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Regarding Health Insurance...

OK, I've been on the same health insurance - Cigna - for 6 years. I had a doctor named Dr. Vascellaro during that time. He and I worked through my Zoloft years and tried a couple different antidepressants, until we finally settled on Cymbalta.
I've been working out of town for many months. During that time my doctor sold his family practice and is now an attending physician for Norman Regional Hospital. Which wasn't in my Cigna network so I never found another doctor. A family member gave me their bottle of double dose Cymbalta, a couple months' worth and I have been taking them. Now, as of December 1st, my Cigna insurance is ended and my BCBS of Oklahoma insurance is in effect. To make matters worse, I'm in Shreveport and I'm about to run out of Cymbalta.
I'm in a new management position at work and this requires me to be at my peak performance. I'm afraid to run out of Cymbalta during this period. I simply need to see a new doctor and get my prescription refilled. Maybe consult on the fact that I upped my dose without permission from my old doctor...
I read the back of my new BCBS card and it has a number to find a local provider. Good. Check. Done. Then there's another number that says: Precertification Required. What is Precertification? Do I need to do it? Will I lose anything? Like benefits for a pre-existing condition or what? I don't understand, and I don't want to call BCBS and tell them anything that might enable them not to pay for my consultation.
Who do I ask and how do you figure this stuff out?

Thanks,
MsAmber

December 7, 1007

The hospital flew the flag at half-mast today. It was the anniversary of the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Met an interesting old vet today named JD. He was pretty funny. Had quit drinking for over 20 years. He was a slight man in a wheelchair and he had no teeth, but he was amazingly feisty.

I was thinking this morning of some of my childhood quirks...

I collected bugs. When I was 5, we lived in Pelahatchie Mississippi. We had an 80 acre farm. We had a big pond which had beaver dams and lots of turtles. We fished it with super-long cane poles. We had a big barn with a pig sty, a HUGE garden which grew all our food, a chicken coop full of chickens, a leaning wooden clapboard house, a turkey-fig tree, a two-seater outhouse, and a water cistern.

At least twice each summer, the parents had to mow down the fields. On these eventful days, the children gathered bugs. The action of the tractor made the insects go crazy and swarm all around. We were particularly interested in the largest grasshoppers and praying-mantises. We had grasshoppers with abdomens so large that they looked like striped flying bananas. We caught praying mantises and walking-sticks at about 7 inches long. Our mother, who was a college chemistry student/teacher and fancied herself a real scientist, pinned the hapless critters to her wooden bookshelves in a marching formation. She always had full-wall shelves made of concrete blocks and 2X12's. For most of my life, she had our coolest bugs pinned across the shelves.

I started public school with my bug fascination intact. I had a perfect teacher named Mrs. Bart Cannon, she had beautiful dark hair that was curled under all around her face, she loved her husband, who visited the class in a wheelchair and had fought in VietNam. Most of all, though, she took the time to look at my bugs and identify them for me. I was constantly bringing bugs in jars and she would always know what they were.

As a way of encouraging me, the school invented awards to give to me. I got certificates for "Best Bug Collector" and "Most Interesting Bug". I was really proud of them. To this day, Mrs. Bart Cannon is my favorite teacher of all time.

My future teachers could never compete or compare. I judged my teachers based on their knowledge of bugs. If they didn't know something or didn't have the patience to try, I never fully respected them. I know that acting precocious to your teachers is not conducive to good grades, but I thought teachers were supposed to know everything, and bugs are all around. If they don't know something simple like that... well.

I still have a minor fascination with bugs. I pick them up and look at them. I'll usually show it to whomever is near and point out something interesting about the bug, then put it back where I found it.

Would you consider me wierd?

MsAmber

December 3, 2007

It was a typical Monday, by the way.
On Sunday, we installed two new 100 pair entrance protectors and ran new crossconnect to all the stations in building 7. Which brings us to the next day; there are some phones to troubleshoot first thing, I have 4 new guys onsite that need to be shown where/how to be badged. These two hurdles are compounded by the fact that my 2400 new jacks are in a sort of shipping purgatory and you have a perfect Monday morning.

Eh, quitcher whinin'.

I guess what's bugging me is this: Conference Calls. Is it just me, or does a conference call seem to take so much concentration to figure out who is talking and in what context, that it totally distracts from what is being said. After any conference call, I have to roll over and over in my mind each and every detail and then I start to understand. I also think of what I should have said, about 30 minutes too late.

The conference call I just finished wasn't bad, really. I've been on much worse. My boss Mike has a wonderful and pleasant way of working a conference call. He is soft spoken and doesn't overtalk anyone, but he is reassuring and encouraging, and he keeps the discussion on relevant topics. I'm really impressed. Wish I could learn how to do that. Conference calls really stress me out because I can't see the person to whom I am listening, and there are several anonymous voices that I'm supposed to put into context. When is the Engineer talking? When is the Designer talking? Which person am I supposed to give the optimistic answer, and to which do I give the REAL answer?

After each conference call, I always have to sit for a while and think about everything that was said and review my notes. I feel tired, as if I worked all day. Does this get any easier with time?

Funny, but I was scheduled into two conference calls at the same time and I had to pick the most important one. That's never happened before...

Thanks for listening,
MsAmber