I'm back after my weekend off ... I was going to pause for the weekend anyway, but I happened to have a rough night on Friday, so it's just as well ...
normally, I sleep real good, but Friday night was an exception - I kept waking up, feeling short of breath, no big deal, but it was uncomfortable ...
as I said in the last post, right after arriving in Peoria, IL at my sister's, I started serious nausea and vomiting ... right to the point of passing out ...
my sister drove me to OSF's Emergency Ward, and they immediately started checking me out ... a CT-scan revealed a serious situation, requiring urgent surgery ...
remember the brain cyst/tumor that, (despite my cancer history), was determined to be 'insignificant' by a Feather River Hospital 'Doctor' ? ... well, turns out, it was a 'colloidal cyst', blocking the area of my brain, where the brain fluids drain down into the spinal column - that's the best I understand the explanation ...
a drain tube was placed into my skull to relieve any fluid pressure (and, here I was thinking all that pressure was just from having too much brains, or something) ... hey, it's MY story, I'm tellin' it the way I like !
after a couple days of draining, I was told I was gonna have a second surgery, similar to the little drain tube I already had ... this second tube was to be placed on the other side of my head, and the brain surgeons would 'suck out' the tumor thru the tubing ... no big deal ...
as it was, the surgery lasted quite a bit longer than expected, and found out afterwards, it was not 'sucked out', but was chopped up and removed a bit at a time ... either way, it was a success, and a biopsy was taken of the tumor pieces ...
thank God, it was benign, and not cancerous ... they had no idea why it was there, and suggested it was something that may have been growing in there for years ... (all this time, I suspected 'brain bugs', but I guess not) ...
I spent another few days in the hospital after the surgery, no problems, but they wanted to get my sodium levels up ... as it was, my sodium was only down because I was drinking so much water, it was diluting my tests ...
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| my new Frankenstein look ! |
I returned to my sister's house to get some sleep (try getting sleep in a hospital, HA ! )
after a couple days snoozing, I hopped into the van on October 3rd, 2016, and headed west ... since it was beginning to turn cold, I drove the southern route, which enabled me to stop and visit friends that do the 'winter snowbird' thing in Yuma, AZ ...
I took my time driving west, as I was still recovering from a couple holes drilled in my skull ...
(one night, I was taking a nap in a little Missouri rest area, one of those with no facilities, mostly just a picnic area) ... a noise woke me up, and I looked to see a Sheriff's car checking me out ... the cop was walking around the van, inspecting it closely when I stuck my stitched-up head out the window and said " something wrong ? " ... when his flashlight beam hit my head, the poor guy jumped, and said " Man ! somebody really worked you over, huh ? " ... "uh, no, I had brain surgery a few days ago" ... haha, that freaked him out, for sure ... we chatted a few minutes, and he radioed in to have any cops passing by during the night, to keep an eye out for me ...
a really considerate cop, and I appreciated his professionalism ...
I arrived back in Paradise, Kalifornia on October 8th, and went back to my usual routine ...
I see my cancer Doctor once a month, at which time I do blood labs, and get a shot in my arm - Xgeva, it's called ... it is to protect the bones, so the cancer does not once again invade them ... it normally costs something like $1500 for the monthly injection, but the manufacturer cuts the price, to where I only have to pay a couple hundred bucks per month ... still a lot of money, but it makes it possible ...
as has been the case in my situation, the drug manufacturers only charge the crazy prices to insurance companies ... since I only have Medicare coverage, and my only income is Social Security, I qualify for the discounts ...
for one year, I purchased a Medicare Supplemental Insurance Plan from HUMANA ... that was a TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY, and I couldn't wait for the required one year signup to end ...
on 2 different occasions, HUMANA refused to pay for Authorized Covered Expenses, totally ignoring the 'Pre-Authorization OK' to get some medical work done ...
I postponed a neck MRI 3 times, refusing to get the test before I received Pre-Authorization from HUMANA - when the Pre-Authorization finally came thru, I had the MRI done, and HUMANA refused to pay ... period ...
where are the Attorneys, you may ask ? ... after at least TWO serious Mis-Diagnosis of my hip cancer, and the brain colloidal cyst, no Attorneys will touch it ...
I called one of the country's top Attorney Law firms in San Francisco, (Walkup, etc.), the first of many I called ...
while not taking my case, at least the guy honestly explained why not ... according to him, Kalifornia's current excuse for a Governor, Jerry 'Moonbeam' Brown, signed into law awhile back, that Malpractice suits are limited to $250,000, and since they would only get a percentage of that amount, it just isn't worth it to march into a courtroom and do battle with a hospital's typically large contingency of Attorneys ...
he suggested I find a 'local Attorney that's hungry', and see if he'll take it ... no luck there, either, seemingly Attorneys don't want to actually WORK to win a case, they just want money to be thrown at them, so they'll go away ...
Feather River Hospital, of Paradise, Kalifornia is owned by the 7th Day Adventists, their 'Adventist Health' group ... I think it's safe to assume they have a full complement of Attorneys just waiting to stonewall incoming lawsuits ... we have sent them detailed complaints about the way they run their hospital, etc., but that always goes nowhere, of course ...
complaints to the Kalifornia agencies regulating hospitals, etc. reward us with occasional form letters, saying 'we're still investigating it', and asking for some piece of documentation to be sent in to them (for the 2nd or 3rd time, they seem to have a helluva time holding onto documents) ...
that's OK, Guvment jerkoffs, I'll be dead soon, and then you can go back to sleep ...
meanwhile, I am watching the clock tick, and thanking the Lord that I have Him to see next ... I bet He will take my case !
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