I need an assistant. Actually I need a Department. I wish. If only…
This is all too much and I can’t keep up.
I can only do the best I can.
I spent the morning getting sucked up into the vacuum of disability and medical nonsense. It didn’t take long. First I called the Private Long Term Disability company I deal with to talk to the Finance Guy about money I need to pay them back from what they say they overpaid me. He was a very nice guy which always helps the awkwardness and of course wouldn’t you know the UPS guy knocked on the door just as he called and I had to answer the door and be on the phone with this guy at the same time. Not so professional but oh well. I am only me. I am only one person. So now I need to hire someone to answer the door for me. And then shortly after the UPS guy came my Cleo Kitty was insisting on getting attention and doing anything she could to get in my way. AND I need to hire another person to pet my Cleo Kitty or better yet to talk to this Finance guy so I can pet Cleo Kitty instead. Back to the Finance guy I was on the phone with, he passed off the responsibility of giving me any real answers and told me to talk to my Claim Manager. Oh great. Here I go. Getting sucked into the crazy abyss that is the never ending calls of bottomless pits of not taking responsibility and sending me off to call someone else…and someone else…and someone else. Perhaps they don’t want their money? It’s hard to tell.
So I called my current Claim Manager. You see, she’s the 3rd one I’ve had on my case so far in just over a year with this company. It’s hard to keep up with who’s next on my file. Of course she didn’t answer so I left her a message. Will she call me back today? I doubt it. She only works till 3:30pm and has a habit of not calling me right back unless she needs something of course and then she hounds me. Oh well. The ball’s in her court now. I gotta try to let it go.
And then because I’m a glutton for punishment I called the paralegal at my attorney’s office to see if she knew anything about the status of our newest action regarding Social Security Long Term Disability. It’s only about the 5th time I’ve called her in this round of trying to get a hold of her so I wasn’t sure I’d actually get her in person and was getting ready to leave a message. I was surprised to hear that I might be able to talk to her but wouldn’t you know she put me on hold for what seemed like forever. Now I need someone to be on hold for me. She FINALLY picked up her line and told me she JUST talked to a Supervisor at Social Security who told her NO ACTION had been taken regarding my financial issue and to re-fax the Request For Action to another fax number and they’d see what they could do. Yeah. Om. When is that exactly? It has been almost 3 months since we sent in the first request for action. What’s the financial issue I have with Social Security? Well, they have been underpaying me what I’m entitled to for benefits. That’s the short and simple version of the story. It’s too complicated otherwise.
So once I got off the phone with the paralegal I wanted to scream but I kept my composure and put my doctor’s office mentality on and called my Pulmonologist to find out if they had received my Home Sleep Study test results yet since it’s been over 3 weeks since I did the test. The guy who answered said he saw nothing in my chart and was not going to do anything about it until I asked him to call the company and see where the results were. He actually did budge a bit and told me he’d try to call sometime today or tomorrow but that Mondays and Tuesdays were their busiest day at the office. OK. What’s their point? It’s not like I had the test done last Friday, I had it done 3 Fridays ago.
And continuing on with my list of phone calls, I called to make what will probably be my last Physical Therapy appointment for this round and was told I should really call by the end of the week to get a better time and that right now I can only get later in the day on the day I want next week. Sure. I’ll remember that too. In fact, I’ll have my assistant make sure to call about that. OH wait. I don’t have an assistant. Hmm.
And lastly of the medical/disability chaos rigamarole today, I called my acupuncturist to set up acupuncture and acupressure for next week and that went really well and yay I got appointments set up! Phew!
Now I’m exhausted.
You see, that’s not all I have to do today. I still need to exercise, shower, organize paperwork, pay bills, do some laundry–it’s cool to have clean clothes sometimes. But what about the Recovery part? I still need to schedule some time to rest and recover so that perhaps one day I not only feel better but maybe I can get better enough to get out into the world and not run myself down with this medical/disability business crapola. I’d like to work again one day. That’d be cool.
To top it off, I’m STILL RECOVERING from my bad medication episode from last Wednesday. That is almost a week ago. I feel like I take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Yeah. It’s a positive thing that I don’t go 3 steps back or something but for goodness sakes, I want to feel better than I do now. I want to be back where I was physically and mentally before I took that dang pill. One pill can change everything. Ugh.
So now I guess I better stop writing so that I can take yet another break and get on with my day. Here’s hoping the rest of my day is better. How has your Monday been?
Nahleen.com: On the Inside Looking Out 