at last!

vrock has had a chronic sinus infection since thanksgiving last year. every time he gets on antibiotics it goes away. until, of course, he stops taking them. then it's back. it's not completely awful every day as far as the symptoms go. some days he feels just fine. then there are the other days.

the other days usually start out with him feeling fine. then he gets the sniffles. no matter how often he blows his nose, it still feels like a "worm" is in his nasal cavity. (from what he tells me anyway.) sometimes it progresses to the point where it makes him sick to his stomach and he becomes physically ill. sometimes it makes him unable to eat. it ALWAYS puts him in a bad mood. i understand this, truly i do. but thankfully i won't have to deal with it too much longer.

he has an appointment on tuesday with the specialist to determine once and for all if he needs to have surgery, or as i like to call it "roto-rooter of the nose". we are both anticipating that he will indeed need surgery. he had his ct scan last week and his primary doctor referred him back to the specialist. (we saw the specialist over the summer at a cost of $400 to us. he told us that without the scan he couldn't really tell us if surgery was the way to go. DUH! but we had to wait until the new insurance from my job kicked in before he could go get the scan done.) so, it's looking like there is at least 1 day in my future where i get to play taxi & nurse to vrock, if only for the day of surgery.

in related news, while i'm thankful that i work for a large corporation that treats is employees very well, i've been VERY frustrated at the incompetence of a member of the hr team. see, i've worked for this company before. so i knew when i started exactly when my insurance would kick in. (9/1) knowing this, and knowing which plan i wanted to sign up for, i immediately filled out my medical benefits so that i wouldn't have to remember to do it before such and such a date. so i signed up in the MIDDLE OF JULY for my benefits. you can then understand why i was surprised that when i called the insurance carrier last week to get our member id numbers (something the specialist's office said they HAD TO HAVE in order to schedule vrock's appointment) that they had NO RECORD of the new plan. excuse me? so i called the hr deparment and they ASSURED me that the information would be going to the insurance company the next day and that the insurance company would then have the info in their system between 3-5 business days later. (this was on the 15th.) fine.

i started calling on the 18th to get the info i needed because the specialist actually had an opening on the 30th. i called EVERY day to check in to see if we'd been uploaded into the system. finally after yesterday's "i'm sorry but i only see the information from the last time you had a plan with us" i was pissed off. i asked them why it was taking so long to get this into the system? i had been told that the information had been sent LAST WEEK! basically i asked her "wtf?" she said that if the info had been sent, it would be in the system by now. you see where i'm going with this? i then called hr and the gal there was very helpful but what she told me was anything but. i'm sure you've guessed by now that the person i talked to last week? the one who ASSURED me that my info was being sent on the 16th? DIDN'T SEND IT! so we effectively lost a week's worth of time where vrock could have had his appointment made. i was, understandably, less than pleased. (and if you saw my facebook status, you saw how displeased i was.)

the new gal assured me that the info would get sent over yesterday and that she'd have her manager call me to let me know when it had been sent. i get the call that it's been sent and wait a bit to call the insurance company. by the time i call them, they have the info i need and i'm able to relate it to vrock. finally! someone who DOES WHAT THEY SAY! brilliant!

so i'm getting ready to leave for the day and i call vrock on my way up to the bus stop. i ask him if he was able to get his appointment set and am prepared to hear that now he has to wait until mid october or something to get his appointment. (this specialist has 2 offices and is not always in the one closest to us.) his response?

"yeah. they had ALREADY scheduled me for an appointment on the 30th at 1:15."

so, yeah. i went through all of that for NOTHING. they'd scheduled him even though they SPECIFICALLY told him that they would NOT schedule without the insurance information.

bastards.