varia

Time is going by too quickly, but stuff happens that I want to make a note of, so:

-- I worked two days last week. On Thursday night I got a call from the sub coordinator, asking if I could work Friday, because the teacher had specifically requested me as her sub. That was really nice.

-- Also in the "ego boost" category, I'm scheduled for a story time later this month; the regular story teller is taking a long weekend with her husband, God bless them both, and the manager told her to get me to cover. She told me this, I blushed, and she went on, "You know, we've had some other people cover for me, but we always want you."

-- I had my voice therapy evaluation on Thursday morning, after I drove up there for nothing on Wednesday morning because I cannot, apparently, read a calendar, even given several attempts. I wrote the appointment on the correct day, I just consistently misread it. Anyway, the appointment went well and the therapist is starting me on something called Lessac-based Resonant Voice Therapy for the next 6 or 8 Thursdays.

-- The new mortgage stuff is in the works; we've signed all the papers, now we're just waiting to get all the accounts set up. Hopefully it will all work out as planned.

-- I got a rather nasty shock in the mail, a Blue Cross explanation of benefits showing I owed the surgery center, where I had my septoplasty and turbinate reduction done last December, roughly $10,000. Considering that the only reason I had the surgery done last year was because I had already met my deductible by that point, this registered at the heart-attack level of shock. It turns out that yes, the center was out-of-network, but they blew some smoke at me about "honoring your insurance's allowed amounts," and telling me to sign over the check when I got it from BCBS. But they -- and I, and it's really my fault -- forgot to take into account that there is a separate deductible for out-of-network providers, and I had paid exactly $0 of it. Then the "allowed amount" worked out to be less than that deductible, which means I'm responsible for the whole amount. Needless to say: panic, and many phone calls. As of Friday, we were down to only owing them $972, but even that is horrible, considering we've already given them $450, and if they were in network, we would've only ended up paying $300. I'm supposed to call tomorrow and find out what the final figure is, apparently they're going to apply some magic co-insurance formula. They've actually been really nice about it, but it still has been horribly upsetting.

-- DS1 turned 11! We got him a Wii Zapper and a bunch of video games and the new Ken Jennings Trivia book, and he was very psyched. Mom made him a brownie cake and an ice cream cake; alas, both are gone now.

-- The Patriots lost the SuperBowl to the Giants, who out-played them and had the momentum going in. The Pats have been struggling their last 5 or so games, whereas the Giants seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. It looked as if Brady might pull out that perfect season, but the D gave up a huge play in the final minute of the game, which gave Eli Manning all that he needed to score the winning TD. (sigh) Congrats to the Giants, they played hard and earned their win.

-- DH's father has developed another infection after being in rehab for several weeks. The poor man hasn't been home since before Thanksgiving, but had been making excellent progress at the rehab hospital. This new infection has kind of thrown the doctors; he's on anti-biotics and we're praying they clear it up, because otherwise they'll have to open him up again to clean it out.

-- Ash Wednesday is this week! Practically the earliest possible Easter, this year.

-- Torchwood's second season is shaping up very nicely so far. I'm getting comfortable with a long form hybrid recap/review, but man, those things take a lot of writing. It's good for me, though, forcing me to describe what's happening as concisely as possible so I can spend time talking about what it all means or why it's important.

-- I've been on 7.5 mcg of Cytomel, up from 5, along with my 125 Levoxyl for about two weeks now, and overall I feel much better. Less brain fog, and I'm not freezing to death quite as often. But I still do get quite cold at times, no matter how wrapped up I am. I think there's something going on there, but I'm not sure what.

-- One possibility is that the Prilosec I'm taking (now up to 3 a day: before breakfast, before dinner, before bed, with no side effects [yay!]); I saw a few references here and there that Prilosec can interfere with absorption of thyroid hormones. I've been taking Prilosec with my morning thyroid meds for ages now, and no one ever said boo about it. I really have to research that more thoroughly. Regardless, my reflux is still poorly controlled; I'm finding myself running out of breath when I speak, and also that stupid reflux cough is back. I'm hoping the 3x/day dosing will help calm things down a bit. I go back to see Dr. G at the end of this month, and I really don't want to hear the word "surgery" come out of his mouth (Even if fundoplication could help, I'm just not psychologically prepared to go under the knife again, any time soon. Enough is enough.)

-- I've told everyone so I can't back out now (I can talk myself out of anything): I'm starting the post-bac teacher certification program at Rio Salado College. I've been out of school almost 24 years now. I'll probably be in classes with people who weren't even born when I was graduating from college. I pray: Lord, I'm old; please help me.

-- Related to that last, my RA/fibromyalgia are running me down. Hands, feet, hips, with the fibro going after my left piriformis and surrounding muscles as usual. I thought that regular exercise was keeping these beasts at bay, but no, the weather had a lot to do with it, too. Oh, I'm sure the exercise helped, but as soon as it snapped cold and got a bit damp: ouch. Well, I'm sure I'd be even more miserable if I weren't exercising, and I'm sure I'd be less miserable if I'd get more sleep.

Speaking of -- I'm in a bad groove here, multiple consecutive late nights, it's not good, even if I can sleep till 10AM on Sundays. I certainly can't tomorrow, the alarm will be going off in approximately 4 hours. I wish I could figure out a more productive way to deal when something's bothering me.