Things Are Desperate Around Here

Things are very brutal money wise. Not just with the groceries, gasoline, and more  that is hitting all of us. Scott has not worked in over two weeks as there has not been work for him. So, no work means no paycheck and no income.

So, if you like what we do at Kevin's Corner, please consider making a donation through the PayPal widget on the left side of the blog. We could really use the help.

 

Please and thank you.

Been A Rough Week

Between my health issues and car stuff it has been a hard and very expensive week. Which is why nothing has been going up here and I have not been on social media much. Been too sick and dealing with too much. 

Among other things, had to get work done on both cars and that ended up being over a grand. Near as I can tell, Trump's taxes on imports added nearly 400 bucks to the car bills.

And my health stuff gets way worse when the summer heat and humidity kick in. That happened this week when the sky hoses shut off and the furnace jets kicked on. I hate to think what my power bill is going to be in a few days. A journey outside of the house is always hard, but when the temps are in the 90s and the heat index is in the triples, it beats the heck out of me. It is a very long haul from now till late October and I don't know if I have it in me to get there.

On the positive side, all that time sitting in car places, and here in front of fans means I have several books. The reviews were written out on longhand this morning. Reviews have to be typed up and will appear here, hopefully, at least a couple, next week. Scott has a review for tomorrow and Judy Penz  Sheluk has a guest post for Sunday. 

Anyway, in case you wondered or cared, that is what is up.

We Desperately Need Your Help!

Desperate times here as we are way past due on everything including the phone bill and the power bill. There are prescriptions that urgently need to be refilled. We have to pay our renters insurance (failure to do so gets one evicted immediately) and pay our car insurance.

In short, we are in a world of trouble. Our rent is due on the 1st and we will be paying late again on the third and using everything in our Social Security Disability payments and a little more in the bank to cover that. But, we have no way to pay the other bills due.

If you can help and want to please consider making a donation over at the PayPal widget over on the left side of the blog.  I hate begging for your help, but we really truly need it. Anything helps.... if you can.

We Need Help

Pure and simple--we need help. After doing the taxes which is depressing and frustrating as all get out, I looked at the money situation and that is worse. We are past due on the phone and power bills. Sandi and I both need medication refills. There are other issues. So, we are in a big time bind.

If you can donate via the PayPal widget here on the blog that would be great and hugely appreciated.

Update on Flat Out Begging For Your Help

Back on Wednesday I begged for your help. Because of your help I have been able to buy some medications  and get food. I rescheduled my visit with the cardiologist as they insist on my paying my Medicare deductible up front at time of visit. That was not happening. Still working on trying to paying the phone and power bills as well as getting the rest of this month’s meds. So, things are not quite the absolute complete disaster they were on Wednesday.  

We still do need your help if at all possible.  Please donate--if you can--buy using the paypal widget to the left.

Thank you!

For The Love of God-----PLEASE BUY SOMETHING

Sandi has a bunch of stuff on iOffer as well as here. For the love of god-- PLEASE buy something! We have a $400 power bill to pay and $300 in medicines to buy.

Thank you!!!

Thank you ...... and you know who you are!

Several folks have made paypal donations to Sandi's cancer fund the last several days in astounding amounts and numbers. Most have also specially directed that we should spend their gift on ourselves and not medical bills.

Still other folks have gone through the blog to Amazon and made their purchases. That has put money into the Amazon Associate account for me in never before seen levels.

It all means a lot and we really appreciate it. Thank you!!

Update on Things

This has been a hard week for both Sandi and I both physically and mentally. The bills keep piling up, the calls about them keep coming, and we both feel pretty bad. Sandi's ongoing feet issue has been really bugging her and the warmer weather certainly is not helping her ongoing breathing problems. Next month marks a year since she went on oxygen equipment 24/7. What little hope we had that it would be temporary seems to have been nothing more than wishful thinking.

You have not seen much from me these last few days and what little you have seen has been accomplished by my lying stretched out on the floor on my stomach trying to type and click to do whatever. The ongoing back and leg deal has been insane this week. Tomorrow Sandi has a long day infusion deal and how I am going to make it through sitting in their institutional chairs I have no idea.

Despite how bad the week has been and more, one thing happened that is simply wonderful. The good folks of Tapir and Friends Animal Store for whom I do a little freelance writing for as I can have created a page  devoted to some of Sandi's creatures. Through the site they have offered them for sale with the monies made going to help Sandi pay for cancer treatment. They have Sandi's stuff in their warehouse and can ship quickly as well as market her items which takes a burden off of us that is increasingly difficult to accomplish.

Sandi's page is here and I hope you will check it out as well as the other things on the site.

Rent PAID!!!

With a big time thank you to those that helped us out again this month, the rent is now paid with very few dollars to spare. Hopefully, by the end of the month Sandi's disability will finally be approved by the state and the feds and she will finally start receiving much needed disability payments and help with her enormous medical bills. We keep hoping the system will work as she is now way past the four month period it was suppsoed to take to approve her expedited case.

Thank you again for saving us with our apartment once more.

Round Three Begins.....

and is off to a chaotic start. Sandi is back in Medical City Dallas Hospital for her third round of chemotherapy. I won't take you through how  the sequence of things has changed several times this afternoon. It doesn't matter because everything we were told planning wise when she was finally admitted at 11 am this morning and through out the day is out the window and has been blown away up into Oklahoma at this point.

The current plan is now that she started the first chemotherapy drug at six tonight. This first drug should finish sometime before midnight.

At some point tomorrow morning, they will do a blood transfusion into her. How much? We have been told wildly different amounts so we have to wait to actually find out. I suspect this will be determined after they see how she is tonight and what they get when they again pull the blood at 4am. She is definitely anemic again at this point and was early this morning.

At some point tomorrow, they will heavily sedate her and move her radiology where they will do a lumbar puncture and inject a chemotherapy drug directly into her spinal column. We are told this is a routine procedure during the third round of chemotherapy and is done so that the cancer does not retreat into her spinal column and go to her brain.

As of today, the plan is she comes home late Thursday. We have also been told that assuming the pet scan agrees, it is almost time to start harvesting stem cells. This is way earlier than we understood before. It also has become a huge hassle far beyond what it already was because Wal-Mart will only pay her Aetna insurance claims/benefits if she goes to one of three "Mayo Cancer Centers." They are located out in Scottsdale, Ariz., Jacksonville, Fla., and Rochester, Minn. The fact that I am permanently disabled and medically unable to fly, the fact we have two special needs boys, the fact we have no resources, etc. does not matter as no exceptions are made. Supposedly they will pay for her and one family member to travel and stay at the Mayo location to receive treatment. How that all works, we don't yet know. If, for example, they pay by reimbursement to the patient after the patient has paid for plane tickets, it won't work as we have no credit cards. You don't have credit cards when you are dead broke, have no job, and have no credit.

So, how this is all going to work is something that is seriously up in the air right now. Hopefully, as the week progresses, things will start to shake out and will work out. But, this is another stressor we did not need and an added complication as she has no business flying anywhere for anything.

Unfortunately, it seems like we have no choice in the matter.

The Latest Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arkansas Insurance Stupidity

It just never stops.

The mail yesterday brought another very unwelcome letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arkansas. They have been Sandi's insurance company the last couple of years through her job at Wal-Mart. They screw-up a lot and manage to create huge problems for the doctors as well as us. Her coverage with them ended at the end of the year as she, like everyone else at Wal-Mart, was shifted over to Aetna with a higher deductible and lower coverage. One hopes they will be better as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arkansas constantly interfered in Sandi's medial care by refusing to pay claims correctly, listing her as not having insurance because they had failed to credit her premuim payments in a timely manner, and numerous other issues. Just last month they re-figured her knee surgery bills again for the sixth time and suddenly denied services they had authorized back in in October 2011. Of course that was appealed.

I wasn't surprised when they pulled that re-figuring deal as they have been trying to get out of things since Sandi was diagnosed with cancer. They constantly pull this sort of thing on all sorts of bills--whether they are hers or on Scott as he is on her insurance---and blame new federal regulations when that isn't remotely true or something else bogus. It is what they do and are very well known for such tactics according to the medical folks we have to deal with.

So, I wasn't surprised when they denied the initial claim for Sandi's Pet Scan back in December.  They always deny the pre-authorization and the initial claim as they say it isn't medically necessary. The fact that she was a cancer patient in remission and had to be checked every three months wasn't relevant. Having gone through this each and every time, putting us and the doctors through a lot of stress and paperwork, I thought I knew what game they were playing and therefore wasn't worried.

But, yesterday they reached a new height in stupidity. They have again denied the December Pet Scan saying "medical criteria" was not met. They know the Pet Scan found Sandi's cancer was back. They also know and--at this point--paid correctly the claims for the two surgeries she had in December that were attempts to get pathology samples from the mass by her heart. So, they denied the test that found her cancer and yet had no problems paying the hospital bills that were incurred trying to get pathology samples of the same cancer.

Makes as much sense to me as paying a claim for treatment of a severe sunburn and then denying the sun exists.

So, we will appeal yet again and send a copy to the doctor so that his staff can again send the paperwork documenting again what they already know. We will also forward a copy of everything to Texas Health and Human Services since, once they get their stuff together and approve us for food stamps and Medicaid, they will automatically investigate and review all her medical stuff. Like the medical folks, they are well aware of this insurance company and have had to assist us with this kind of problem before.

It is just ridiculous how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arkansas consistently makes everything harder than it  has to be......

Finally Home

It took three hours plus drive time both ways but Sandi again has clearance to have the port surgery as scheduled on Monday. Told again it should be a very simple easy procedure.

It better be.

Exhausted, hurting really bad and very fed up with people who think they can be on cell phones AND drive at the same time. They can't.