You never know WHAT'S going to happen in the Mik Family! Follow along as they cope with three growing children, a boatload of animals and of course, living in the middle of nowhere!
Showing posts with label United HealthCare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United HealthCare. Show all posts
As many of you already know, I work for United Healthcare. I happened to discover a cool program through our company intranet that would allow me to do some traveling and meet some of the people that have United Healthcare for their insurance needs. I was immediately intrigued and volunteered for the program! After all, the company pays for everything, so why not?! The program has me traveling to various open enrollment events at businesses that have United Healthcare for their insurance. I attend the benefit fair and help answer people's questions about the insurance their company offers through United Healthcare. It's a great opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of our members. The department I'm currently in is "behind the scenes" so I don't have any interaction with our members any more, and I was missing some of that personal contact. I flew to Denver last month, and just this week, I went to Virginia Beach. Even though I was traveling for work, there was a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday to do some sightseeing, which is an awesome perk! I flew out of Central Wisconsin Airport, so didn't have far to drive, but because my flight out was at 6:30 in the morning, I had to be up Tuesday morning at 3 a.m., (a/k/a "the crack of stupid!") to leave by 4:15 a.m. and get to the airport by 5 a.m. (90 minutes prior to takeoff is recommended for our little airport). After a three hour layover in Detroit, I was in Virginia Beach by 2:00 p.m. Lucky for me, it was about 20 degrees warmer than usual, so it was about 80 and very humid. The Norfolk Airport is a lot smaller than I expected, but that was a nice change of pace from Minneapolis and Detroit! I picked up my rental car and headed to my hotel in Virginia Beach. As I was listening to Google Maps tell me how to get there, I was thinking to myself that it is absolutely amazing that we were able to do that kind of traveling with just a map years ago! It's really amazing that we were able to figure anything out with just a piece of paper! Thank goodness for progress, as I LOVE being able to use GPS to get around in strange, large cities! BUT, I must admit, one of the nicest things about being home is traveling on familiar roads! I know lots of you have done lots of flying, but it's still new and fun to me, so I had to take some pics from the plane. I just love when you get above the clouds and into the glorious sunshine! How can anyone deny there is a God when you see something like this?! Just the fact that you are hurtling through the sky at 500+ miles per hour at 35,000 feet is a miracle in and of itself!
My open enrollment event went very well. United Healthcare sends the documentation and other items needed directly to the company, so the only thing I had to bring with me was the tablecloth. Here is how my table looked. I had little tooth shaped containers of dental floss to give away, and we raffled an eletronic toothbrush to the employees. If you've ever been to an open enrollment event, this will look pretty normal/familiar!
I did have some extra time and was able to enjoy the beach a little bit! Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment!
Because it was late in the season, the pier itself was closed, so I wasn't able to take a walk on it, but I did peer through the gates (see what I did there, I "peered" at the "pier!" HA!)
Of course, being the bird fanatic that I am, I had to take some pictures of the seagulls! I think you'd be disappointed if I didn't!
A storm had rolled through as I was driving along Pacific Boulevard and it poured! You can see that storm behind the pier.
It seems all the rage to take pics of your feet in various locals, so here you go! The water was much warmer than I expected it to be, but still a tad chilly.
It was fairly windy out, which apparently brought out the local surfers! Certainly not the size of wave I would associate with surfing, but then again, I probably couldn't stand on a surfboard on dry ground, so who am I to say?!
I did not book a hotel on the beach (I was about 6 blocks away), but I bet I could have gotten a smokin' hot deal on one! I'll have to remember that if I'm able to go to this same event next year! I think this is a pretty cool picture, though, especially since there are barely any people on the beach.
I'm really not one to take selfies, but I couldn't resist taking one with the ocean in the background!
I'm not sure what this creature is, but it was washed up on the beach. I figure it got washed up during high tide and couldn't get back in the water. I do believe it was quite dead, but I wasn't about to touch it! I assume it's some sort of ray? I'm sure someone will tell me!
I never thought I'd be working for such a huge company, but I must say, there are some incredible opportunities that are just not available at smaller businesses! I don't do enough flying to not enjoy it, and really look at all this as a fabulous adventure! I was a little sad that Greg was not able to enjoy the beach with me, and it wasn't the same without him, but being gone really makes him appreciate me and all that I do that much more, especially since I telecommute, so am home all the time. I could tell that Sophie really missed me, too, as she was quite needy all day today. (Sophie is our Newfoundland, for those that don't know.) She will normally "visit" me a couple times a day while I'm in my office working but today, she came to visit at least six times! I guess she wanted to make sure I was really there. And now, for a funny story! When my event was over on Wednesday, I decided to go for a drive. I was headed north on Pacific Avenue and was enjoying looking at the houses that were situated so close to the ocean. After a while, I saw a sign for a lighthouse and lighthouse tours. I thought, oh hey, that's cool, I'll go tour a lighthouse! So, the lighthouse is on a military base, which didn't really mean anything special to me. I got to the entrance of Fort Story, which looked like a typical military installation. I didn't think much of it, because I'd been at Fort Leonard Wood and civilians are (or were?) allowed to drive around unattended and visit the museums, etc. So, I pulled up to the guard and the conversation went like this:
Guard: Hi, ma'am, you're looking a little lost? Me: Well, I'm here on a business trip and I saw the signs for a lighthouse and lighthouse tours, so I thought I'd check it out. Guard: Yes, ma'am, but the problem is that the tours are by tour bus and the last one is at 3 p.m. (It was 4:30 p.m. at this time). So, this is what is going to happen. I'm going to put a cone behind your car. You are going to give me your driver's license, and I'm going to walk a short distance from the building here. You are then going to make a U-turn between me and the building and will stop at the building and I will walk back and hand you back your driver's license.
Me: OK. Let me just get my license out for you. (He's watching me dig in my purse for my license, and I'm thinking to myself, should I tell him that I am not armed and I am just getting my license out? I didn't say anything, because I also didn't want to arouse suspicion! LOL ) I handed him my license and he walked a distance from the building to give me room to make my U-turn. Of course, I start to go too far, thinking I should make my turn behind him (obviously not paying attention!), and he hollers at me "BETWEEN ME AND THE BUILDING!" Whoops! I whip the wheel more and am able to make the U-turn between him and the building. I stop and wait for my license and the guard tells me to have a nice day. This just cracked me up! All I wanted to do was visit a lighthouse! Maybe the signs should say something about "guided" tours, etc. Oh, well. It's always an adventure and I had a great time, even if I didn't get to see the lighthouse! I thought about taking a picture of the entrance to Fort Story, but for some reason, I thought that might be frowned upon! Ha, ha, ha! Hope everyone had a great couple of days! I know I sure did! God's Blessings to all! Julie
We were really hoping it wouldn't come to this. Greg has always been so strong when it comes to cancer treatments. He totally amazes me! It's been getting harder and harder to eat. He's had three weeks of radiation so far (15 days total), and it simply hurts to You know what it's like when you have strep, or some other kind of bad sore throat and you don't want to eat? Well, multiply that by 100 and you may have just the slightest glimpse of how Greg's throat feels.
He posted this on Facebook today: How bout an update from Mik Mission Control and progress @ the 1/3 marker of "Flight of the Phoenix" I just named that!!.........Stage 2 of 3 and where we are at!!..........We reached the decision to go with Straight Tube Feeding, or STF as I just decided to call it......Due to daily radiation treatments, I can no longer swallow nor desire to, knowing that I can't.........So for those who want to be in the know, there ya have it!!............Everything now goes down the Tube.........What fun can I have with this???..........One last note..........My last meal was Pizza......My first meal back will be Pizza!!........Thank you all so much for all your Prayers, Thoughts and Wishes.....These I share with others in need...........Circle of Hands......
So, there you go. That's the amazing attitude he has! I can't wait until the day I can post that he's eating pizza again!
We're working with the durable medical equipment company and the insurance company now to get the proper authorizations for the enteral feedings. Hopefully, that will go smoothly! If not, we have our awesome Nurse Case Manager who will work her magic to make sure that everything is taken care of. It's now been three weeks since I started telecommuting and I must say, I really DO love working from home! I was able to switch my shift to 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and it's really incredible to be done working at 2:30! I need to work on my scheduling though, as I still tend to take my lunch at noon, and then, suddenly, there's only two hours left in my day! It's just going to take some getting used to. I now set my alarm, just to make sure I wake up in time, and I'm still usually awake right around the time my alarm goes off at 5:30. Working from home has really been the best choice I could have made! I'm pretty sure that Greg is not going to be able to drive himself to his radiation for much longer, so hopefully we'll be able to get later appointments so I can take him when I'm done working. That would really work out great, as we wouldn't need to ask friends and family to help us out. But, we will just have to wait and see what happens. I'm not sure how many folks who read my blog know about our old barn that's been collapsing over the last year or so, but our silo recently collapsed, too. Because our neighbors have an easement through our yard to get to their fields, we had to find a way to move the silo, as it was blocking their access road. We were finally able to get that done last week, with some help from our awesome neighbors! I'm only going to post one picture here, and if you want to view the rest, you can view my album on Facebook. Even if you're not my Facebook friend, you can still click on this link: Facebook Silo Photo Album.
Oh, I forgot to mention Mother's Day! Aaron and Rachel were here for the weekend, and it was AWESOME to see them, as we haven't seen them since January. They had to leave by noon on Sunday, so we decided that we should all go out for breakfast. We went to a great restaurant in Wausau called The Blue Willow. They have awesome breakfasts! Erica was able to meet us, so for the first time since January, our whole family was together! It was just fabulous to have everyone together! Speaking of Mother's Day, I have to tell you what my awesome kids did for me! Erica bought me 12 personal training sessions at Snap Fitness, as I've been working on losing some weight before Aaron and Rachel's wedding. Aaron, Rachel and Abby got me the Food Dehydrator that I've been wanting and a boatload of spices, etc. to make jerky! So, what's the first thing we did? Why, make jerky, of course! Abby brought out two of her venison roasts and we were able to make a boatload of jerky!
I plan on doing a LOT more than making jerky, as I have some herbs already planted that I intend to dry. I also want to try some apple slices, potato slices, and all kinds of other stuff! It should be fun! So, that's about it for now. Nothing much else is going on right now. Hope you all are doing well! As always, prayers are appreciated! Julie If you feel led to help with Greg's gas and other expenses while he is unable to work, please see --> Greg's GoFundMe
I have to start this post with this statement: THANK GOODNESS WE HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE! I've been keeping a close eye on Greg's claims since his diagnosis with esophageal cancer and boy, oh, boy, this is some expensive stuff! Last year, his medical bills totaled about $29,000 (including pharmacy). That's not too bad considering he has permanent nerve damage from shingles (lots of meds for that), a pacemaker/defibrillator for congestive heart failure and of course, his history of cancer. We have my insurance through United HealthCare (my employer), and he has Medicare Part B. He had enough issues that when he became eligible for Part B, we knew we had to get it. Having Medicare Part B has made a huge difference for us and even though we have to pay for it, it has saved us quite a bit of money. My insurance is primary and whatever mine doesn't cover, Medicare does. Pretty awesome having that double coverage, especially when I tell you how much stuff is costing! So far this year, Greg's medical bills total $88,000. The bulk of that is from March 1st to May 1st. The day he saw the radiation oncologist, got his tattoos and had his "mask" made came to a total of $22,000! I don't know about you, but that seems like a boatload of money to me! I called the hospital this morning because I had some questions on his bills. I've been waiting for the chemo and radiation bills to hit my insurance, as I'm really curious as to how much that's going to cost. I'm really kind of obsessed about how much all this is costing, probably because I know insurance is going to cover it all. Sooooooooooooooo, I found out the cost for radiation! Aren't you excited by that? I know I was! Ha! Let's start with this . . . I am once again going to be married to the Million Dollar Man! His radiation treatments cost $23,000 EACH! At 5 x week, that comes to $115,000 per week, and a total of $805,000. That's $4,600 per MINUTE or $76.66 per SECOND! Those numbers just boggle my mind! His chemotherapy, on the other hand, appears to be rather inexpensive, at only $7,500. He'll have four treatments, so we're only talking about a measly $30,000. I'm sure, with all the other appointments he's going to have, and all the additional CT scans, and other stuff they'll want to do, that number is going to rise significantly. Aside from that, I had a great day today. I started working at 6:15 a.m. and continued until 5:30. Greg hasn't been able to work much, and money is getting very tight, so I need to take all the overtime I can get. It's so nice working in my home office. The cats are also enjoying my home office. Because it's in the lower level, the window is at ground level. The cats love to sit ono the shelf and watch the little sparrows. I threw some bird seed out in front of the window to entice the birds and it has worked marvelously! It seems we also have a little mouse that is enjoying the bird seed, and is driving the cats absolutely crazy! Greg had his dressing changed on his PICC line yesterday and had the nurse take a picture for me! Wasn't that sweet! Ha, ha, ha! So, of course, I'm going to share with you! That's just the kind of wonderful person I am, you know.
So, that's about all for today. Hope everyone has a great evening! Blessings to all! Julie If anyone wants to help: Greg's GoFundMe
We went to see the radiation oncologist again yesterday because we had to have a "mask" made for Greg and have him get his tattoos for radiation. The reason for the mask is because of where the tumor is located, he needs to keep his head perfectly still for the radiation. The only way to assure that is to have a mask made. We had no idea how this was done, so this was a learning experience for us! You'd think, with this being the third time he's had cancer, that we'd be old hands at all this, but there is a LOT to learn with this one! This first picture is of the "mask" in the warming tray. Greg was warned that it would be kind of warm when they first put it on him, but he said it wasn't too bad.
Here, they are fitting the correct "trays" (for lack of a better word) under Greg's neck and head, so that he's comfortable during the radiation treatment.
Lifting the "mask" out of the tray to place on Greg's face.
The two techs are helping to form the mask to Greg, and his Radiation Oncologist is helping.
The mask is situated, and now Greg has to go through the CT scanner so they get a perfectly accurate reading of where the radiation beam needs to be aimed.
In these next two pictures, you can see where the radiation will be aimed.
In this picture, I zoomed in on the "bolts" that are attached to the mask and lock onto the table that Greg is laying on and will keep his head from moving during his radiation treatments.
And yes, it is VERY creepy! Once we left the radiation oncologist, we had to head over to visit the surgeon. As you've previously read, we pretty much ruled out esophageal surgery, as it's just too difficult. Well, the surgeon told us just how difficult it is. Think of a scale of 1-10 with10 being the most difficult. A gallbladder would be a two. Open heart surgery would be a six. Surgery on the pancreas would be a 7. Surgery on the esophagus would be a ten! You'd pretty much hae to be in perfect physical condition to withstand this type of surgery, and we all know that that is not Greg's case. So, this only cemented the fact that we simply can NOT consider any sort of surgery. None of our doctors have said otherwise, and are most certainly not pushing us to attempt that option. The other reason we needed to see the surgeon -- who by the way is GORGEOUS! Ha! Believe it or not, but Greg thought so too, and even called him McDreamy! LOL! -- but I digress. We went to see Dr. McDreamy because he is the one that is going to be placing the feeding tube for Greg. As previously stated, he needs to have this done prior to actually "needing" it, because by the time he "needs" it, he will be too weak to have the procedure. So, tomorrow (April 20, 2017), we are scheduled for Greg to get the feeding tube. I almost wish he was getting the Hickman Catheter first, because then he wouldn't have to be stabbed to get the IV in! But, it is what it is. After the procedure tomorrow, we have to meet with a dietitian so she can show me what and how to do "feed" Greg. I ended up in another fight with the insurance company over that. The woman that I was speaking to was trying to tell me that it would not be covered. She kept thinking that we were going for a nutritional consultation, which is only covered for diabetics, etc. She refused to understand that this was to TEACH ME HOW TO FEED MY HUSBAND WHO HAS ESOPHAGEAL CANCER AND WILL BE UNDERGOING RADIATION AND CHEMOTHERAPY AND NEEDS THE FEEDING TUBE BECAUSE HE WILL BE UNABLE TO EAT AT SOME POINT IN TIME! She offered to have Greg's case reviewed by a nurse, but it would still be 24 to 48 hours before a decision was made. We just learned of the surgery on 04.18.17 at 2 p.m., and the surgery is to take place on 04.20.17. Forty-eight hours is still too long! She then told me that there was nothing more she could do. I absolutely LOST IT at that point. I told her that I hoped she never had to deal with something like this, and that if she did, she never had to deal with someone like herself, who was absolutely NO HELP AT ALL! I then called our case manager and left it all in her hands. I should have just done that in the first place, but who'd have thought it would be such a huge deal?! For crying out loud! If they had just READ what we actually needed, there wouldn't have been such a huge issue! After advising Jeanne of the problem, she took over (and even had to go to her manager) and got it taken care of and we're covered. Whew! So, that's the latest. I'll be taking my camera to the hospital tomorrow for more pictures. I wonder if I'll be able to convince McDreamy to have someone take pictures in the operating room! Ha! If you're interested, and really want to see the gory details, here's a video all about inserting a feeding tube!
Blessings to all! Julie PS, our lovely daughter, Erica, has set up a GoFundMe page to help us defray the costs of travel daily for radiation and other healthcare costs. If you feel compelled to help us out, we certainly appreciate it! We know that our God is truly an awesome God and He will make sure that everything is taken care of! Greg's GoFundMe
Well, today's the day. The day we find out what Greg's treatment options are and here I sit with my limpy limbs -- I had a training session with Ian yesterday, so my arms feel like rubber. Greg told me to take my limpy limbs to bed! LOL So, it's 5 in the morning and I'm unable to sleep. I was exhausted yesterday because I hardly got any sleep on Sunday because of massive thunderstorms. My weather radio went off four times! Here I thought I'd be able to sleep longer, seeing as I didn't have to get up with an alarm, but my body said nope, not happening. So many things are running through my head right now, and most of them are not good. I've mentioned in the past that Easter time scares me because so many bad things have happened at this time of year. This Thursday, Holy Thursday, marks 25 years since Greg was first diagnosed with cancer. I'll never forget that day. I'm not going to rehash it here. Suffice it to say, I was a terrified young wife, only 25 years old, with a one year old son. Fast forward to April 12, 2000 (Aaron's 9th birthday, by the way), and we find Greg having a bone marrow transplant. Tomorrow marks 17 years since his transplant. The day his brother saved his life. Since that first diagnosis, we had two miracle babies (chemo usually makes you sterile!), built a house, moved up north, opened and closed our own business, started raising chickens (who'd have thunk it!), and best of all, found new life in Jesus! Now, almost 17 years to the day of his transplant, we are heading to the Oncologist office to find out how we are going to battle esophageal cancer. Greg is back to his usual (cancer fighting) self. Let's get this going! Whatever needs to be done, he does, usually with a smile while I'm the one cringing. It's a little different this time, because my girls are older. They were too young 17 years ago to really understand how horrific that time in our lives was and how scared I really was. Now, they are adults, and they are scared. While they were used to health issues with Greg, that was just his heart. I know that sounds callous, but when you have congestive heart failure, your family learns how to deal with frequent hospitalizations. This is different. I'm not sure how Aaron is feeling about this. He was 9 when Greg had his transplant. I know he remembers a lot of what happened. I just don't know how he's feeling about all this. To be honest, I'm scared, too. Who wouldn't be? We try to be tough and say, well, this is our third time dealing with cancer, we're used to it. But you know what, we're NOT used to it. No one EVER "gets used to it." So, here I am rambling at 5 a.m., just waiting for time to pass before our appointment at noon.
If you read my previous post, you know that I'd been having problems with our insurance approving Greg's PET scan. I had been trying to figure out a way to get the attention of someone higher up in the company and not coming up with anything. Of course, I'd been praying and asking God for guidance. This morning, when I logged on at work, I saw on our company intranet site an article about National Doctor's Day. I clicked on the article and decided that I had to leave a comment! There is absolutely no doubt about it. This was GOD directing me! Here's what I posted:
Within two hours of my post, I received an email from a woman stating that she had escalated my issue!!!!! About ten minutes later, I had an IM (instant message) from the Director of the Cancer Team of OptumHealth (owned by United HealthGroup). He stated that another woman was going to be reaching out to me. Within 30 minutes, I had another call from someone at United HealthCare. Jeanne is part of a team that helps its employees deal with issues such as ours. Jeanne was AWESOME to deal with! She spent most of her afternoon contacting people within United HealthCare to find out what is going on and how to get this moving ahead. When I spoke with her at 4:00, she advised that at 2:00, Greg's prior authorization request for the PET scan was placed in URGENT status. That meant that they had to have a decision within THREE hours. I received a call from Greg's doctor exactly three hours later advising that the PET scan had been approved! YAY! When I was speaking with Jeanne, she advised that she had received numerous emails from "higher ups" at United HealthCare and they are watching Greg's case! The doctor that I had spoken to earlier in the day also advised that he contacted the head doctor at United HealthGROUP about our situation, as well! United HealthGroup is #6 on the Fortune 500 and has an operating income of more than $11 BILLION dollars! The HEAD DOCTOR of that company is now watching our case! No one can tell me that God's hand was not involved! Praise God that everything has worked out and we now have numerous people watching over us and making sure that Greg's treatment (whatever it may be), is taken care of properly by our insurance company! THAT is the company I work for! Thank you, United HealthCare!
