It is Just Crazier every day with Insurance, Medicare and the Government!

I appreciate all of you signing the petition! :) Thank you so much! I just read another extremely disturbing article in our own Local Paper. Our CITY employees are having to bear a 23.6 PERCENT INSURANCE PREMIUM INCREASE NEXT YEAR!!! This is also due to the AFFORDABLE ARE ACT!!! How can the government call it AFFORDABLE" when we are going to GO BROKE paying for it??? And our doctors are going broke because THEY are not getting paid!???? The premiums here in town for our city employees are going up $50,000.0!!!  MONTH!!!! Not a year folks!! A MONTH! Their deductibles are going to be 1,500.00 for an individual and 3,000.00 for a family!!! This is insanity!!!! I need to let people know it is NOT JUST MEDICARE people it is ALL of us with families and our own selves to INSURE!!! I almost passed out when I saw this article! First of all, our community WANTS to support our employees. YET, we also NEED to balance our own budget! I have to say our town does a wonderful job at that. Even after the tornado disaster, and I know that is going to hit hard too, I know our towns people will make sure our budget is on track. but, to have to pay out of pocket over 50,000.0 MORE a MONTH to hell insurance our employees, then they pay premiums along with having to endure deductibles that high... PEOPLE WE HAVE TI STAND UP AND SAY THIS!!! IS !!!!!! ENOUGH!!! NO LONGER can we continue to sit and allow the government and the insurance companies to ROB US BLIND all the while WE DO NOT benefit from all that comes out of our pockets! I URGE AND BEG ALL of YOU TO SIGN THIS PETITION! IT IS NOT JUST FOR MEDICARE PEOPLE But for EVERYONE who pays premiums, doctor bills, and has to endure going broke if you "get broken"... they do NOT care if you are ill, many of them think well, we will let you die! Honestly, that is how I think many of them feel on Capitol Hill. So, if you want make another petition!!! Get on the band wagon if you are seeing ridiculous premiums and no paying of your doctors! My husband came in from the doctor today!!! HE has NO INSURANCE! So we PAY CASH! AN OFFICE VISIT EVERY TWO MONTHS for him to sit down, our doctor walk in, ask him, well how is the pain? Jim tells him< "the same". The take his vitals and send him on his way for what is now 125.00 OFFICE VISIT!! FOR ABSOLUTELY 2 minutes! But, due to the insurance companies and Medicare NOT paying, the doctors have to price gouge those that pay cash! And they know WE CANNOT AFFORD IT! IF I did not get Jim's meds for either free online or here at the 5.00 pharmacy on the others, there is NO way we could get his medications! And if we had to pay for MINE!!!! I can say that many of mine are anywhere from 300.00 to 1,300.00 a MONTH!!! And I have about twelve plus all of the over the counter stuff we buy, Nose Strips, Tums, Allergy meds, all kind of Vitamins, and we added the B-12 to the list today, which is high if it is the sublingual one! Then you have aspirin, Aleve, Advil and even in generic it is still expensive when you add it all up. The over the counter stuff is just as expensive as the scripts! So, basically WE are SCREWED and TATTOOED any way you take it!
what happened to the days of bartering a chicken for a doctor to COME TO YOUR HOME AND SEE YOU??? They would pass out if they thought they would have to make a "house visit"! But, you really can't blame them, they have to CHARGE LIKE HELL TO GET ANY MONEY IN RETURN! ALL OF IT IS NUTS!!!! INSANITY!!!!


http://www.change.org/petitions/time-for-congress-to-fix-medicare-for-the-people-fix-medicare-stop-fraud-and-misuse-pay-good-doctors-as-they-deserve

Welcome News from the World of Lupus - !!!!

http://www.lupusresearchinstitute.org/lupus-news/discoveries/13/07/15/lupus-research-institute-advocacy-secures-2-million-appropriation-lu




Wanted to share this awesome news from the realms of the Lupus World! Our voices have been heard!!!!!

Wow! Now I am Anemic!

If it is not one thing it is the other...

Okay, here is part of the deal I think with me, health wise. First I did call my dentist and they will see me the 1st week in August. They are going on vacation until then. So I told them I would be extremely careful and try not to crack anything else off of these teeth that seem so very fragile. Next, I called my PCP and got the medication for dry mouth. They have two. I had been on Evoxac by awhile ago, and should never have stopped it I guess. I thought maybe it was not working but now I look back, it was probably helping much more than I thought. So, needless to say my insurance AGAIN decided they did NOT want to PAY even for the GENERIC! And it would cost me 300.00! So, I got on my Humana site, and finally found out they are supposed to pay for the generic form of Salagen. So, I called my doctor back, and told them. They did call me in that one instead, so I shall see if the pharmacy was able to get that one paid for. Damned I feel like crap and I am STILL fighting to get meds! They DO NOT CARE if my TEETH ROT OUT OF MY MOUTH!!! Just another example of Medicare/Med. Advantage plans and bull!
Then I got ANOTHER CALL FROM MY DOCTOR, late yesterday afternoon... I am severely B-12 deficient, in other words I am severely anemic. Which would certainly explain my symptoms being so excessive and lasting so long... the severe fatigue, lack of appetite, being so pale, not able to put one foot in front of the other, even the pain in my muscles, and everything that is "a Lupus flare" are also signs of anemia. The "brain fog" is another. They wanted me to come and begin injections, but I asked since I felt so badly if I could do it at home with over the counter B-12. She reluctantly told me I can try, but if I am not better within a few days, then I have to do the injections... I have not been anemic since my daughter was born 29 years ago, so this is strange for me. It has me concerned. I know it does go along with Lupus a great deal and there is "pernicious" anemia and several others, one of them is actually an "autoimmune" type of anemia, that often does come with Lupus, so I found that interesting. Anyway, as BAD as it sounds at least I am NOT crazy!!! OR if I have I also have SOMETHING wrong other that "it is JUST LUPUS"... I get so sick of hearing that "Oh, IT IS just YOUR LUPUS" acting up! the term "JUST" and LUPUS seem almost sacrilegious to say together. So, keeo my in your thoughts and prayers. I feel like total hell! I just am so extremely fatigued and I have all of the other symptoms of anemia and the Lupus flare, thus I feel like a rung out dish rag, as my Dad would have said... or he would say "pulled through a knot hole backwards" whatever that means...
Alas, bear with me as I try and work on this Medicare thing, the group for it and the petition. I REALLY COULD USE SOME OF YOUR HELP!!! PLEASE HELP AND SIGN IT, THEN pass on to your friends that you know are also wanting to see Medicare back in the right shape it is supposed to be in. Miss all of you... I spend most of my time after early in the am... on the sofa watching horror movies on Netflix... I hope this new medication we are getting today gets me up and going very soon. I HATE not feeling like doing anything, and the brain fog is just horrid....


Wed. the 17th more after yesterday....

Yes, it can be "deadly" honestly.. thus the very reason it is called "pernicious".. the definition of it is basically "deadly". I did Venetia.  Thanks  :) I read the "wikipedia summary and it does give a very good look at it. I realize that all of the symptoms I have had lately, even th pain in my hips can be caused by this. Jason I am like you though... I am not sure why, unless it is the Lupus, that I have such a sudden drop in my B-12. They check it and about 4 months ago it was on the "low side" of being "okay". So, why within 3 or 4 months all of a sudden it dropped kind of concerns me. but, it is also a type of autoimmune illness, thus Lupus I am sure plays a role in it. the PA that saw me last week noticed my mucus members in my nose and mouth were very pale, and I was very pale. Then all of the symptoms of severe fatigue, nausea, the leg and hip pain, not wanting to eat, nothing tasting good at all, and I have even been all of a sudden kind of "depressed", but not like regular depression. I thought I was just upset from being ill so long, but I have been crying when I try and walk in the mornings outside, and I can't even stand to pick up one foot I feel so bad. But, Jim has caught me several times in the past 10 days outside sitting alone, or walking (or trying to do my early morning walking) and I am just boo-hooing. Yet, not like a feeling of "depression" of the regular kind. I looked it up and sure enough it is another symptom of this B-12 deficiency. I am getting some of the sublingual B-12 stuff today to take. They gave me the injection yesterday, BUT then did not say a word about giving me more. I read I was supposed to be an entire "set" of them for like a week, then slack off to like two weeks, then at least 1 monthly OR I need to take the oral ones daily forever. So, I am not sure where the mix up is, but I see my regular doctor there on the 1st of August. Unless they tell me differently, I am going to get the oral stuff, take it daily and then I will have a long discussion with him about all of this. He happened to be gone last week, so he was not there to find out immediately what was happening to me. I think he would have probably recognized due to knowing me so well, that I may have needed either injections immediately, or he would have been quicker to diagnose my issues. He knows my total situation so well, in fact he was the one that actually "found" my MCTD, Lupus etc. Had I not had him to be so astute in looking at me, and what all of the issues I was having was being caused from it may have been years before I finally found out, if at all. So, he totally can almost "tell" as soon he as sees and speaks to me what the issue is. He was the one that also found the rare thing with my myoglobin, which is still high also. So, I will make sure we do speak about all of this in August on the 1st. Then I will let my Rheumatologist and so forth know. I had a spell right after the injection that worried me a little though...we let the office, Jim took me, because I just did not feel like driving at all, and we started to the store, and I began to feel cold/hot and clammy. We picked up a couple of things for dinner, and when we got home... I was sweating but had the chills. It really concerned me due to the Humira and I have to watch so closely for infections. I had not ran fever, but that "chilled" yet hot, and clammy does not sound great... Anyway, it may have been our weather. It had been cooler here but the humidity is off the charts... and I got kind of cooled off in the doctors office, then out in the humidity, then back in the house, with our ceiling fans running and the air on... and I happened to have had the fan pointed at me sitting on the sofa... thus it could be just getting a little sweaty due to humidity, then coming in and the fan on me... but I hate when I have something like that happen... anyway, I hope the B-12 clears up some of this freaking fatigue. I can't even pick my arms up to type... they feel so heavy also... it is insanity... and I thought the Lupus fatigue was bad enough... then add this onto it... not fun!

Fear of Disease Getting Worse or Am I Mentally & Emotionally Giving Up?

As I began to think about this so early this morning, I have had a very "heavy heart" lately. I have not really said much to anyone, including my husband or family, but I have been getting increasingly fearful that either these illnesses, the Lupus, RA, Sjogren's, and so forth are either becoming much worse OR my emotional state and mental state is that I am beginning to just "give up" the fight. I have tried to get myself "psyched" up over my 3rd book, and now giving the Congress and government a fight over all of the Medicare mess they have us in. Yet, I just cannot pull my physical or mental state out of the severe fatigue, the place I just cannot get done what I want to get done... due to my feeling so lousy, in so much pain, for so long now. No one can truly know from everything I have been through what the hell is REALLY wrong with me? Why even with a pain pump internally implanted am I suddenly in severe pain? Why are my joints more stiff, like they are "gelling" on me, and the pain in them is horrible? Why are my teeth having more cavities than ever, and seem to be crumbling in front of my eyes? Why do I not feel like going out to the store, doing laundry, cleaning my own home, and honestly doing anything. I feel TOO tired, TOO fatigued, and just too ill to even care if the rugs are vacuumed or the floors are mopped. I don't care what I eat, it matters not. Nothing tastes right anyway. I do not feel lilke even sitting in this chair to write, or even honestly read emails. I could care less about doing my coupons etc, and just have to literally make myself go outside and walk... going outside to walk, water my plants, and watch all of our birds that have nests are are hatching are about the ONLY things I care to do. I don't want to go to my Mom's, Lord knows I do NOT want to go to a doctor, and I desperately need to see a dentist and both of us get glasses, but I do not have the energy to muster to go and have the measurements done we need so we can order our glasses.
Right at this moment, I could either scream or cry... possibly both. I feel like I am just about worthless. I feel I can't even help myself, much less help anyone else. I know when I get ill or have a severe flare or both at the same time, I go through these times... yet this time it feels totally different. I know I always care about what the house looks like inside... no matter how horrible I feel. I will try my best to clean no matter how sick or how tired I am.
The brain fog is horrible. I do well to remember my own name. I have had it for a long while, but it seems to get worse each time I have a bout with it. I have gotten to where if I am slightly interrupted when I am saying something I totally forget what I was saying. My notes I even forget now.. stuff that I usually can remember, I can't to save my soul, as they say. I feel like my entire life, body and emotional realm is just fading away in front of me. Everything I loved to do, does not even interest me.
Even being here and trying to help others that has always given me a driven purpose, has just been not totally within my heart. I go through days of thinking no one even hears a word I say, or does not care. No one wants to listen to me anymore.  I feel as if everyone else has grown tired of listening to my constant whining and griping. It seems I continue to develop some "new" sign or symptom. One day it is my teeth, the next ulcers in my mouth, the next fatigue, the next pain and stiffness, another something else... continually a viscous circle of illness or insanity one... I am truly beginning to wonder which??? I feel like I am going totally nuts..

See Petition I have began to send to Congress, The President and the Woman Over the Medicare program..

I am still working on the petition but you can go ahead and sign it at:

http://www.change.org/petitions/time-for-congress-to-fix-medicare-for-the-people-fix-medicare-stop-fraud-and-misuse-pay-good-doctors-as-they-deserve#


Please go ahead and sign. I will complete the rest of it over the next day or so, as I get back on my feet from whatever has me down and ill. I appreciate everyone's help on this... please tell others to sign also....Rhia

TIME for US as PATIENTS to STEP UP TO THE WHITE HOUSE STEPS!!!!!

I hope to catch many eyes on this post! What happened to me yesterday, will EFFECT any and all of you potentially that go to hospitals with PAIN, or have medications that are NO LONGER "VIABLE" as income due to Medicare changes! I can say that unless we open our mouths and stand at CONGRESSES doors by January 1st 2014, WE WILL LOSE MANY OF OUR OWN DOCTORS! This is NO JOKE and it came directly from my own ain doctor that I have been seeing for 5 years. He also has an 80 PERCENT MEDICARE PATIENT load that if these things happen with Congress this coming January and nothing gets done to STOP them, he will QUIT TAKING MEDICARE, because he cannot afford to keep his practice open and begin being almost A CASH PAY BASIS FACILITY!!! we have got to do something to stop this one way or the other. The Republicans are going to cause us to lose every physician that is trying to help us, cut all of the pain meds back that do not make them "money", and leave us HOLDING THE PAIN BAG IN OUR HANDS! I went in to take my pain pump refill yesterday. Things "seemed" as usual. But, when my pain physician showed up, his first words other than how are you to me were, "I don't know what we are going to do with you yet? put in a stimulator, change over your medications in the pump, or what?" He was in a stupor almost due to "shock and dismay". The HOSPITAL has decided THEY WILL NO LONGER CARRY the medication I have IN MY PAIN PUMP! Due to it "not making them money" basically, they made the decision to "not carry it in the hospital, thus ALL DOCTORS must use ALTERNATIVE PAIN MEDS that the "hospital" dictates what those will be. Now NOT our doctors, but THE HOSPITAL! Even other medications, such as many ANESTHESIA meds, they are telling that they can "no longer get them". Well what the truth of the matter is, due to all of the MEDICARE CRAP CHANGES, NOW MEDICARE HAS ALL BUT CUT TOTAL PAYMENT to them on certain meds!!!! Thus they will just STOP HAVING THEM in their facility! Not only that, but he personally told me that unless something changes before this huge bull crap change come January 1, 2014, over DRASTIC CUT TO DOCTORS BY 25 PERCENT OR MORE on Medicare patients, HE WILL HAVE TO STOP (along with many others) taking "Medicare patients", plus no longer even see the ones he has, unless they become "cash pay" or have other insurance etc! NOW THERE IS OUR DAMNED GOVERNMENT "FOR THE PEOPLE" AT WORK!!! They are sitting up their on their laurels, the "fat cronies" getting richer and richer EVERYDAY , WHILE WE GET POOR! At our expense they do not give a damned if we hurt, if we are sick, well, they just as soon us die off so they do not have to pay out so much of OUR SOCIAL SECURITY and our Medicare! We need Petitions! We need US, MANY OF US STANDING AT THE STEPS OF THE WHITE HOUSE fighting this!!! I ONLY GOT 25 PERCENT OF MY PAIN MEDICATION IN MY PUMP YESTERDAY!!! I said 25 PERCENT! I received the very LAST VIAL the hospital had. So my pump will RUN OUT IN THREE WEEKS!!!!!
This means my doctor will have to "wait" until the hospital "deems" what they "will carry", and then change MY MEDICATION over to SOMETHING ELSE! That means something that may not WORK AS WELL, that could have MORE SIDE EFFECTS, the means me having to be RE-ADJUSTED to the new meds.... and it is just a massive headache, heart ache, and the very thing I GOT TO HELP THE PAIN... NOW HAS TO BE CHANGED DUE TO MONEY!!!!! That is what it boils down to! The hospital NOT making a PROFIT on that medication, thus THEY WILL GET RID OF IT! To hell with the patients and the doctors that treat them! Now put yourself in my situation, whether pain pump or not. First of all, due to all of the bureaucratic bull red tape my own doctor can't get my medication for me anymore in his office! And even though it is MY medication, they WILL NOT pay a specialty clinic to mix it for me, allow me to have them file my Medicare insurance, and allow ME to take my OWN MEDICATION TO MY DOCTOR for it to be put in MY PUMP! And don't give me the crap about it being "narcotic" etc. For one the stuff has to be mixed ONLY by a specialty clinic. Another unless you have Medicare or insurance to pay for it, it is totally too expensive, and 3rd, they CAN FIND ways to MONITOR IT TO MAKE SURE it does go TO MY DOCTOR, and it IS PUT in my pump! They could deliver it to his office, or seal it some way that only the doctor can open it etc... there are things to do... we are not a stupid bunch of people.. Technology today can do incredible stuff, so getting a medication to a doctor under some type of specialized way it can only be opened and used it totally possible. Other than that even though my pain doctor has a brand new clinic, has met all kinds of ridiculous red tape, including "special" computers that Medicare MADE THEM GET, that cost something like 35,000 OR MORE in order for the government to process Medicare claims! IT could not be some type of much less expensive software etc... it had to be HIGH DOLLAR "SPECIAL" COMPUTERS that the doctors must foot the bill for!!!! Then He can't even have my medication brought to his office for a few hours for me to come there WHERE IT ONLY COSTS ME 40.00 FOR AN OFFICE VISIT, to have it filled, VS. what I PAY NOW TO THE HOSPITAL, WHICH IS A 200.00 CO-PAY to have the pump filled!!!! Believe me you talk about a "racket"!!!! Between the hospitals, the government, the pharmaceutical companies, and some pharmacies included and big CLINICS ETC. , they are making BILLIONS, while our small doctors, with small practices, many of our BEST PHYSICIANS are being reamed over the coals, driven out of business (like my own Rheumatologist earlier this year) due to those crooked, greedy, not giving a damned bunch we call "Congress". The lobbyists for these bigger hospitals etc RULE IT WITH LINING POCKETS! IF you CARE ABOUT YOUR OWN HEALTH (and this is to INCLUDE OTHER MEDICATIONS ALSO, NOT JUST FOR PAIN) THEN YOU AND I MUST stand toe to toe, hand in hand and find way to get this ridiculous mess stopped!!! I certainly am only ONE PERSON but with all our VOICES, WE CAN and have to make A DIFFERENCE!
PLEASE, PLEASE I URGE YOU, I BEG YOU TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK on this. Look up this stuff online, talk to your own physicians, ask them what will happen with them if this Medicare crap goes on at the first of the year, ask around and watch for articles from the Pain foundation, etc... we have to get this fixed and permanently, and quickly, with haste!!!!! Rhia



I have accomplished A great deal more since this post: This is Saturday the 13th. I will try and catch up here and all of the information is also on my FB page along with and FB group I began ONLY for getting who we need to get to so Medicare can be FIXED!!! 

The new FB groups page you can join is:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/435383466560951/?bookmark_t=group

Other links that are helpful are listed thee, but let me see if I can also get them here!

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/


Talking about a drug shortage here... no wonder we can't get our medications!!!!
http://www.bioethics.net/2013/04/psst-theres-a-drug-shortage/

http://www.raps.org/focus-online/news/news-article-view/article/3479/reform-bill-takes-aim-at-gray-market-causes-for-drug-shortages.aspx

It is time for all of US to get ALL of Congress, and our entire Governmental body, including Our President back on bard to straighten our the broken system of Medicare and make it FOR those who it is for - US!!!! Petitions, suggestions, and ideas are welcome! I would like to get everyone to participate in any way you want or can to get the word to the Congress and President we want CHANGE, but CHANGE that WE, THE PEOPLE benefit from! NOT drug companies, not hospitals, not lobbyists, not large groups of medical professional or any of the rest that took an oath to SERVE and CARE for us, but THEY PREFER to FORSAKE THAT and allow GREED and CORRUPTION TO take OVER!!!! While we are left in the cold, paying for their mistakes. Let's show them that we mean business. Help me, help you!!!!