Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Lots to do over the next few days! I have a meeting with someone about Florida Medigap plans as Massachusetts specific ones are not valid in other states. I still need to highlight my roots and I want to start painting the bar stools. I took them apart last night so I am ready to begin. I want them finished by end of day Sunday as we are going to Fort Lauderdale for a night on Monday, and have friends arriving for a visit on Tuesday.

The weather continues to be beautiful but windy. Maybe I will go to the pool for a while between paint coats.

Not much else to report. I haven't really been eating less, but not more. I haven't stepped on the scale since 2/1 so that's not good but my clothes don't feel any tighter.

Have a safe and healthy Wednesday!

My horrendous sore throat has morphed into a cold this morning. 60 hours later! Germs are weird. Still have the sore throat (but not the tear inducing pain from yesterday), no more fever, snotty, sneezing, and a cough. I took a Sudafed and am feeling okay. I did another Covid test this morning to be sure, but it's just a bad cold.

I'm dangerously low on Diet Coke so I ordered some from Costco along with shrimp wonton soup. An hour and 15 minutes from order to delivery! Magical.

Otherwise camped out in my bed watching tv after wiping down all the surfaces, handles, banister with Clorox wipes in an effort to not share germs with my friend.

A bad cold doesn't sound like fun, but it's good your throat pain isn't so acute anymore...

My day started off getting up 45 minutes early to get to an early morning IEP meeting that lasted 2+ hours, cutting out my only prep time for the week. This was one of those tricky meetings with reluctant parents from a foreign country and very different (misogynistic) culture. Poor kid has a Full Scaled IQ score so low it's rarely seen and the parents want me giving him "regular" 3rd grade work. Part 2 of the meeting is next week during which the school will make its recommendations. Not going to be an easy meeting.

No meds for my back today. It still hurts, but so far so good.

CC, glad your cold has morphed to a more bearable stage. Hopefully, you're over the hump.

Liz, I hope to have your incentive to get things done when I am retired. I love your initiative!

Ultrasounds for the girls today to check for pups. Fingers crossed.

Poor little boy. Imagine the pressure from his parents all the time to be "normal".

I hope the parents can see there way to accepting the help an IEP can bring. I once tutored the son of some immigrant parents, and it was immediately apparent to me he had a learning disability. I contacted some people in my district, and it turns out his parents refused services after an evaluation when he was much younger. Obviously they wanted their son to succeed, they were paying me to meet with him twice a week. But a special ed label didn't sit well with their culture. Now he was in high school, and I could help him with some things, but no where near the kind of help he could have had.

Liz, I have to say trying to figure out Medicare scares me! DH just turned 62, so we have a few years still, but it seems like some kind of labyrinth.

Still cold and rainy here, in the mid 40s. They really should move the high school golf season to the fall. The kids lose so much of their season to cold, windy rainy days. Last night's weather report said we've had 2, yes, 2 days of sun so far this month. I looked into the cost of flying somewhere sunny for just the weekend, but airfares are still spring break high.

Work was fine, protein plan is going well. Breakfast is the trickiest. I might feel less fatigued, but that's hard to measure, and also track everything that feeds into fatigue. But, I am satisfied with what I'm eating.

DH is finally feeling better, but I don't think we will go work out tonight. Hopefully tomorrow.

It is a labyrinth! It just floors me how all the very intelligent people I know were as confused as I was in the beginning. I did exactly the wrong thing when I enrolled deceased DH but thank goodness it didn't bankrupt me. But it did narrow down our care options. I learned a lot more about it when discussing coverages with the people in the Alzheimer's support group. Most states have free counseling usually available through the senior centers. A high school friend of mine was one (called a Shine counselor in Massachusetts). She was REALLY helpful in discussing what it all meant and the options (I did that after enrolling DH when I realized the limitations of his plan - but I couldn't change his afterwards because of his pre-existing condition). When you go to a session offered by a company like Blue Cross, they are selling you on their products while educating you. And Medicare.Gov is useless in helping you understand your full range of options and the differences.

My dad was never on any medication until he was into his 70s so when he signed up for Medicare, he thought why get a prescription plan when I won't even take Advil? Did you know the penalty for not signing up for that when you're eligible is eternally tacked onto your premiums? Crazy!

The same thing happened with my BIL. He never had anything wrong with him until 3 years after he went on Medicare when he developed a heart condition so he got hit with the penalty to add a prescription plan (hint: since acceptance is guaranteed when you enroll you need to try to get the best medical plan and prescription coverage you can afford because you may not be able to change later).