JCC new best friends club thread

It's the thing one misses from childhood, not having to pay bills.

 

No bills and also the ability to eat some truly garbage sour candy and convince yourself it was good.

 

No bills, garbage candy and it being perfectly acceptable to stand in the middle of the store and sob uncontrollably because you can’t find your parents.

Three Targets I’ve been banned from this year now.

 

Besties, I hope June goes a lot better for me than May did, because this month kicked my behind with two separate hospitalizations, with the first one being the most serious since I had to be transported via ambulance and was on oxygen. The second one wasn't nearly as serious, and was a separate issue (one that I had when I was younger).

But I've been out of work basically for three weeks.

 

One hospitalization would have been more than enough. Best wishes for a healthier easier June!

 

I was frustrated with the provider and the whole process to get a CPAP machine for my (likely) sleep apnea and periodic limb movement disorder as well as poor sleep quality in general.

To recap for you all: I can't sleep on my backside at all and my general practitioner thinks I have sleep apnea. I'm tired all the time too. I did three sleep study tests. One at the sleep study clinic and two at home. But for the last two, I didn't sleep on my backside (because I can't breath at all laying on my back) and so I slept on my side. But for the first test, I snored extremely loudly while I was laying on my back for 80 minutes or so. Overall, though, the person that verified the results of the data in general wasn't sure if I had sleep apnea or not... or rather, he said I had a "little sleep apnea" and wasn't sure whether or not to give me the prescription for a CPAP machine.

They had me go to cpap.com and they charged me $870 in total for all the CPAP machine and supplies and equipment. It wasn't in network to our insurance here in Virginia. The doctor that verified the results was unshaven and looked like he didn't know what he was doing with the assistant to him constantly interrupting him and steering him in the right direction, often interjecting her input, talking over it, and saying "No, we don't have to do that, just let me handle it" or something like that. The doctor himself declared that I had "obstructive sleep apnea" in the initial notes but then said he wasn't sure. Honestly, the whole virtual appointment was a doozy, to be honest. The doctor looked unprofessional, for some reason I'm tired all the time, and the assistant kept steering him along while he looked bleary-eyed, unresponsive, talking over me as well, and slurring his words.

Well, luckily, he did say that if I felt strongly that I had sleep apnea or needed a CPAP machine, they could prescribe me one or write the scripts and I answered in the affirmative. In the end, that's what happened, thankfully. But I can't help but remember that the same company, at least the one that did the sleep study, kept having a no-show with the sleep study assistant three consecutive times and the company that they directed me to and sent the results to had a low approval score on Google. It just... didn't provide me with much confidence, you know? And the whole process has taken since March and now it's June and I don't even know if this CPAP machine will help me get better sleep and prevent me from feeling tired all the time because we're not even sure if the sleep apnea is existent... I think? The way he worded everything, it seemed that I had "minor" sleep apnea and that was eligible to get one. I don't know.

Anyway, I asked my insurance to recommend me a company in the area and they recommended three to deal with the CPAP machine that were in network to my insurance. The third one dealt with CPAP machine, supplies, and equipment, the first and second didn't deal with CPAP machinery at all. But in the end, I managed to get the company that reviewed the data to fax the scripts, information, and prescriptions to the local company in my area and they did... I just have to wait 24 to 48 business hours from now for it to be processed, but luckily, it went through and, to the company's credit (the one that reviewed the sleep data), they were at least pretty prompt with faxing the info. The insurance covers 85% of the $870 that I'll have to ultimately pay for, well, everything that was recommended to me since this last company, the third company that was recommended to me by insurance, is in network.

So yeah, hallelujah.

But I can't help but get the feeling that the intermediate company, the one that reviewed the sleep study data results, sent me to get my supplies from cpap.com based on some agreement on their part with said provider. I know that a lot of insurance companies, especially health insurance, do this.

I think I'm just frustrated in general with how grueling the process was because I have brain fog due to probable lack of good-quality sleep, as at least my younger brother and Mom have noticed, and I may have only barely qualified for the CPAP machine, and that was in spite of the at-home sleep study device not really working properly and barely staying on (I had to use tape and everything).

The moral of this story?

..Eh, idk.

I guess be careful with how you navigate the system.

(This was just me venting and everything.)

 

Hello besties, I'm back but for a brief moment since I'm moving in tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm working today and on PTO next two days. My apartment was fully cleaned out top to bottom on Saturday with the help of friends/family. I took everyone out to dinner/drinks that same evening. All of my stuff can be temporarily found in three separate garages, two bedrooms, and a tractor shed....in a pear tree? I'm acquiring more furniture from friends along with a bigger bed

I'm utterly exhausted, my insomnia has come back with a vengeance, my feet/back are killing me, but this is all temporary and I'll be at or close to 100% in a couple of weeks

Famous last words, probably

 

Eh, you'll do fine.

 

Besties today I had to admit defeat and book a slate of driving lessons in anticipation of eventually buying a car. It was a long-fought contest of wills and Atlanta has won.

 

I’m mostly looking forward to being able to go in the mythical direction of “south on a weekend” like some kind of nutty kookoo super king.

 

Ah yeah living back in most US cities will do that unfortunately.

 

The most annoying thing for me is that the MARTA is comparatively good by a lot of US standards but it’s still soul crushing and unreliable. Nothing makes me miss Prague as much as my morning commute. … Well, okay, that and when I buy lunch.

 

I love driving. I love spending thousands of dollars a year on insurance, gas, and maintenance. I love that at least ~50% of drivers are incompetent, not even bothering to consistently use signals, and ~20% of drivers are completely insane. I love that I have to pay full attention the whole time and one mistake can ruin my life and someone else's. Have fun, Ramza!

 

Yeah man I'd HATE having a metro like Tokyo's that goes absolutely everywhere in a city of 38 million people and also bullet trains to go to the rest of the country. How lame.

 

Ramza I think I got my license at the same age as you. I used to be anti-car. But then after getting stuck at a train station at night for the umpteenth time, I had enough. It's amazing how quickly idealism can make way for comfort. And how quickly I rationalized it as "two decades of not driving, I have already earned my eco cred".

 

Holy ****, Mom's at the hospital now.

 

I'm sorry @InterestingLurker. I hope you and your family are okay.

 

No, you’re thinking of handguns; we actually have tests for driving.

 

This x 1000

 

Behind-the-wheel tests tend to be too easy, though. Definitely too easy in California; they don't even have you parallel park.