Weather in DaHo...

Lately, its been warming up like summer. For the most part, its been starting to warm up a little, with a number of bouts of snow and cold weather. Then, last week, it was HOT. All the animals were looking for cool spots to lay inside and out. Then, a day later, its rainy and cold again. Its quite a change, but in all directions.

We did take Felix to the Vet and he got an X-Ray. His left rear knee had been attacked and was non-functional to him. So, we kept him in his cage for a few days and it cleared up and he is all better again. But, we must keep him in the house at nights as it has cost us over $500 of vet bills in the past few months.

We also have to somehow train the dogs to keep away from him. They like to gang up on him and Calicat and chase them through the house. And, both of the cats hate it when they do that as the dogs will nip at them when the cats just run.

Tomorrow is our appointment with the Idaho Dept of Insurance folks to figure out the best way for me to do my medical insurance from now on - whether to keep with the Dell plan and Medicare or to drop the Dell Plan and just continue with Medicare into the future. Our current Dell plan is very expensive, but might be good to keep as an option as most Medicare folks don't have another plan as an option. We have to get a handle on what the different Dell plan options are. Right now, we are on the highest level of service, and cost. Hopefully, we can work it all out tomorrow...

This weekend we had Roman, Pam's nephew, over to visit. We went to the movies, the races out at the local NASCAR track and they played WII in the meantime between events. Roman also loves to play with the animals when he is here.

We are picking up a few more dealers for our needles. Pam needs a little better understanding of the 'shop talk' and 'details' of the business before she gets too much further out there so we don't loose a lot of good prospects. I am sure she will pick it up fast as she is a quick learner.

Well, that is about all for this week. More to follow here in DaHo...

O' Happy Day...

Well, this is a good day - actually change that to a Great Day!!

We just got informed this morning that the Social Security Administration has accepted our request to retroactively accepted my request to get the Medicare Part B to December 1, 2009. Medicare Part B is the part that covers day to day medical care. So, all of the medical bills that our high priced Blue Cross medical insurance wasn't going to pay, will now be paid by Medicare. We never were able to figure out what the total was going to be, but it was going to be way over the $50K we expected. That is because our Dell Blue Cross insurance was going back to all the medical providers that they had paid before and taking back their payments.

How this happened was that we had went into our local SSA office last Nov. 13th, right after Pam's Dell Job quit, and asked for the Medicare rules and procedures for me getting Part B. The SSA office had a record of me coming in about it.

And, a LOT of effort on Pam's part to get the Dell Computer folks, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield folks, local Idaho State Insurance folks and the local SSA folks to 'understand' all of this, is the only thing that made this all happen. SO, Many Thousand Thanks to Pam and God for for making this happen.

We now have to have all of our medical providers to resubmit their bills to Medicare and it will all be paid...

We must now take Felix back into the Vet. His back hip is messed up again from something.

Taxes and More Medical Fun...

We got our taxes prepared by our accountant this week. It wasn't too bad I guess. We owe the Feds $1,300 and get about $800 back from the state. Our accountant is great. He does our taxes for $ 130. In California, it would have cost a LOT more.

We just added a new dealer in Spain. They also covers Italy, Portugal, Greece and all of the top Mediterranean Sea area. We also have an existing dealer that covers Germany and all points north from there. So, if there is sea water around it, we have it pretty much covered in the European area now. We also have representatives in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and India. So, if I EVER get to feeling better again, we can visit any of those places and write part of it off as a business expense.

We have got to keep growing the business. So far, its doing well, but so far cannot support our lifestyle quite yet. And, our lifestyle is not very extravagant, but having things like $1,600+ medical insurance bills is not real easy to gag down.

I think we should be able to do it with some focused effort in attracting new dealers. They are all over the place, anywhere there is an ocean.

My pain specialist changed my meds again and my leg is not doing as well as it was. At lease I think its is the new meds. I will have to wait and see I guess. It seems to take a while to feel the changes in any of this medical stuff.

We should have the paperwork back from Dell this next week, so we can get me signed up with Medicare Part B - the medical insurance part. So, then I will at least be covered with insurance again - grumble, grumble...

It snowed a few days ago - very late in the year to be doing that, especially with all this global warming happening. I just hope it doesn't keep cold enough to freeze the ground and our sprinkler lines as they came and turned them on a couple of weeks ago.

Well, that is about all that has been going on there in DaHo this week that I can remember. I am sure there has been more, but...

Welcome Us Back from Hell, er Hopefully...

There have been many friends ask about "Why are you stopping this blog after all the years that you have kept it going?" Well, read on and you will hear all about it...
Reading my last blog entry really blows me away. I haven't read it since I wrote it. Boy, I wish I knew what I know now, then. It could have saved us from owing a AOT to medical providers. After over a third of a year between this and the last entry, almost nothing has changed - except for 4 months of medical Hell.

Shortly after my last entry in the end of November, I came down with a horrible fever, 104.9 deg and Pam raced me to the emergency room. After being in the hospital here long enough to be evaluated, scanned and operated on, I was whisked off to Boise, the next level of medical folks in the area. I was Air Ambulanced up there as I guess the local folks didn't think they could save me. I am still a little fuzzy on this one. Anyway, it was freezing cold and snowing here. I was put into a SUV at the hospital and taken to the airport. From the SUV, I was wrapped into some sort of blanket and planes dropped its back section and drug me into it. Then we were in the air. It was like a corporate jet without with jets and without any seats - weird. Anyway, the next thing I know is that I woke up after being operated on in Boise. Since then we got a bill for over $ 10,000 for the ride to Boise.

Before I go on here, I guess I should tell you what was wrong with me to cause all this. Well, what they tell us is that along with one of the back shots that I got in the latter part of last year, I picked up a staff infection that has going around various parts of my body installing itself and I was about a goner from it.

I was in the hospital in Boise recovering for almost two weeks. Pam stayed there the whole time except for one night she went home to see the animals, sleeping on horrible things most of the time. They were trying to get the bacterial levels down to some point that they feel were going to continue to be resolved with home healing. So, I was sent off home finally and spent the next two months having daily IVs of antibiotics.

Along with the daily IVs, I was also on crutches as my bypass feeding blood to my left leg had been blocked up with a blood clot again, and I again am limited to a few feet of movement with the crutches. This has still going on, and I can barely get up stairs to work on the business orders. So, we still have to get that fixed with yet another operation soon…

So, ever since my last blog entry, in November of last year, every day consists of staying at home most of the time, having to use crutches to get around or go out, and only being able to go to stores that have the motorized handicapped electric carts that I can get around with.

It is very depressing to say the least for both of us. I thank Pam with every ounce of my being for being such a great wife and not going crazy with having to deal with this, every day for so long. I thank her every day for being my wife.

During this mess, Pam wanted to add a new member to the family. She is a new girl dog and her name is Hana. She is all white with black eyes and nose and is the cutest little dog there is. She is a Havanese that looks more like a little polar bear than a dog. She has very short legs and the front legs are shorter than the back ones. When she sits down, she keeps her back knees straight and just falls back on her butt. She also grunts and growls like a bear. The breed comes from Cuba and are bread to be so cute that the locals won’t want to hop on a raft and come here, I guess. Her and Tommy love to play with each other, and chase the cats.

This week has been worse than usual. We found out that because Pam is now not currently working, the Dell Health retiree insurance that we have been paying around $ 1,600 a month for, is not going to pay for hardly any of my bills. They say that they are secondary to Medicare and only pay what Medicare doesn’t pay. This wouldn’t be that bad, except we never got Medicare, figuring that we would just continue on as it was and pay the high costs for it. Well we have been paying the high prices, but won’t get the value. So, we will owe somewhere between $40K and $60K for all of the medical fun that we have been going through since the blog entry below. I am just sick about this, but I made the decision to not get Medicare and will have to pay for it – I guess…

Well, I cannot write anymore now, but will add more as my stomach clears up. Again, I am sorry that I couldn’t keep up the blog. The meds that I have been on keep me numb and its hard to keep up with anything…