First, this isn’t sadfishing. Honest. Just a combination of venting, warning, and attempting to laugh at the ridiculousness of life as it is in this bizarre timeline we’ve found ourselves in. We’re okay. Shaken, sure, but essentially still in the good fight. 

Why is it that it has taken me so freaking long to get to this blog? To get my storefront layouts done? To hangout on social media? It’s a long, sad, tale of woe (therefore the title! 🤣) With a deeeeep breath, I’ll dive in, and hopefully keep this under 1000 words!

First, a little background. Hubs and I are both diabetic. I’m not yet stabilized (I’m working on it!) and he is. He’s actually able to control his sugars with just diet and exercise. Yep, I’m jealous. We’ve got a lot of other little problems as well, I like to call refer to them as “the death of 1000 cuts” because nothing individually is life threatening, but altogether they’re complicated.

During the pandemic, two of those complications happened to Hubs. First, there was a blocked blood vessel behind his left eye. This meant that he’d be having a series of injections in that eye. (YIKES) Second, after his second Covid Jab, he developed Shingles. In his right eye.

Let’s say right here and now, Vaccines are a mixed blessings. The Vaxx that protects us from Covid can mess with the immune system of those of us who are compromised, and that’s what happened to Hubs. However, the Vaxx for Shingles protected MY BUTT, so I’m more than a little appreciative of that. Everyone has to pick their poisons, but let me tell you, as someone who has never even had Chicken Pox, I was EXTREMELY eager to get that Vaxx, and I’ll forever be happy about that decision. Shingles is nothing to mess with.

Hubs is currently employed in an extremely visual craft, working for an architectural engineering firm where he’s responsible, primarily, for the layout of plumbing and fire protection. Tiny lines. Everywhere. Not easy to do when both eyes are compromised.

After steadily improving for over two years in his right eye (the Shingles eye), he suddenly had difficulty seeing again. (I was extremely lucky that I was able to get my cornea surgeries in while he was able to drive in between!). The glaucoma doc said there wasn’t anything else he could do, and sent him to another specialist. Thankfully, it was the same doctor who’d done my corneal surgeries. We absolutely trust her and adore her, honestly. She’s freaking amazing.

We’re in an HMO, of course, and so armed with the appropriate referral from his PCP, we made the appointments and continued with treatment. Turned out that Hubs had two ruptures in his right eye. Two. Ulcers, she called them. No idea how that happened, and we were a little freaked out, especially when she said that one of those was extremely large, looked like it was getting longer, and it was deep. If it got deeper, it could actually cause his eye to…well, burst. All the liquid from his eye would come pouring out and…alright, we were freaking out with good reason.

After trying several things, and doing many tests, emergency surgery was finally set up about two weeks later. Emergency enough for her to schedule him in the morning before her office hours. Thankfully, there’s a surgery center attached to her practice, so we got there really early in the morning on July 1st and she sewed the large ulcer together, and then his eyelid was sewn shut so that it would heal properly without stress.

In the meantime, I was diagnosed with a retinopathy. Fortunately, it was caught early enough that our retinal doctor (the same one giving Hubs injections in his left eye) said I’d be able to have the laser procedure instead of injections. Whew. That’s the second time my vision diagnosis has been what I refer to as a “one and done.” Surgery was scheduled, and I made the call to get my referrals.

Now, we’re in a bit of a flashback here, because my retinopathy diagnosis actually happened a couple of weeks before the surgery for Hubs’ right eye. Mid-June, to be exact. The week before my procedure, the eye clinic called me to cancel my appointment. They were no longer taking referrals from our primary doctors’ practice.

WTF??!!??

It took some poking around, but I found the reason. After several phone calls to the insurance company and doctors offices, I found it on Google. Of course I did. The doctors’ practice had filed for bankruptcy. Neither our doctors, nor the insurance company was aware of that. OR at least our doctors offices didn’t admit to it. This practice had over 40 doctors and almost a thousand patients. It’s possible the doctors knew, or some did and some didn’t. At any rate, they had not yet informed their patients OR our insurance company. I’ve no idea if they told any of the others.

So hey, Luigi? I get you. I didn’t go there, but I totally feel it.

We were informed by the insurance company that specialists’ contracts were in effect until October. We were given continuation or transition of care forms, and were told to pay the specialists up front and remit ourselves for payment, so that’s what we’ve been doing. It’s painful, because it’s a lot of money up front. Especially for surgery. And those injections are about a grand a piece.

The end of of this story? Our doctors’ practice declined to sign a new contract with our insurance company because they wanted more money per capita from them. Greedy bastards. This means that we’re no longer able to see our doctors, and for someone with a LOT of medical anxiety, that really hurts me. But I kept my therapist, so that’s a kind of fair trade. I might be alright. The only other doctors in our town were booked through December 2027, but we found some that weren’t too far away with a much larger practice through a local hospital. We’ll have to readjust, it’s a different hospital, different specialists. Hubs is debating paying out of pocket for our retinal doctor, because he’s out of network now, but he keeps his other specialists and gets back his endocrinologist so that’s just about even.

Will I ever go back? I’ll want to, that’s for sure. My doctor is…amazing. Sheesh, I still think of her as “my doctor.” But I can’t trust that practice now. Hubs is going to be looking for a job soon (a whole different tale of woe), so our insurance might change but still, they dropped the ball big time by not giving anyone warning ahead of time, and then being greedy and refusing a new contract. I’ve never before even heard of a medical practice declaring bankruptcy, so I feel they’re horribly mismanaged. I keep hoping my doctor will move to a different practice and solve it all for me, but I’m not her only patient, I know that.

The good news? We’ll never need another referral to see the doctor who just did Hubs’ eye surgery…

Hopefully I’ll be around more often now. This week was the first week with only one medical appointment, so our schedule is mellowing out significantly. I’m getting more work done too, just finished laying out all the Anubis products! He’s looking magnificent, as He should!

Again, I’m not begging for likes 😉but I’d love any likes or comments you’d feel like leaving me. Needless to say, it’s been a rough couple of months! Thanks as always for reading! Until next time…

~*~Camylleon~*~