Dreams Begat Bigger Dreams

First, a little about myself for those that have not read about me. I am disabled, wear a knee brace, TENS Unit, use forearm crutches for short distance, a power chair for longer distance and spend a lot of time on a hospital bed from pain. Having said that…don’t feel sorry for me cause I don’t. I love life and enjoy it.I believe in sparkling through it all.   And if you could see my forearm crutches with rhinestones all over them,  you would know.

When someone is sick or disabled, it is a constant fight of the system to get what you need for “better quality of life” depending on where you are and what kind of doctors and health supply companies you deal with. I lived on the western slope for almost five years and had poor care from my physicians who are what I call the “lets wait and see” doctors and a health supply company that was not in it because they wanted to help the patient.

Then we moved to this lovely small town at the base of La Veta Pass and my world has changed drastically. I have gotten better care, have doctors and PA’s from here and specialist doctors from Colorado Springs that come to this little town weekly to serve us and found a health supply company that believes in taking care of the patient, not just in making money. That company is MEDCO and I would not trade them for anything. This is when I learned, thanks to Medicare, to always use a National Health Supply Company for if you ever have to move, they will just transfer you. If you use a small, local company, then you are up the creek without a paddle if you are past the three-year mark with your product as I was with Oxygen and my other equipment.

See, Medicare has set it up where they pay during the first three years you have something like an oxygen concentrator and then the next two years they don’t pay but the provider must still service it. This cost me the use of my 14 thousand dollar power chair that was made for a tall woman of my size. We had just moved to the Western Slope and been here about a year when my good power chair had the electronic arm quit working. The local (and only close) health supply company refused to fix my power chair because they did not sell it to me. And so, the Scooter Store gave me this piece of crap power chair with the seat on a pedestal that was NOT made for a woman of my height and size and is downright dangerous for me because going out the front door in the other house to go down the ramp…as my son test drove it over the little bump in the doorway, it threw my son out. Can you imagine if I had driven that out the front door.

Anyway…I digress.  I found MEDCO and they have been wonderful. They replaced, even though I was in the no pay time, my concentrator and brought me portability oxygen after my doctor ordered it. And yesterday, another dream came true. They brought my new hospital bed. The old one had been a problem since the day I got it. It was older than dirt and the wheels fell off easily and the bed had a mind of its own and would drop slowly inches within hours on one end. This was when I got it and it only got worse. And the mattress looked like it had been through the war and was horribly lumpy. My sleep is bad enough but in that bed I was waking up every hour or two in pain.

When I moved here, the other health care company informed me the bed was my problem and handed me a bag of hoses for the concentrator and told me to call them if it tore up and they would replace it. Concentrators should be checked every few months. This one was not checked in a year and when the technician that replaced my old concentrator tested the old one …it was set on 2 liters and only putting out half a liter and it was at 50 percent oxygen. No wonder I felt like I was suffocating all the time.

And so, last nite I slept on my new bed…my dream come true bed. Did I sleep all night? No..but I never sleep all night as pain keeps me up. But, what I did do is sleep for a three-hour straight period of really good sleep and then was up a while and slept two hours more of wonderfully good sleep. And when I woke up…while in high pain, it was a pain level that was a little easier to deal with than the screaming pain I had been waking up with. So, yes dreams do come true.

My son had dubbed me the Princess and the Pea when this blog first started  because my pain is so bad that I feel every lump, every tiny bump in a bed. At one time before the hospital bed, I slept on about ten egg crates on top of my mattress. As it was, we put a four-inch memory foam topper on the old hospital bed and it still was painful due to the ever changing levels it was doing.

And I have a bigger dream now and that is to work to get those in charge of Medicare to see that they need to add an amendment to their regulation that says no pay the last two years of the five-year span and change it to say “unless the patient moves out of the coverage area”.  I wonder how many people have had the same problem with their equipment that I have.How many have suffered with poor equipment or had to use an oxygen concentrator that was malfunctioning and making us worse?  For, unless you are lucky to find a national chain like MEDCO, you are doomed to have that stuff until the five years is up. Sometimes, those in charge do not look at all the angles or problems that can arise and I am hoping and praying that maybe, if they are shown the problems, they will correct it. So, now, I have a bigger dream to work on.

And I am blessed that daily other dreams come true for me. I also have another dream in the medical realm that I am working on and that is to get my good power chair fixed or replaced. Life has been taken away from me because the other company would not fix it and so I am stuck with a dangerous swaying power chair. I go around the house less because it increases my pain and is dangerous in that if I reach up to sit a cup on the counter or pick up something, it tips forward with a resounding bang on the balance wheels and that jar increases my pain level. So, I have on my wonder woman head band and am in fight for your dreams mode.

Related articles

• Medco Professional Services Corp (workthedream.wordpress.com)
• The Illogical Thinking of Elected Officials (workthedream.wordpress.com)
• The Princess and The Pea Saga (workthedream.wordpress.com)
• Former Scooter Store workers out (mysanantonio.com)
• Scooter Store sues competitor, ex-employees (mysanantonio.com)

The Illogical Thinking of Elected Officials

Bet you thought this was going to be about politicians. Well, it is in a round about way. This post is about the illogical thinking of those that create the rules for Medicaire. You probably have a family member of loved one that is on or has been on Medicaire. Well, let me tell you about the illogical rules they have.

If you need oxygen…oh they will pay for it.  They will pay for 80 percent of it. I remember when I first got my oxygen concentrator. I asked them what was I supposed to do?  Not breathe for 20 percent of the time?  Well, that 20 percent cost 56 dollars a month. Doesn’t sound like much does it? And sure, sure most insurance companies only pay 80 percent. But, does no one have any logic? Some things should be paid 100 percent because you have to have it 100 percent of the time~~Like breathing.

Not only must you pay the 20 percent..56 dollars, but we were just told by the electric company that oxygen machines increase your electric bill by about 38-40 dollars a month. So, a person on disability or social security must come up with an extra 100 dollars a month JUST TO BREATH. Now, if you know anything about social security retirement or disability, you know that it is the poverty level income. So coming up with an extra 100 dollars a month is extremely hard.

Ok, lets move on to scooters. Yes, Medicaire will pay to get you a scooter if you have trouble walking and have to have one a big percentage or all of the time. But, quess what folks…here comes that illogical thinking again. They will pay for the scooter, but they will not pay for a ramp to get it into your vehicle nor will they pay to put a ramp into our house. So, what about the person that lives alone, has no one to help them?  How are they to get their groceries? How are they to get to the doctor or even get to their mailbox to get their mail? I am fortunate in that I live with my oldest son who does the grocery shopping and brings in the mail, etc. What about those that don’t have someone to help?

I can tell you one even better and they wonder why Medicaire is not financially stable. My power chair that I got ten years ago had a price tag of $14,000…..like buying a car. It is an excellent made powerchair by Jazzy and has large tires and was made for a person of my height. It would take me to the store up the street and home. I was not restricted to my home.

Four years ago, the power arm messed up on it. The health supply company in Montrose refused to fix it.  Why?  Because they said they did not sell it to me and so were not going to take on the responsibility of keeping it fixed. Why?  Because Medicaire has things set up where they only pay for so many years and then they stop paying for so many years on an item and then start paying again. I was in that no pay zone. Same place I am in on my oxygen now. The Health supply company here said that I have had my oxygen concentrator for four years and it will be one more year before Medicaire starts paying again so they won’t service me. So, here I sit with an oxygen concentrator that has no local service. If it goes out, I am up a creek. Oh yes, the company in Montrose will ship me a new one, but what do I do for the few days it takes it to get here? Just live with an oxygen level of 84 percent?

What is a person supposed to do? Why are there no provisions for someone who moves to another state or county? So, instead of paying about 1500 to fix the power arm on my power chair, Medicaire instead agreed to pay for a new scooter for $6500. Where is the logic in that? This chair is so cheap that if I go over the bump where the carpet changes to linoleum, it almost throws me out. It is not made for someone that is tall and the seat is on a pedistle that when raised high enough to make my long legs bend like they should….it sways and is unsafe. And I was told I was not to take it out of the house. Of course, with no ramp…I can’t anyway.

So, my choices now are, keep the seat down low with my knees under my chin, never leave the house, and breathe only 80 percent of the time.Oh, and in one more year, I can get a NEW scooter that will cost between 8 and 10 thousand dollars. Now, I ask you….would it have not been less expensive to repair my good scooter four years ago?

Do the elected officials that create these rules even think about what they are doing? Do they even care? And these are not the only illogical items in the Medicaire Insurance. While they are quick to vote in their own raises and things like hundreds of thousands of dollars for an airport for a small town that only use it five times in a month (uh yes, it is the town of a politician) or other pork items added on to bills and yet they want to cut things for the disabled and senior citizens. I guess because we are old or disabled, so we are no longer of value.

So, I ask you please. Find out where your politicians REALLY stand on the important things. One day you might be here on disability or social security. But, it isn’t just on social security or disability that you need to read up on. Keep a notebook and list the things your candidate says they are going to work for and see if they stick to it. Become involved in the process. Don’t pick a candidate just because it is a women or a certain party or young or old or charismatic. This is your future you are voting for. Take the test and ask yourself exactly what it is your candidate stands for. Name three things you know now that your candidate stands for and see if you can. And if your candidate is already in office, try naming the things your candidate did….really did…that he said he was going to do to help you. Americans need to take back their power and use their brains and know what is going on in the political arena. We are footing the bill for a lot more than we know and if we don’t read and find out and study about it….we will just keep putting the same people in office.