Anthem Blue Cross just sent out a Coronavirus update, if you are interested...

[Hekate]

https://www.anthem.com/blog/member-news/worried-about-the-coronavirus/

I only scanned the email (promises to get us members tested if need be, no copay, but pardon my cynicism about the availability of test kits) -- but thought the info at the link might be of use to someone even if not a member.

We are 72 and 73 now, husband still working from home, so Anthem is the company plan, and not Medicare. We (or rather he, thank gods) just came out of a pitched battle with them over whether I would be actually hospitalized for a total knee replacement. I finally got two nights. Then they only wanted me to have one (1) physical therapy session after release. Their cost-control gate-keepers are godless, soulless, bastards. (I told my younger brother about this, and he said he once looked one of those people in the eye and asked, "How does it feel to be working for Satan? " )

Yes, I am getting PT. No, getting a new knee isn't any fun. Yes, my goal is to get out of the house and go back to long walks on the local beach, not run a marathon. Yes, I think my husband is a saint with insurance people: he's the only person I know who takes names and instead of kicking ass, befriends them if at all possible.

So here we are, with me feeling old and decrepit and my husband on lifetime meds that are immunosuppressants. I count my blessings, which are many, including having that insurance.

But damn I feel mortal, and a lot of unfinished business comes up to haunt me.

My heart goes out to all those who are are in far, far worse situations: the homeless, the imprisoned border-crossers, poor families with few resources, people in nursing homes, and vacationers at sea whose holiday became a nightmare. I'm having a hard time praying these days, but all those folks need our prayers.

[customerserviceguy]

1. Coronavirus

is going to hit health insurers like hurricanes hit property insurers. Look for the weasel tactics to be ramped up to record levels.

The best thing that anybody can do is to isolate themselves BEFORE it's present in their community. And waiting for the elderly neighbor down the street to succumb is way too late.

[snowybirdie]

2. Hubby and I

Have become relative hermits the last few days. One death, so far, where we are in Fl. Better to just step back for now and enjoy each others company. Internet, Netflix, etc, plus a nice quiet beach to visit should be enough. I too share your concerns for those who must challenge this virus daily. Good luck folks. We're all in this together.

[sarcasmo]

4. Finishing up The Mentalist and thinking about the next series or movie marathon.

[not fooled]

3. Mail order

is gonna go through the roof. How long does the virus live on e.g. cardboard or plastic packaging? USPS and Amazon better test their workers.

[Duppers]

6. Great points!!

[wnylib]

7. Wear gloves when receiving a package

and wipe things down with sanitary wipes when you take them inside. This transfer from objects has crossed my mind, too, from experience.

A few years ago I worked in an office where people on other shifts used our desks (24 hour customer service and trouble-shooting.) When one person got sick, everyone did. A woman on my shift who sat near me had bronchitis for months before finally going to a doctor, so everyone got it. As soon as I recovered, I would get it again, 4 times in one winter.

At the doc's office the 4th time, I begged him for FMLA for 2 weeks so I could avoid a 5th relapse. When I returned in 2 weeks, I insisted on seating far from the carrier, wiped down my desk and phone with sanitary wipes every day, and my hands each time I touched a doorknob, went to the restroom, etc.

We had different times for lunch breaks and I noticed on a 15 minute break that the office typhoid Mary sat at the same table I used at lunch. I switched to a different table and wiped it down first every time.

The relapse pattern broke for me with those measures. Other employees avoided her and finally told her bluntly to see a doctor or stay home. She later said, "Oh, I thought it was just a cold but the doctor said it was bronchitis." i told her I knew what she had from the 4 diagnoses that I got for myself. She just giggled.

I despise inconsiderate people who spread germs. I have no use for employers who do not step in to tell someone to go home, see a doctor, and stop spreading illness.

[MRDAWG]

5. Your story is why we are on regular Medicare. We have had............

about 8 visits to the ER in the last 3 years. With our plan F supplement we have paid zero. Yes our supplement costs a lot but we can budget that. No surprises is worth it.

The battle over nights in the hospital and physical therapy are why I would never go for Medicare Advantage. It is really a "disAdvantage" since it is a private insurance company. I had a heart cath 3 years ago. My Cardiologist did not have to get OK from a private insurance company.
I could go on for an hour, just take my advice.

[albacore]

8. The knee.....

Do the exercises. Do the exercises. Do the exercises.

If they only give you a few PT sessions, have them tell you how to do the most important ones.

Do the exercises.... DO THE EXERCISES.

If it hurts ... take pain meds, and then DO THE EXERCISES. Gotta get back that range of motion.

Had both replaced when I was 55... am 76 now, and both are doing fine. I bike about 2,000 miles per year. Only thing that I can't do is kneel and then sit back on my heels.

Oh... did I mention? DO THE EXERCISES!!!

[Hekate]

12. Thank you. Because I've been sedentary and have no schedule, I have to force myself. Right now...

... I'm elevating the leg by resting my heel on the back of the couch. Just trying to ease the bruising of the calf, which feels like they took a meat-tenderizing hammer to it during surgery. Before that I sat on the edge of the couch and pushed my heels as far as I could toward the couch so the knee would bend, then kept it there awhile. Before I get out of bed in the morning I do all the laying-down exercises I can remember. And so it goes. I just keep trying to remember to do different things as I move around the house.

Before I moved to a new town 2 1/2 years ago, I was at the Y with girlfriends several years, then a couple of years at Pilates, and always there was the beach, which in our area was flat and easy and went on for miles. I didn't get restarted when I moved here, and the beach in particular is rocky and hard to navigate when your knee is seriously giving out. Also, Main Street in this town is very hilly.

I am really counting on this next level of PT, which I hope to keep doing as long as they'll let me. With the coronavirus ... Well, I just don't want to start going to a public gym or studio just now. Altho, come to think of it, my old treadmill no doubt still works

Congratulations on your success, albacore. I haven't been a bicyclist in I can't remember when. My knees were repeatedly injured in college due to some instability that docs couldn't diagnose and apparently wasn't all that interesting. But when my knees weren't swollen up, I was a champion walker, and remained so until plantar fascitis and then arthritis caught up with me.

Didn't mean to go on this way about myself -- but I really appreciate the words of encouragement.

[Skittles]

15. may I ask

what necessitated a new knee - regular wear and tear?

[Hekate]

18. Pretty much. Last summer it went from livable (as long as no stairs) to feeling like it'd been ...

...whacked with a baseball bat. An MRI showed "severe chondromalacia of the patella" plus multiple tears in the meniscus. That level of pain (#10 on the scale, imo) ultimately settled down with excess doses of Advil (which now makes me nauseous), but I was left leaning heavily on a cane all the time and hours of ice packs every day. There really didn't seem to be an alternative, and I wasn't given one.

The other knee is not as bad, and my personal theory is that the left knee took a greater pounding because that leg is about half an inch longer. (In my teens I was taught how to sew my own clothes, and you find out that sort of anomaly when you're fitting a garment. )

My last trip to the rocky beach with my sea-glass-collecting SIL I was so unsteady I was a hazard. That was last June, not long before the "baseball bat."

Thanks, Skittles.

[Skittles]

20. ooh

I have 1/2 inch difference too

wishing you well

[Raftergirl]

16. My good friend

who is on her 70’s had a knee replacement summer of 2018. The first few weeks were very painful but with a bit of time and PT (maybe a month) she was pain free. She is so glad she had it done. By Jan 2019 she was on a 9 month around the world trip with lots of hiking and walking everywhere they want. She is skiing again, too.

Just another suggestion - my friend found it more comfortable to sleep in a reclining chair. They didn’t own one so a friend loaned her theirs.

[albacore]

17. Go... do....

Before my double surgery, I hadn't ridden a bike in 40 years. It's great non-weight-bearing exercise.
Good luck!

[Hekate]

19. Thank you. Who knows?

Hearing people say that exercising before surgery was helpful in recovery, my BIL got me a used stationery bike (free -- the electronic whatsis was broken) . It was surprisingly comfortable to use, except for the seat, which is designed to cut a female in half, and is welded all together so it cannot be changed out. I strapped a pillow to it with an old belt, and learned to lean further back as well.

Further into the next phase of PT when I feel like I won't fall off, I'll try it again.

[47of74]

9. The local medical community HATED dealing with my previous employer's health insurer

I had more than one tell me that said insurance company would fight them on every single thing. That insurance company wanted us to do some tele medicine horseshit and it would magically heal a person no matter what was wrong with a person. A person could have a metal spike protruding out of their head and their response would be oh call a tele-medicine service and the spike will magically come out on its own.

What pissed me off even more was that when I had first started with the company our insurance was really good but by the time I left it was a fucking joke.

My current employer the insurance company seems to be a bit better about these things. So far most of my interactions with them have been positive.

[totodeinhere]

10. At your ages couldn't you go on Medicare anyway? Maybe it would be a better deal than

your husband's private insurance. Maybe your husband's private insurance could become your secondary insurance.

[Hekate]

13. We thought about it when we turned 65 & then more recently, but I think it was going to be $1200+

...per month for us. Anyway, a lot, and that without eye care and dental care. The orthopedic surgeon said he likes Medicare patients because he and his office don't have to fight -- but I wonder how he feels about it now that (courtesy of Trump) joint replacement has been re-defined as outpatient surgery. That Medicare change is what caught us up, because of course Anthem jumped right on the putative cost savings.

So we are taking this for the time being, as the job was an unexpected post-retirement bonus. The company becomes ever more badly managed, but he's insulated from most of the BS by working from home, and he loves working on data bases.

[DFW]

11. Since I can't get German health insurance, people ask me if I have American health insurance.

I tell them I have Blue Cross, so no I don't.

Actually, I could get German health insurance, but they wanted €2500 a month, or about $35,000 a year--and that was the quote in 2011! Today, who knows? Maybe double?

[Hekate]

14. No perfection anywhere then

Stay healthy!