I'll be back from time to time

School has started and I am now in full swing with 200 students--yes I said two hundred. That means I have 200 papers to grade every week besides working full time, being Relief Society President and making Grow Sticks every day.

Blogging must wait. See ya now and then.

Tell me your story...see medical note at bottom

My friend and I have been laughing at our stupid behavior when visiting with different doctors and the stupid behavior of doctor’s offices and insurance companies and we are wondering if there are others who have stories to tell.

If you have an interesting story, please email it to me…grandberry at gmail dot com.

So, I went to the dermatologist to have a full body skin exam. There are a few things I’m concerned about that could be melanomas. There I am totally naked in the doctor’s office (except that silly little paper thing they give you) and he is doing the exam.

Me: I have had this bump on my arm that won’t go away and it has changed colors. I've had it for four months.
Doctor: That’s normal, probably a bug bite
WHAT I DON’T SAY BUT WANT TO: Are you crazy, a bug bit that lasts four months? That can’t be normal.

Me: I have these bumps on my scalp and my hair dresser tells me they look like moles (I find one and tell him where to look, he doesn’t touch it or part my hair to get a better look or anything. And my hair is clean--very clean and shiny)
Doctor: Yup, they are moles, that’s normal
WHAT I DON’T SAY BUT WANT TO: What do you mean they are normal, I have done the research and Google tells me that moles on the scalp can be precursors to melanoma. You need to look closely and be sure none of them are putting my life in danger.

I point out a few more things and then, he proceeds to check me out front and back, as I stand in the room wearing nothing but a smile and that silly paper thing they give you, and then...

Doctor: You have good skin, nothing unusual.
WHAT I DON’T SAY BUT WANT TO: The bumps and things I pointed out may all be normal, but not very sexy.
Me: Okay, thanks doctor
Doctor: I’ll see you in six months
Me: (total silence)

The doctor doesn’t even notice my silence and rushes off to earn his next $500 for a 10 minute exam.

Then I am sitting in my car—fuming—and I remember the wart on my stomach. I have a wart on my stomach the size of a tic tac, and he didn’t even notice that? I was going to have him freeze that right off, but he got me so frustrated that I didn’t even mention it and now, here I am with a very unsexy wart on my stomach…did I mention it is the size of a tic tac…and I am going to have to do the freeze job myself.

So, to recap, bump on my arm—no diagnosis (doctor visit of no value), moles on my scalp, diagnosed by my hair dresser (doctor visit of no value), wart on my stomach, unnoticed by doctor (doctor visit of no value).

And insurance paid for that…

For your information, the American Medical Association says that if you have moles on your scalp you should have pictures taken of them so you can compare and see if they change color or shape.

So, if you have a doctor story, I need it. I am collecting doctor stories. Not sure what I am going to do with them. In case I decide to publish them please include permission to use the story and if you want your name included with the story or not. Again, send them to grandberry at gmail dot com.

I don’t want the name of the doctor or insurance company, but if you have a doctor story or doctor experience or an insurance story of some kind. I am interested. Positive and negative stories are accepted.

Image from http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=1163

Courage--Thursday Thought

"Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use."

Ruth Gordon

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You will recognize her best from this picture

She also looked like this

Smiles--What I Saw Wednesday

I saw SteveE crossed eyed with one eye. He didn't know he could do that.

I saw myself crosseyed with one eye, I've never seen myself do that, kind of hard to see your self when one of your eyes is looking left and one is not.

I saw Tarzan with one lense missing in his sunglasses and he didn't know it. When I pointed it out, he said "I wondered why everything looked so funny." Then he spend severl minutes wondering how long it had been that way and why no one had told him before me. I assured him it was because I love him most of all.

Auto Pay--Tuesday Tip

It seems like such a good idea....

The companies make it so easy for you, right?

Just sign up for auto pay and they will magically take money out of your bank account to pay your bill and you never have to worry about it...

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

Don't be so fast to sign up for auto pay that way. Once you do that, you lose control of the money being taken out of your account.

The company can take your payment out twice, yikes, overdraft.
They can continue taking money out even when you don't owe them money any more, yikes, overdraft.
They can make a typo and take out too much or too little, yikes, over draft and late fees.

The experts say the better way to do this is to set up the auto pay from your bank.

That way you have control over the money. If you want to stop the auto pay, it is a simple matter of you canceling it on your side and not trying to get someone on the receiving end to stop it. I have wanted to stop an auto pay "immediately. Sometimes, the receiver has a 30 day window in which they still have access to your account before they cancel the autopay.

Take my advice on this one, use the banks autopay, not the creditor's autopay.

Thank you very much for listening

My crazy sister-Monday Memories

My sister, Inez, is so fun.

I have fond memories of playing with her when we were children. I don't recall that we argued a lot. We always shared a room and playing in there alone with her was fun.

Our father was in the Air Force. We traveled all over the world and in our travels we each had a collection of something. She collected dolls. Our father made her a cabinet to put the doll collection in it was painted blue and had glass doors. We were not allowed to play with the dolls...

...that is unless we were alone in our room.

We were oh so careful and soon learned we could not play with the Dresden ballerinas because the glass net on their tutus just crumbled in our hands.

I wish we lived closer.

Isn't she just the cutest thing? This is Inez, Mom, Tarzan, and me at the Springerville, Arizona 4th of July parade 2008.

911

They said it for me:

Becky

Ree

Amberly (not a 911 salute, but a reminder of why I love America)

Shellie

Lenn

Choice--Thursday Thought

Once you make a choice, it is your responsibility to make it the right decision.

This is a loose quote of something Paton Manning said on NPR. He was specifially speaking of choosing a college to go to, namely once he chose a college, he had to work to make it the right choice.

I have thought about that for awhile now and I believe that it can be extended to many other choices we make in out lives. Think about it, what choices have you made that now you have to work at to make them the right decision?

Hubble--What I Saw Wednesday

I saw images taken by the Hubble after it was repaired by the Astronauts, so I can still say to the question, "What's up?" "The Hubble Telescope."

Envelopes--Tuesday Tip

We have long been advocates of the envelope method of budgeting.

As you know, I am saving for my PhD, that is a little more than an envelope worth of money, however, the new kitchen door and security screen we want is going to cost us about $800 installed. Here is what we do...

We get an envelope and put a few dollars in it every week. Both of us contribute out of our personal spending money. When we get the money saved up, we buy our doors and hire our installer.

We never feel the pain of a large purchase such as that. Sometimes it takes us longer than other times, but we can always reach our goal.

Once we hired a surveyor for our property, he was going to charge us $600. He finished before we had the whole $600. I got out my envelope and told him that I would give him the $400 we had saved up and the other $200 on payday.

He laughed and said, "You have been saving up for this and you only have $400 in that envelope? I'll take that and call it even."

I love a bargain.

Memorial Day--Monday Memories

I remember when I had time to relax and enjoy Memorial Day and a cookout with friends.

Wisdom--Thursday Thought

With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, "My gracious, look how wise I am!"

I don't know who said this, but it's mine now.

Many Things--What I Saw Wednesday

I saw my 87 year old mother, walking sprightly up the stairs.

I saw blackbirds on a fence
I saw the sun on the lake
I saw Tarzan wishing he had his fishing pole

I saw poop on a sign. No actually I didn't see the poop until I got the picture on the computer. I saw a cool sign on a country store.

I saw wood for Papa's Grow Sticks.

All in all it was a glorious weekend.

Holey Joes--Tuesday Tip

This is a silly tip...it's actually more like Tuesday Trivia, but whatever...

You know those "Ineroffice Envelopes"? Like these? Welllllll, here is some funny trivia for you.

These were invented by the military (of course we believe it was the Air Force that invented them).

In the Air Force they are referred to as "Holey Joes." 'Cuz of those holes.

Did you ever wonder why they have holes in them? Well, I just found out today from Tarzan...

When the military was passing top secret information around the office in these Holey Joes, they needed to be sure there was nothing left in the envelope, thus, the holes.

Isn't that kewl?