HMO? Just say no!

 

 

 

After the passing of my sister, I wanted to do something to honor her. She had a fantastic sense of humor, and I remember watching British Comedy shows with her for hours on end while she was fighting her battle. It was what kept her mind occupied. 

While I was working for America Online, I had received lots of funny jokes in my email. It was still long before memes were a thing.  My coworkers loved sharing the funnies, but they hated being inundated with email after email - so I created a newsletter style page that I would send out daily. It was full of PG rated humor. I called that newsletter Kitty’s Daily Mews. And for those who wanted something with a little more adult humor, I created Litter Box Mews.  These two newsletters were very successful with over 80,000 subscribers. In 1999, I decided to become self-employed and dedicate my time to these newsletters. 

Also in November 1999, I got married. But it was not a good situation. In June 2001, my ex and I jointly filed for divorce. It was a very amicable divorce - we even went to lunch afterward. 

As we all know, in September 2001, the Twin Towers were attacked and the USA pretty much shut down.  By summer of 2002, the internet was overtaken by advertisers that were not very honorable and it was a huge hit financially. I was forced to go back to working for the man. And because I was having a hard time finding anything funny in my life, I discontinued my newsletters.

I worked several temp jobs - most of them were horrible. But in October of 2002, I lucked out and got a temp job as a contractor for the VA Hospital in Portland.They had a waitlist for veterans that needed surgeries and procedures. In an effort to reduce the waitlist, the hospital contracted the surgeries and procedures out to local facilities. It was my job to process the bills at the contracted rates.

My contract was extended to 2006, and I was offered the same benefits and pay as though I were a regular full time employee. In an effort to save some money, instead of opting for regular medical insurance, I opted for HMO at Kaiser Permanente.  This worked great for me until 2005.

A little personal information here (possibly TMI for many of you) but it’s an important part of my cancer story.  My monthly cycles were very sparse - only lasting a day, sometimes two.  That is - until late 2005. 

I was waiting for my bus to go to work one morning when my cycle arrived with a vengeance. I made my way to work and straight to the restroom. I was bleeding so heavy, it looked like a major crime scene.  I turned around and headed home. I decided I should stop at the emergency room at Kaiser Permanente on my way. They got me in to see a gynecologist right away.  She refused to use any topical lidocaine while she performed an endometrial biopsy. She had me come back three weeks in a row for more biopsies. Each time she refused any kind of numbing. She told me to just take a tylenol before the visit and another immediately after.  She eventually put me on a very intense birth control pill that helped with the heavy bleeding. She never did find a reason for the heavy bleeding.

In 2006, when it was time to renew my employment contract, it was not renewed due to my missing too many days of work. When a contract employee is no longer needed, it’s a rather humiliating situation. HR gives you a list of all of the departments, and you have to go to each department and have the department head sign off stating that you do not owe their department money or equipment. You have to have all signatures in place before they will release your final paycheck.

I was unemployed for 2 months when I was offered a job at Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Oregon. While I was still having some bleeding issues, I was able to get medical care from a medical provider that accepted their insurance. It cost a little bit more, but the care was so much better. I’ll continue the saga in the next post. 

Until Next time…