithani

Kithani

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Captain Suave said:
Insurance is so fucked up. I just got a notice that they're trying to deny payment on the 18 hr inpatient stay for my wife's appendectomy. They say she should have been sent home despite her getting out of surgery at 9 pm and being on IV morphine until the next morning. We were home by noon as it was.

It's not going to affect us as our deductible is met, but the hospital is going to get screwed. And people wonder why hospitals are financially struggling and short-staffed while insurance profits are up...
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Yeah there are actual full time physician jobs that have nothing to do with taking care of patients and instead are dedicated solely to arguing with insurance about payment for this kinda stuff.

It gets even wilder when you learn that United Healthcare has become the single largest employer of physicians in the US (via Optum).

I’ve heard complaints from ER docs that their hospital contracted through Optum to do their backend billing and shocker, their charts seem to mysteriously get downgraded all the time after the fact.
 
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Kithani

Kithani

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Captain Suave said:
We've been told is this is treated as a contract dispute between the insurer and the in-network hospital (no balance billing). The insurance company, hospital, and surgeon have told us that our part is done. The letter the insurance company sent says clearly that the hospital is not allowed to bill us beyond our deductible, copay, and coinsurance.

In any case, I'm not worried because this is obviously just bureaucratic fishing and any kind of review will find that this was medically necessary. There's still lots of recourse.
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Lol came across this today, turns out it isn't just insurance that doesn't like to pay for after the fact healthcare

VA denies veteran's claim, says heart attack is not an ‘emergency’

Seven years after Congress passed a law reforming the scandal-plagued Veterans' Healthcare Administration, the VA appears to have made a great deal of progress. But there are still many veterans getting caught in a bind.
www.fox13news.com www.fox13news.com
 
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Denamian

Denamian

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Kithani said:
Lol came across this today, turns out it isn't just insurance that doesn't like to pay for after the fact healthcare

VA denies veteran's claim, says heart attack is not an ‘emergency’

Seven years after Congress passed a law reforming the scandal-plagued Veterans' Healthcare Administration, the VA appears to have made a great deal of progress. But there are still many veterans getting caught in a bind.
www.fox13news.com www.fox13news.com
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Even when they agree to pay it can be a nightmare. My dad was once sent by the VA to the local ER instead of having him drive over an hour to the VA and they billing was still fucked. The VA agreed to completely cover it and he still got calls from collections because the ER he went to couldn't get it's billing straight.

My favorite though was when my sister was in a car accident and the insurance company denied covering any of her medical care because the is not a blood relative (their words) of the policyholder.

She is the fucking policy holder.
 
Pasteton

Pasteton

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Any fatties on here on ozempic or other semaglutide? Curious how significant the side effects are if so.

Kajiimagi Kajiimagi it’s shitty shitty luck to get a brain tumor, but incredible luck to not have it be a gbm, which are by far the most common and uniformly fatal in weeks to months. Oligodendrogliomas are so rare that you gotta push to get that path sent to some super specialized pathology center to make sure they get the right histo on what exactly it is. But if it’s not gbm or any gbm type cells in there then you really dodged a bullet
 
Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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Pasteton said:
Any fatties on here on ozempic or other semaglutide? Curious how significant the side effects are if so.

Kajiimagi Kajiimagi it’s shitty shitty luck to get a brain tumor, but incredible luck to not have it be a gbm, which are by far the most common and uniformly fatal in weeks to months. Oligodendrogliomas are so rare that you gotta push to get that path sent to some super specialized pathology center to make sure they get the right histo on what exactly it is. But if it’s not gbm or any gbm type cells in there then you really dodged a bullet
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Ok I'm half out of my head atm so take all of this with a grain truck load of salt. Please explain what you mean by 'gbm'.
FYI next friday (tomorrow week) is my last day of radiation/chemo. I know exactly where they are zapping me as I have a complete bald/white ring around my head. Not sure if the hair comes back, don't honestly really care. I'm getting chemo fog bad, like last night I posted a pic to instagram that I have zero recollection of doing , like at all. I'm tired all the fucking time too. The radiation was giving me bad headaches so they upped the steroids and I have edema like a motherfucker - think Jerry Lewis late in life pumpkin head.
I'm keep reminding myself that they told me this was the 'good' kind of tumor to have if you had to have one but motherfucker.............

btw I have been thinking like this for a few weeks but didn't want to come on here and constantly whine. Even if this is the forum for it.

/rant off.
 
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KDow

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Kajiimagi said:
Ok I'm half out of my head atm so take all of this with a grain truck load of salt. Please explain what you mean by 'gbm'.
FYI next friday (tomorrow week) is my last day of radiation/chemo. I know exactly where they are zapping me as I have a complete bald/white ring around my head. Not sure if the hair comes back, don't honestly really care. I'm getting chemo fog bad, like last night I posted a pic to instagram that I have zero recollection of doing , like at all. I'm tired all the fucking time too. The radiation was giving me bad headaches so they upped the steroids and I have edema like a motherfucker - think Jerry Lewis late in life pumpkin head.
I'm keep reminding myself that they told me this was the 'good' kind of tumor to have if you had to have one but motherfucker.............

btw I have been thinking like this for a few weeks but didn't want to come on here and constantly whine. Even if this is the forum for it.

/rant off.
Click to expand...


"glioblastoma multiforme, is the most aggressive and most common type of cancer that originates in the brain, and has very poor prognosis for survival."

As far as the side effects. You'll get through it. My wife had chemo fog, morphine fog, fatigue fog. She learned to adapt and for you It'll come back. Think of this as a sneak preview of when you're old and senile because you're going to get to be old and senile which is fucking awesome.
 
Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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This coming Friday is my last radiation so 3 more including today. Finally ditched the original medical oncologist and saw my 'new' one Monday. For the first time, I felt like I was talking to a real doctor! He told me that they go worst case, so if it's 99% good , 1% bad they ignore the good parts. I had 2 items that are in the bad. 1) my age , 2) the tumor size. That means I am looking at another 6 months of modified chemo. I have about a month off then I come back to see what's next. He described 5 days of chemo every 28 days with the dosage doubled up to where he wants me to be (assuming I can stand it). So far I have not had any nausea from the chemo but it's a minimum dosage. Weird that it took that long to get a straight answer.
Didn't make me happy , as I thought this was all done after this week but it is what it is. I know I have a problem and it seems stupid to ignore it if it's treatable.


Also can start backing off the steroids next week (yay) they fuck up sleep, and are causing swelling / edema like mad.

Crazy thing yesterday, when they started with the radiation - it makes a particular buzzing sound when it's doing it's thing , like the dat dat dat of an MRI, I was seeing blue/purple colors with my eyes closed. Open my eyes and it's gone, close it , right back. Doc said it was not unusual but pretty wild.
 
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Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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And radiation is done! Hopefully I'll start healing in lieu of just getting over the week like I have been.
 
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ToeMissile

ToeMissile

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ToeMissile said:
We’ve had people (or family) with brain tumors, or am I misremembering? Anyway, add my sister to the list. Had a big seizure Saturday morning, unresponsive, 911 to the hospital. Kept her for tests and a “large mass” was found today, moved her to a hospital with more specialization. No other info at this point but hopefully it’s operable and benign.
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So some updates. Apparently the tumor isn't spread all over and is in a pretty good spot for operating as well as avoiding serious collateral damage. Surgery is scheduled for early November.
 
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moonarchia

moonarchia

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ToeMissile said:
So some updates. Apparently the tumor isn't spread all over and is in a pretty good spot for operating as well as avoiding serious collateral damage. Surgery is scheduled for early November.
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Good luck not dying or becoming John Fetterman!
 
Sludig

Sludig

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Upgraded the spider hole in my wifes leg to being on a wound vac now. Starting to close up after what 2 months?
 
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KDow

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Sludig said:
Upgraded the spider hole in my wifes leg to being on a wound vac now. Starting to close up after what 2 months?
Click to expand...

Thats crazy.

"Also, thanks for not posting any additional pictures"

- Sincerly, the Chinese Food I ate not long ago.
 
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