Greenhouse 3

A Rabbit's Foot fern that just about died on me. A good friend gave it to me (and she had won a state fair prize for it). It caught up in all of the family sickness and just about died, but it is coming back nicely. Thank goodness.






Tomato plants growing and in bloom in March. The kids are looking over this for me, hopefully they will let me know that we have small tomatoes by now. Greenhouse 4 is coming up!

Greenhouse 2

A fairly good picture of the crown of thorns. There's a couple of Century plants behind them.
This is the succulent I'm not sure what the name is. It is part of the plants left to me.

The small rose's in the white pot and the pot with the label on it I started from cuttings.
This is the parent jade plant in the Jack Daniel's crock. Probably why it's done so well!

The rubber tree to the right of it, is 15 years old. I couldn't find any cord strong enough to tie it up when I cut it back, so electrical tape to the rescue.





Here's one of the geraniums just starting out this year. Greenhouse 3 is next.

Greenhouse

I've been asked a couple of times about my greenhouse and here are just a few pictures. You can see where we have taken the liberty of fixing any storm damage to the glass panes with that old standby, duct tape. It's been temporary for a couple of years now.This isn't a very large greenhouse, but it is fun.
We are still at the campground between Cherokee, AL and Iuka, MS (and, as the local residents have made sure we know, you say the I and the U in IUKA). This seems to be important to them, but I digress. The point of this is that the internet connection here is not fantastic, even with the external antenna and repeater.
Verizon, as I have told their customer service department, we cannot hear you now. That, also is something the local residents seem to be a bit upset about. Customer service offered to refund my money if I needed to change carriers, not exactly how their commercials sound.
At any rate, all of the pictures do not seem to be uploading. There's pictures of the inside. Allen has built me a potting table. I have some really old cacti and a Jade plant. Allen's sister's mother-in-law gave them to me many years ago.


Here, you can see some of the Jade plants, wandering Jew, I'm not sure what the succulant in the middle is. I'm going to try publishing another blog with a few more pictures of the inside. Guess I'll call it Greenhouse 2.

Norma's Retirement Bonus

Well, I have always loved boating, but did not like the bass boat that Allen has had for years. I came down to the fish camp with him this year and decided that what I wanted was a boat that both of us could enjoy, figured up the bonus money and the result was a Kenner Vision 1800, with a Suzuki 115 4-stroke motor, shown in the pictures. (Of course, I have a Lowrance 520c iGPS on it!) We've had it two days and we're both thrilled with it. Drives great, ride is even better. Both of us can stand up at the same time. We can take it down to Gulf Shores/Pensacola with us. The pictures were taken from our camp site and you can see Big Bear Creek through the woods.
The better Allen feels, the more I'm enjoying retirement. So far, I highly recommend it - retirement that is.
We are planning an Alaska trip in July if the doctor's release Allen for it and I see no reason they won't. We won't haul the boat, but expect to have a wonderful time. One of my friends that also just retired had everything mapped out on Google Earth (and since his son loves Wendy's, I know where every Wendy's in the US is I believe :-) )
Mostly wanted everyone to know we're still alive and well, having a great time, and if you don't hear from me much, it is because of limited bandwidth.

8 March 08 Snowfall in North Alabama

A little bit better picture. If you look REALLY hard, there is a cardinal on the feeder. This is an upside down entry, the earlier post is on the bottom.

Since measurable snowfall is so unusual in the Tennessee Valley, I took a few pictures while it was still dark (only these two turned out OK). Anyway, I could have waited, it is actually still snowing our. It will be gone soon however.
According to the newspaper, this is the first measurable March snowfall since 1996, so that made it worthy of a couple of pictures at least.
It will melt in a little while, and we'll be able to talk of the snowfall of 2008 for a while.

Prospect TN Walk

Yesterday was a very good day for a hike, so we decided that we would go to the land in Prospect, TN has been in my family (James) for several generations. This land borders on the Elk River (huge bluff from our land to the river though) and is a great place for deer and turkey hunting. Just ask my family of hunters, they will tell you so. The boundaries are marked really well, except for one portion that is particularly hilly, rocky, etc., so we decided to look for the old fence and mark as much as we could of that border, so we took off on our quest.
We did pretty well, we naturally had to move a bit slow; but the terrain is such, that poor health or not, you would have to move slow. Tracing the old barb wire fence through the brown leaves, etc., was not the easiest job in the world - it was fun. A few of the trees had grown around the wire and it was sort of strange to see a tree a foot or more in diameter with barbed wire coming out of the middle of it. The power company, many years ago, cut through a swath for their power lines and cut through the fence for a good chunk. We'll have to go another day and try to mark from the power lines down to the river and that's good. An excuse for another outing!
I took a few pictures of our walk and they are posted here if you care to see them. My favorite is the one posted above - serenity!

EVDO Setup Test in Near Future

Doctors' have said it is OK for Allen to go on his yearly camping/fishing trip and I'll go this year for part of it anyway. This will be a good test for my internet setup - if it will work down there, it will be declared a success for mobile use also.

This park is located on the AL/MS border on the river. To get cell service, you need to stand on tip toes, facing East, chanting mystical rhymes, and holding your breath. Link to map of area.

The external magnetic field antenna made it possible to get a cell signal if connected to it, so I have high hopes for the antenna/repeater setup. We'll see. Wish me luck.

EVDO Network Speedtest.net results

I've been asked for this and guess I just forgot to add it to the original post on this subject.
The speed varies, but this is what I posted out on the EVDO maps site:

Old Railroad Bed Road Madison, AL 35757
Carrier: Verizon
Create Date: 1/23/2008
Computer: HP Pavilion
Update Date: 1/23/2008
Network: RevA
Location: indoors
Download: 1285
Upload: 316
dBm: -73
Bars: 4
EVDO device: USB720
Antennas or Amps Used: zBOOST
Notes: Only have the zBoost because of metal roof on house. Outside was same numbers.

Mallards Nesting this year

We have had Canada geese nesting on our island for years, and while I'm always glad for them to return, this year a pair of Mallards have also stayed. Over the years we have had ducks visit for a day or so, but this is the first time they've nested here. I think it's great and wanted to share.

Insurance Woes

Lots of random thoughts this morning, might be the rain. Anyway, CBS News has an article, Canceled Cancer Patient Awarded $9 Million
California, Insurer Will Begin Using A Review Panel Before Dropping Policies, that just appears to prove what I've been saying all along - that insurance companies follow the deny all, permit by exception method of taking care of their customers. As I have stated many a time, this is great computer network policy, however not a good policy for healthcare. You will note that this case has taken 5 years to reach this point.

Our family has been lucky in that I was able to retire to fight the insurance issues that have arisen over the last 7 months. My husband's job has been to recuperate, mine has been to deal with insurance. The hell of this is, we supposedly have some of the best insurance around. Scary isn't it?

My husband worked for his company for 34 years before retiring. During that time, he, personally, used the insurance probably 4-5 times. The kids and me used it considerably more. Since the plan is administered in AL, but is actually out of MI, this has been a minor headache over the years, but not a major one.

When he was admitted to the hospital for emergency care, the last thing on our mind was insurance troubles. What greeted us when we arrived home after 11 days in hospital was a letter from the insurance company saying his hospital claim was denied. Thankfully, we have good doctors also, who helped take care of this issue as this was just the beginning.

Everyone doesn't have the luxury of doctors' that take the time to help with such issues, spouses that can retire or quit to handle these issues as well as try to help the patient during recovery, a friend that's a lawyer that the spouse can bounce questions off of, etc. A great amount of our transplant coordinator's time is spent on insurance matters, and most of the things she's dealing with shouldn't keep coming up again and again. I am pretty sure she cringes when she sees yet another message from me that I need her to call this person or that pharmacy yet again, because the insurance says they're not going to cover what the doctor prescribed yet again.

I do not know the answer to all of this, but I do know that insurance companies should not be allowed to just willy nilly decide who they are going to cancel or deny coverage to without some accounting for those decisions. The $9 million awarded in the CA case really wouldn't have made the family feel a whole lot better if their loved one had passed away.

Changing to EVDO Internet Access

Thinking of retiring in a couple of years, at the first of 2007, I started looking into getting a new computer and internet service. I wanted both the computer and interenet service portable as travelling in our motorhome was one of the main things we planned to do. In order to manage our mundane household business that doesn't go away, portable internet service seemed like the way to go.
Satellite internet was considered; however, start up costs are prohibitive to say the least. Contrary to how it sounds, satellite service is not necessarily portable without a lot more outlay of cash. That was scratched right out of the chute.
DSL service I have not been that impressed with and it is not portable.
Cable service I had for years - liked it, but again, not portable.
Most of these services were available as dial-up, but that is slow, you might not be able to find a landline, etc., etc.
Now, what I have done is not going to give me service anywhere in the world I might be; however, it has been a good setup for me and I have service anywhere I can pick up a cellular tower signal.
I wound up retiring a couple of years early due to health problems in the family. I had already switched to EVDO broadband and purchased a fairly high end laptop; so when the exodus to hospitals began, I happened to have portable access ready to go. Took about a minute to shove everything into a backpack and was out the door. This enabled me to handle the necessary business of the household and maintain contact with friends and family; while not having to hang on the phone all of the time repeating the same information over and over to each individual. PLUS, I was able to research what the doctors were telling us.
Anyway, I have had several people asking me about my setup and have decided to post it here. It might not work for everyone, but it has been great for me so far. I need to point out that I have Verizon Wireless EVDO access and I have no clue what works or don't with any other provider.
What follows is what I have written for a couple of folks that asked. I am not endorsing any company, service, etc., this is simply what I have done:

"Verizon Wireless is what I have, so I know how it works and approximate costs to get going with it. If you changed your house internet over to it like I did, I don't think you'd even need to get a repeater, you have good reception. We have a metal roof on the house, so we have poor cell service inside the house. My friend lives out in the country and gets no cell service, but put in the same system I did and he now has cell/cellular broadband.
This same setup should work with other providers, but you'll have to check the frequencies, etc., with them. The providers won't tell you how to do this, you've got to research yourself, but thank goodness for the internet.
What I have is:
Verizon Wireless Broadband - plan is $59.95 a month for unlimited internet. Modem you should be able to get free from Verizon. (I have the USB720, but there are newer ones now.) You want a USB modem though, because as long as you have the modem in your pocket and the VZAccess software, you have internet from any computer with a USB port. Link to modem information.
I also bought the zBOOST Cell Phone Signal Extender, model YX510-PCS-CEL. With Verizon you need the dual band 800/1900MHz because Verizon sends voice over the 800, but data over the 1900. It comes with external antenna, coax, and base unit. This is the most expensive part - cost me around $300. One link to this signal extender is here.
A friend and I hooked this up (not too hard, antenna on roof, cable through attic, base unit on wall in foyer) and I had one computer on-line and all of the cell phones my friends have except Nextel work in my house just fine now. (Need to mention here that my friend did all of the hardest part, mounting antenna on roof and crawling in attic.) I would have kept the repeater even if I sent everything else back as it enabled me to cut Ma Bell down to minimal service and when I figure out how to do Direct TV without an analog phone connection, Ma Bell is history.
Now, I wasn't satisfied with just one computer online, so I also bought a Cradlepoint CTR350 router, which gave me one Ethernet connection for one of our old computers and converted the cellular broadband to wireless.
I set up a secured wireless network in the house so folks with a laptop can connect to it as long as I give them the password. I can also take the router with me in the motor home. (With the router, you also don't HAVE to use the VZAccess software.)
For traveling I already had a magnetic mount antenna, which will connect to the USB card, phones, or the router (router's best cause it takes care of everything).
Anyway, the basic setup for me was about $370 and it goes with me where ever I go. Even worked from within the bowels of UAB hospital. So far, so good for me."

Single Points of Failure

The Associated Press has an article today entitled Blackberry Outage Caused by Upgrade written by Peter Svensson [link]. This article says pretty much what many of us IT geeks have been trying to tell the DoD leadership for several years now, mainly that you shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket. My Granny taught me that and it holds as true now as it did 50 years ago. Now if we can just get the powers that be to realize that.
A single point of failure is not an accident waiting for a place to happen, it is a catastrophe.

Tenants, Landlords, and Rights

One of the things that my father used to tell me was that investing in land was never a bad thing. I think he was probably correct; however, I don't believe he had rental property in mind when he made this statement.

The State of Alabama enacted the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 2006 to ensure that tenants rights are protected and that there is a uniform process for evicting tenants. From what I can tell, this new law has made it easier than ever to "live free" in the United States, at least in our fair state. From what I hear from circuit court clerks, other landlords, and at least one judge, is that we have made owning a home almost unreasonable. As long as you don't mind moving every few months, and especially if you don't mind writing bad checks, you can live for free in rental property in this state.

Prepare for entertaining reading, following are the rules from one Alabama county clerks office (scanned from actual handout):

"Filling Out Eviction
First: Give the tenant a written eviction notice. You can serve this
personally, tape it to the door or by mail. After 7 business days of serving this eviction, you can now file an eviction through the clerk's office. This is called an Unlawful Detainer.
If you want to get tenant out ancl claiming NO MONEY.
Fill out the Unlawful Detainer form. This will cost you $237.00 if single person, $247.00 if husband & wife. We will send it to sheriff's office, and this will be served or taped to the door. The tenant will have 7
business days to file an answer or get out from the day it is served or taped to the door. If the tenant does not file on answer, you can come in and file a Default Judgment and this will cost you $50.00. Then the tenant will have 14 additional business days to appeal. If the tenant still does not get out, then you can call us and Judge at his discretion may do a Writ of Possession to get them out (you may want to call the sheriffs office to see if they require you to actually get the tenant out).
If you want to get the tenant out and CLAIMING MONEY.
Fill out the Unlawful Detainer form. This will cost you $237.00 if single
person, husband and wife it is $247.00. We will send it to sheriff's office,
and this will be served ( it must be personally served on the defendant
in order to claim money-NOT taped to door) on defendant.
Defendant will have 14 days to file on answer. If defendant does not
file on answer within the 14 days, you can come in and file a Default
Judgment ($50.00). Then you will have to wait 14 additional days
for the defendants right to appeal-If defendant does not appeal you
can call us on the 15th day and Judge at his discretion may do Writ of
Possession. Then (on the money) you can file to garnish their wages
($30.00)-if they make enough money to garnish or file on execution
to pick up personal property (you will have to have the proper
information for the sheriffs office to execute).
** In both cases if defendant answers the complaint Judge will set case
for trial and both parties will be notified. Both parties will come before
a hearing and tell your side-Judge will make a decision and you will
be notified.
Filing Fee's

Unlawful Detainer $237.00
Husband & Wife $247.00
Default Judgment $50.00
Garnishment $30.00
* Forms are available at clerk's office."

Notice, that nowhere in here, does it cost the tenant a thing. If you decide to try and recover your money, that gives the tenant extra time. So, if you are a tenant, and can count; you just need to be ready to move every few months and you're not out a single thing.

If, after inspecting the premises, you decide that between any damages and money owed, you want to try for your money, then you try for Small Claims Court. This also requires that you keep up with where the teant goes - almost impossible to do. Small Claims Court is also probably throwing good money after bad - if the tenant intended to pay the rent to begin with, then the landlord wouldn't be in this situation.

Bet that my father would rethink his position about investing in real estate - unless it is acres of open or wooded land, with no restrictions, and definitely no tenants.

More about the Lifehacker Question and Attitudes

In my previous blog, I sounded off a bit. Not having been out of the employment of the Army for very long and being in the information technology security field while there, I still tend to be a bit sensitive about these matters.

I always felt like there was a tug of war going on between the leadership and the users, and I was the rope. The question on Lifehacker, just set those feelings in motion again.

Upon thinking about this, and discussion with my friend and collegue, Simple Country Physicist, I believe I overreacted a bit.

Attitudes Among the Military Today

In this day and age, when you have to be concerned about your personal information, I have a lot of trouble understanding why anyone is not concerned with all types of security.
This security mindset should be even more strongly felt by members of our armed forces and the civilian workforce that supports these forces. It boggles the mind that security of this country's vital information wouldn't be foremost in these people's minds; however, according to a post on Lifehacker today, it is evident that this is not the case. While a good number of the comments addressed the reasons why official email (or any other information) should not be stored on public servers, even more attempt to help this person find a way around this "inconvenience".
I just cannot understand the mindset that folks seem to have these days which says "it is ok to circumvent anything that is inconvenient for me".
One of my co-workers made the innocent observation that we worked in a secure facility (everyone has security clearances, guard personnel on the doors, etc.) we shouldn't have to worry about theft, treason, any type of corruption, etc. To my co-worker's chagrin, he learned that this was a mistaken assumption.
Everyone is always surprised and outraged at espionage cases when they come to light, but a good number of these outraged citizens are guilty of making these traitors jobs much easier.
What Mr. Walk Kelly, said on his Earthday poster in 1970, is just as true in this situation: "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us"

TV Shows - Oprah today 31 Jan 08

I generally do not watch TV talk shows. Comedies, news, history, science, and travel channels, yes - but I usually click right past talk shows. Turned on the tube today to tune into the news and Oprah was on. First words I heard before I hit the clicker was "transplant", so I froze.

Today, the parents of a young man killed in a tragic accident were sharing their story on Oprah's show. Follow this link to Oprah's website starting with slide 8 and watch through slide 14. These slides are telling you about the journey Jason Ray's parents have taken since they honored Jason's wishes and donated his organs and how hard the decision was for them to make even knowing Jason's wishes. In their case, they wanted to meet the recipients, 3 of whom were also on the show. This segment ends with Dr. Oz coming out to talk to Oprah about transplantation in general. I never, ever, in my wildest dreams imagined that a segment of a syndicated, daytime talkshow could make me cry, but this one did.

This story was well presented on the show and there are links to additional information on Oprah's website. I don't know if seeing the pictures and reading the dialog will have the same effect as seeing the actual film, but it would take a very hard person not to be affected by these people. I honestly don't think I would have the courage this young man's parents have shown in presenting their story to the world or the courage it took for the recipients to appear; but I do know that it was a show worth seeing.

Part of the reason for me writing this blog is so I never lose the link to this show. I hope that anyone that reads this is touched by it as powerfully as I was.

Different Views

Having someone go through something major like a transplant seems to be a similar, but very different experience for everyone. I knew that was true from the patent's/family point of view, but it appears to be so from the different health care professionals points of view as well.

Our experience with our personal health care providers has been cautious, but positive. Our family doctor, our dentist, and our gastroenterologist, have all wanted to ensure that everything is at least coordinated with the transplant team. We just presumed this would be the attitude of all medical professionals.

When my husband, on a weekend naturally, suddenly developed signs of dental infection; our dentist and the transplant team ensured he received the appropriate antibiotic. Both made sure we kept them apprised of how the symtoms reacted to the antibiotic. The dentist saw us first thing Monday morning for X-rays, formulated a plan that was presented to the transplant team, who concurred. I perceived that taking care of Allen was everyone's first priorty and never even thought that professional ego was involved in any way. I didn't even think about this being anything except the way that caring healthcare professionals act.

However, yesterday, I heard of a different reaction from another transplant patient's health care profesisonals in a neighboring town. (Don't believe the location of the doctor' is the issue, could have been others here in our area just as easily.) Our friend's husband suddenly developed some fairly serious complications, serious enough for hospital admission. When our friends requested they be transferred to the transplant center, they perceived their doctor took offense, stating he could take care of this issue at this local hospital.

I am truly hoping that, given the stress that everyone was under, this was a mistaken perception. Transplant patients take very powerful anti-rejection drugs, so events occur suddently. These patients also react differently to treatment than otherwise healthy patients do.

This is not the time for egos to stand in the way of patient care.

Donor/Recipient Perspectives

My friend and mentor, Simple Country Physicist, has hit the nail on the head in his recent post, Memory Taxidermy, I believe. Organ donation is a very personal matter and perception of how and what it involves greatly influences your decision.


Before we (and being the recipient or the donor involves and affects the entire family) went through the liver transplant procedure, I never really gave it more than a passing thought, which was pretty much: I won't need that stuff any longer, if I have anything that can help someone else, let them have it. I checked the box on my driver's license, put it in my living will, told my husband, and didn't think about it any more.


The transplant process has me looking at things in a whole new light. Some of it, from an insurance perspective, is negative. See previous blog entry for more on that subject


Most of it, from a personal perspective, is extremely positive and makes me want to help spread the word.


The doctors, nurses, everyone on the transplant team, care as much for the donor families as they do for the recipient families. Everyone is treated with respect. The transplant center we went to encourages the recipients to write a letter to the donor family expressing their thanks and letting them know how their unselfishness has affected the recipient and his/her family. I sat down to write that letter and it was one of the hardest things in the world I've ever tried to write.

One of our daughters pretty much summed up everything at Christmas. Trying to decide what to get us for Christmas, she asked, "what in the world do you get someone who has received the best gift possible - a new life"? I took that thought and expounded on it; hopefully the donor family will understand how we feel and in turn, maybe help with their grief.



My thoughts have changed in context a bit:
When it is my time to go, then I truly hope that my organs can help someone else to live or have a better quality of life. It is no longer just a check box on the driver's license application.

American Sign Language

Our youngest grandchild is deaf. In her 5 years, she has endured quite a lot including two surgeries to have cochlear implants. She is also learning American Sign Language at her school, so, wanting to communicate with my granddaughter more effectively, I began searching for classes available in our area. Most of the ones I have found have been full with long waiting lists, however, I ran across this wonderful website, American Sign Language Resource Site. This site is a great resource to help you learn yourself, practice tests, great visuals, lots of information, etc., etc.

The author, Dr. Bill Vicars, has given his permission to link to his site for reference (in fact, I got the linkback code from the website).

I plan to get on one of the waiting lists for an instructor led class; but intend to make full use of the referenced site in the meantime. Dr. Vicars has obviously spent a lot of time to provide this resource to everyone, so I wanted to help spread the word about its availability.

Organ Donations Revisited

Partially because of Ms. Demi-Lee Brennan, from Sydney, Australia and her amazing story, my mind was truly racing this morning about the possiblities and the miracles of modern medicine.

It also reminded me I have been remiss in thanking the donor family (see previous post here for refresher) of my husband's new liver. I spent most of this morning composing the letter and found that this was a much more emotional and difficult letter to write than I expected it to be.

It has made me aware, once again, of the importance of becoming an organ donor. As I mentioned before, even blood veins, skin, blood itself, just about everything, if viable, can help someone else to live.


The Legacy Organ and Tissue Registry, a division of the Alabama Organ Center has very good information on it, even if you are not an Alabama resident. I have learned that even if you have designated on your driver's license that you wish to be an organ donor, this registry is still a vital, important thing to do.

Please remember to make your wishes known to your family. If you have children, hard as this may be, please decide what you want to do in the terrible event that something happens to them. This is a hard thing to think about, but the reason I say this is:

One thing I saw, that will stick with me forever, was as a child was dying, the mother and father got into a horrible, loud, fight over whether to donate the child's organs or not. This was such a terrible thing to have happen and one of the parents was actually arrested. I do not know what the ultimate decision was about the transplant. I do suspect that, on top of losing their child, this couple also lost their marriage. A catastrophe all the way around, which possibly could have been prevented by a difficult talk years earlier.

There are several good sites out here for information on organ donation, not just liver transplants.

One of the is Organ and Tissue Donation Initative.

The University of AL - Birmingham Liver Center has recently stood up a website that I believe will get better over time.

Health Insurance Woes

There is a great article in Parade magazine today (http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_01-20-2008/Fight_for_Your_Health_Care). It has a lot of helpful information in it.
As noted previously, my husband and I have been to lots of doctors and hospitals recently as he is a recent liver transplant recipient. Thank God for the miracles of modern medicine.
Now, the subject of health insurance is another matter entirely. Dealing with these people has been the most stressful part of this whole transplant. I believe, with all my heart, that these people "deny all, permit by exception" in computer geek terminology.
I do have to admit the insurance company, by causing the stress that they did, helped alleviate much of the stress of dealing with the transplant need itself, the evaluation, the waiting, and ultimately the transplant itself. The insurance company was, and continues to be, MUCH more stressful.
If you happen to have doctors that don't have the staff to help you deal with these folks, then you're pretty much out of luck unless you can afford a lawyer or, as noted in the article, obtain help from an advocacy group.
To start with, this company denied the initial 11 day hospital stay for this man. We arrived home to a letter waiting for us that said denial of claim. When I called the number provided to find out why, I was told they couldn't provide that information to us; the hospital would have to contact them. (No good response to the question of why they provided a phone number for help if they weren't going to provide any help.) So I called the hospital billing office, who called the insurance company, who said, no, since the claim was denied, we need for the doctor to contact us to go over, line item by line item, all of these charges. Yes, we were probably wrong to deny this claim, but procedures you know. Hospital calls me to tell me what the insurance company said and to get me to call the doctor. Turns out that, indeed, after the nurse practitioner finally got in touch with the proper person at the insurance company (took several days, the insurance company is busy after all) and spent over an hour going over the bill line item by line item, that indeed, the insurance company could pay this bill.
Some version of the above has occurred with every single claim that has been filed since August 2007, including the necessary prescription drugs. Turns out the prescriptions are covered, there just happens to be 3 different divisions that the prescriptions have to go to and guess who is magically supposed to know what to send to who? All of these divisions are part of the same company, but apparently do not know how to, or won't, communicate with each other. Procedures, you know.
We were called 3 times to come to the transplant center for the surgery. The first 2 times we were sent back home after preparation for the surgery. Stressful enough, right? Wrong. Insurance company denied these claims. Guess they thought we made these trips for the fun of it.
Finally, after 5 months of trying to obtain help from the company, it turns out that if you complain enough, you get assigned a patient coordinator. The patient coordinator got all of the denied claims taken care of and has been great help with every other issue that has come up. While I appreciate this person very much, I will be contacting state and federal government officials to see what I can do to help change these practices. From stories I've heard, I actually made progress much faster than most folks.
"Deny all, permit by exception" is a great concept for computer network security; it is not even close to a mediocre concept for health care benefits.

Thoughts on Organ Donation

The website for the Legacy Organ and Tissue Registry, a division of the Alabama Organ Center is: http://www.legacyalabama.org/home.php.
Even if you have designated on your driver's license that you wish to be an organ donor, this registry is still a vital, important thing to do.

My husband was the recipient of a liver in December 2007. Even with the letter of thanks (anonymous of course, but you can read about that on the website if you desire) sent to the donor family, I'm not sure they will ever really know how their unselfishness has touched so many lives. Before my husband became a candidate for a transplant, I had only given this a passing thought - signing my driver's license and thinking, if I have anything worth taking they can have it. Now it is a sincere hope that, if it is my time to die, that there is some organ or tissue that will help someone live.

The entire process for an organ recipient is very stressful in itself. At the same time you are praying so hard for the organ you need, you know that this requires someone else to die. That, in itself, puts people in a quandry of emotions. One lady summed it up so well: I don't wish for a soul to die; however, if it is my time to go, I truly pray that I can help someone else to live or have a better quality of life. On top of that feeling, you have to stay by a telephone 24/7; have your clothes packed and ready to go; have all of your business taken care of; etc. When you receive the call you have just a few hours to get to the transplant center. After you're there, it is a blur of tests, xrays, and paperwork - and it is possible, all the way up to the actual incision is made, that something can occur that will stop the transplant. In that eventuality, you check out, go home, and start all over. In our particular case, we made 3 trips to the center before the transplant occurred. The third time, until they let me know from the OR that the surgery was underway, I refused to think that we wouldn't be going home in just a few minutes.

The surgery has been successful. My husband looks and feels better than he has in a couple of years. Right now life is centered around dealing with insurance (another story all in itself) healing, avoiding infection, avoiding rejection, and having weekly lab tests done. Things like avoiding crowds, tactfully not shaking hands or hugging friends, remembering that doorknobs are nasty and you need to religiously utilize hand sanitizer. . .
All of this wouldn't have been possible without the unselfishness of the donor family.

I can't imagine the feelings the donor family have gone through; however, I know that our family is eternally grateful to them.

If you haven't considered being an organ donor, please consider doing so. The weeks we spent at the transplant center were truly awe inspiring.

Winter Storm's A-comin

I'm sure that some folks are not going to believe this, but the actual thought of a snowfall with accumulation in the South is enough to make local television stations flash a winter storm warning across the tv screen continuously until either (a) the event occurs or (b) they're wrong again.

If (a) occurs, then you will hear incessently how they told you for days that this was coming because of their wonderful new technology. If (b) occurs, then you never hear another word about it.



From our snowfall on Wednesday, one local station keeps letting us know that thanks to their live cameras, they were the only station where you could actually watch the snowfall. It does make you wonder if the television folks know that there is a wonderful invention in houses called windows. With this invention, you can actually see outside, utilizing no electricity or clicker at all, and see what is happening. Imagine, watching snow falling from the sky from inside your nice, warm house. Amazing.

Snow in North Alabama

It actually snowed in North Alabama yesterday, and this is indeed a topic for news around here. Out in Limestone County, we got to see the snowfall, but that was it. My friend who lives in Marshall County (greater metropolitan Arab for those with maps handy), even had enough stick to take a picture of. http://smpctryphys.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/falleth/
My friends from the northern states find it humorous that I was 45 or so before I even knew such a thing as a snow shovel existed, but truth is truth. I didn't figure you needed a special tool to shovel the stuff out of your way, but I was told I was wrong. I was also told that my idea of getting rid of snow: getting something warm to drink, wrap up in a blanket, read a book, and wait for the snow to melt was a good idea, but not a reality where there is "real snowfall". I'll stick with the southern version of snowfall.

Home Again

Well, we're home and it's cold. Back to a little bit of routine, but ready to get camper cleaned up and head out again when Allen feels like it. The beach in the spring is really neat, there's not a lot of people there!

Sunrise over bay

I think I could get used to this. Sun is rising over the bay, quiet, no one wanting anything. . . .
One more day of this, then we're leaving. Oh well. . .
Maybe more pictures later.

NAS, Pensacola Jan 2008 Trip

We are in Pensacola at the Oak Grove RV park on the Pensacola Naval Air Station. It is beautiful, a little on the cool side, but not as cold as home! Sun is coming up over the bay now. We're going to the Blue Angels museum in a little while.
Allen's doing good. I can do the stuff that hurts him to do, if anything major happens we will call for help. Hopefully that won't happen.
It's amazing to me that we could just decide on Wednesday evening that we wanted to come down to Gulf Shores, and just left. I kept thinking I needed to do this or that, and all I HAD to do is make sure that we had Allen's meds and paperwork to get his labwork done in case we didn't come home. Just amazing!
Had great seafood lunch yesterday and today.A few pictures are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/Normalee0/Jan08Pictures

I'm going to post them on MySpace also, but there seems to be an issue with folks without an account viewing them.