Medical

A Day Away

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An unusual day, today – I didn’t take a single photograph!  I was away most of the day, and don’t even know if the deer visited.

I had an appointment in another city; it’s still an hour’s drive away, but a much smaller city, so once there, it’s quicker to get places.  I left early, so that I could go to where I could print out photos for my mother, along with some 8x10s for ourselves to frame.  I chose a lot of images to show her when I visit – my daughter will be coming along with her laptop – but printed out “only” 14 of them for my mother.  Along with the deer she asked for, I included some birds and cats, and even one of my daughters with their completed snowman.

The staff member that helped me commented on the photos, so I told her a bit about our set up, and that they were all taken through our living room window.  I picked the 1 hour pick up option when I was done, thinking I would pay for them, go for lunch, then come back – glad that I’d left as early as I did.

Turns out that the 8x10s were done before I even finished paying for them, and the 4x6s for my mother were in process.  The other staff member at the counter that processed my payment brought over the 8x10s and commented on them – two deer close ups, and a redpoll on a twig.  There was another customer using one of their machines that heard me talking about the deer, and very excitedly asked if she could see my photos! :-D  Turns out she gets deer in her yard, too, but isn’t able to get photos of them.  So she was really excited to see them.

That done, I had lunch and hung out until it was time to find where my appointment was.  It was my first ever counseling session, to talk with someone about the stress issues I’ve been having, even after leaving the toxic environment that was causing it.  Thankfully, I’ve been able to consult with my lawyer and another expert, so I’ve got a plan of action, should things come to a head.  I told the counselor that I seriously considered cancelling the appointment because that, alone, made a huge difference in reducing the stress levels.  However, I told her I’ve also seen many people over the years dealing with stress and not going to someone for help with it and, over time, it ended up causing them more problems, whether it was not getting grief counseling after a tragic loss, or domestic situations, or for any number of things.  I didn’t want to be “that person”.   Despite the push in recent years to encourage people to view their mental health the same way as their physical health, there is still a huge resistance to actually seeing a professional about it, largely due to stigma.  Me, I’ve reached that stage in my life where I really don’t care what anyone thinks of me, and if they give me grief (or bully me in any other way), I am no longer the shrinking violet that backs off and slinks away, like I used to.  Now, I stand up and challenge people who do that, no matter who they are or what status or titles they might have.

Bullies really don’t like it when people stand up to them.  Unfortunately, it happens so rarely, they usually get away with it, and just move on to the next “victim.”

Or in other instances, try to exact their revenge though other means.  Which is basically the problem I’m having now.

I think it was a good session.  There really isn’t a lot she could do for me, but she was able to give me some resources, ask questions and listen to why I was there, and I am welcome to book another appointment any time I feel I need to.

I was done early enough that I could go and visit my sister at her farm.  I haven’t been there in years.  It was good to see her, and the changes they’ve made in their house since I was last there.

Female Redpoll

I showed my sister the photos I’d printed out and, since I had the USB stick, I brought that out for her to look at the rest on her computer.

She was surprised by a photo of a redpoll like the one pictured her.e

The surprise being the yellow/copper cap, rather than a red cap.

For some reason, my thought was that this was the difference between the males and females; the males have the red cap, the females being less bright, so they had the yellow cap.  I’d forgotten that the males have a red chest as well as the red cap, while the females have just the red cap.

So what is the one with the yellow cap?  It’s clearly the same bird.  There’s no other real difference.  I had a photo of one with a red cap, too, so we compared back and forth, and they’re the same, except for the colour of the cap.  We were seeing a lot of the ones with the yellow cap; it’s partly why I originally misidentified them as chipping sparrows, because in my own bird book, which doesn’t have redpolls at all, this was the one that looked the most like it.

She dug out her bird book, but it has illustrations only.  Male, female, juvenile.  The juvenile has no bright colours at all.

After talking about it, her conclusion was that they might be juveniles that are in a transition stage from having no bright cap at all, to their adult colours.  She is probably right.

If any birders are reading this and can fill me in, I’d love to hear from you!

I wasn’t able to stay at my sister’s for long, unfortunately.  My husband had called in some prescriptions. I wasn’t sure when the pharmacy closed, and it was nearly an hour’s drive away.  I wanted to get my own medical insurance coverage set up, too, now that we’ve been assured my coverage is all set.

It’s a good thing I left when I did.  I got there 15 minutes before they closed.

I still don’t have insurance coverage.

The first person tried to set it up on my file, but couldn’t get it to work.  So someone else came over to the computer to try other things.  She couldn’t get it to work, either.

So, it’s back to talking to my husband’s employer and their insurance carrier.

At least I was able to get his meds, though when it was rung in, the pharmacy was officially closed.

By the time I got home, I’d driven about 200 km in total, and had been gone for more than 7 hours.  About 2 1/2 hours of that was just driving.

Yeah, that’s a bit of a down side to living in the boonies. :-D

The Re-Farmer

 

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?

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Before I get into the bureaucratic battle of the day, I will start with the pleasant things.

Critters.

Mama and the twins came out first, today, but at one point, we had all 5 deer hanging around.

2018-03-02.three.whitetail

Then Mama and the twins chased off Hungry Girl and Barbecue, who hung out in the spruces for a while.  Barbecue tried to come back, but one of the twins chased him off.  Then Mama and the twins left, and Hungry Girl and Barbecue had a chance to eat.

2018-03-02.whitetail.deer1

I had to include this one.  It looks like he’s shouting!

2018-03-02.whitetail.deer2

Mama and the twins hadn’t gone far, though, and hung out in the garden area for a while.  When the twins started to come back, it was Hungry Girl’s turn to chase them off.  Back and forth it went, until they were done eating.  Then the birds got their turn!

2018-03.grosbeak

The grosbeaks really like the black oil seeds.  There aren’t as many in the deer feed, and we didn’t get one of the big sacks of just that type of birdseed this time around, so we’re seeing less of them, already.

2018-03-02.redpoll

Quite the drama! :-D

That redpoll looks like it’s trying to figure out just what those crazy deer are doing!

In the middle of all this, I finally got a call back from Vital Statistics.  We’ve been playing telephone tag for a while.  The main question she had for me involved our address, of all things.  I included both our postal address and our physical address.  She went with just the PO Box. Then there was all the confirming of names and spellings; my husband’s name became the issue, because she wanted to put in his first name, as it is on his birth certificate, but that’s not the name he uses, nor is it what he would have put on the form when we got married, nor anywhere else.  Then there is the whole “birth name” and “name before marriage” part.  I told her about the problems I was having because of the names, so she ended up deciding to drop my husband’s first name completely.  That done, she said she would finish processing it today, and it’d be done!  Yay!

Then I got a phone call on my cell phone.  Yeah.  It was my old doctor’s office, once again calling the wrong number.  At least it rang, this time, though she couldn’t hear me and I had to call back on the land line.

Turns out that they can’t do debit Visa, after all.

They also don’t take electronic transfers.

So I’m going to have to find a check.  *sigh*

My younger daughter and I went into town again, to pick up some things we forgot yesterday.  We took the opportunity to play Pokemon Go, and it was actually warm enough that we walked over to a couple of gyms.  One of them is right along the lakeside that, in the summer, you can walk to rather easily, but in the winter, there is no path.  When we walked over, though, we would see a trampled path in the snow from the other players that have made their way to it, too.  With things half melted, it was a little rough and hard on the ankles, but we managed not to slip and twist anything. :-D

Among our errands, she picked up some birthday beer for her sister; a splurge on some Innis and Gunn.  Not sure how I ended up with daughters who like beer.  I could never acquire a taste for it, myself.  Same with wine.  Maybe it’s because I got traumatized by the cheap swill I drank back when I was a teen pretending to be cool at bush parties. LOL

When I got home, there was a message waiting for me.  From Vital Statistics.  She wanted me to call back.

Telephone tag it is, once again!

So the two things I thought were finally done…

Aren’t.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Hello, March!

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Ah, what a lovely spring day we are having today!  As I write this, our temperature is at +2C.  That’s right, I’ve had to add a + to the temperature!  We are above freezing temperatures right now, and it’s already evening.

Awesome.

Of course, we’re also getting storm warnings for Sunday – when we’re also supposed to be above freezing for temperatures, so it’s a heavy snowfall that would happen, if it does happen.  From talking to my dad over the years, these snowfalls tend to miss the farm, and hit farther south.  So we’ll see.

The melting snow has left the deer feeding area looking much bigger!  All the detritus of past feedings is being revealed, so the spots where I’ve been leaving little piles of seeds are now looking much bigger.  And blacker.

This morning, Hungry Girl and Barbecue came over before I’d gone out to freshen up the feed.  I tried to take photos, but the camera wouldn’t work.  Checking the display, I saw what looked like CHR.  Or maybe CHA.  Anyhow, I figured the battery needed to be charged.  So I took the one from the camera to charge and popped on the extra.

Which was also almost dead, even though I had fully charged it not long ago.  I still thought there was enough charge to take some photos, but not; I still got the same display.

So I missed getting photos of them while the batteries charged.

It turned out not to be the batteries.

Somehow, the memory card got locked.  The photos I took yesterday are still there.  I copied them, but I can’t remove them, nor can I take more photos on the card.

I have no idea how this happened, or even where.  It could have happened on the camera itself, or on the desktop.

I will have to investigate further.

I did, however, get a nice photo of a blue jay, at least.

2018-03-01.bluejay

I got a call from my husband’s doctor this morning about a change in his medication.  (I appreciate that they will talk directly to me about it, so I don’t have to interrupt his lie-downs.)  The new medication is covered by insurance, so he gave me information and instructions about it, then sent the prescription to the pharmacy so I could pick it up today.  Rather nice having a prescription that we don’t have to physically pick up at the clinic and take to the pharmacy within a limited time period!

So my younger daughter and I headed into town to pick it up (and get some Pokemon Go in).

While there, I checked to see if my own file was successfully transferred from our previous pharmacy (it was) and if it had been filled (it was).  So I got both at the same time.

One of the pharmacists and a trainee spent some time with me, making sure I had the needed information about the updated medication, the dose, when to take it, etc.  They even opened the package to look at the paperwork to make sure the dose measurements on the injector pen matched the previous version of the medication.  It did, but the dose my husband is supposed to be on is quite high, so the box will only last a few days.  It was decided to leave it as is, for starters, then in the future we can get multiples of boxes, so I’ll have fewer trips into town.

Meanwhile I glanced at my own prescriptions and choked at the price tag.

The insurance coverage wasn’t used.

So I let them know and gave them my insurance card.  Once done with my husband’s prescription, they started fixing my file.

It’s a good thing I brought an insulated bag and asked for ice packs.

I think I spent at least half an hour waiting, as they first tried to get my insurance set up on my file in their system, which failed, and the pharmacist then called the insurance company directly.

Long story short.

They couldn’t get it to work.

At the insurance company’s end, the person was going to talk to someone else, but that someone else was on lunch, so she would call the pharmacy back later.

The pharmacist, meanwhile, felt that the problem was at their end, not the insurance company.  I could pay the full price and get reimbursed (nope; we may have just got paid, but reimbursement wouldn’t happen until it got fixed, and who knows how long that would take), or she was willing to transfer the prescription to the competing pharmacy across the street to be filled.

Yeah!  Really!

I decided to not get them for now (it’s a good thing they’re not a vital prescription!!).  She said she would call me if she got a call back from the insurance company.  I mentioned coming back tomorrow, but she suggested I call, first.

So what should have been a quick trip into town, with some leisurely Pokemon-ing ended up being much longer.  At least there is a Pokestop right next to the pharmacy, so my daughter was able to throw on a lure and played on both our phones while she waited for me.

Meanwhile, my phone let me know I had a voice mail.  Which was weird, because I got no phone call.  Turns out I did, but it just never rang.  It was my previous doctor’s office, wanting to talk to me about my file transfer.

So, once I got home, I had lots of phone calls to make.

I called the insurance company and explained what happened.  He could see nothing wrong with my file on the system, so he put me on hold to talk to someone else.

When he came back, I could hear the perplexity in his voice.  It turns out that in one area, my account was active, but in another, I was no longer active.  They don’t know why.  So he was going to contact the carrier my husband’s work is hooked up with to figure things out and get my file fully active again.

Hopefully, it will not take as long as it did to fix up the mess with my husband’s file.

Then I talked to my old clinic.  Turns out there is a $35 fee to transfer a file, and how did I want to pay that?  I don’t have a credit card, but I do have debit Visa, which they take, so we did that.

I also updated my address and phone number, so she wouldn’t call my cell phone, though my cell phone number is still there as a back up.

Then I worked on something else when I got a notification from my phone.

Another voice mail.

Yeah.  She called my cell phone.  And since I had zero signal at the time, it went straight to voice mail.

I called back and found out my card was declined.  Which made no sense.

So I called the bank’s 866 number on my card.

Which got answered with a cheerful recording saying I could help them out by taking a short survey.  As a reward, select customers could win a Caribbean cruise.

Uh huh.

So I went through the three question survey (there was no option not to take it), and at the end, the cheerful recording congratulated me, because I just won the cruise; it would only cost a $65 processing fee.  Did I want to accept the prize?

Uh huh.

So I selected yes.  A live person answered the phone, greeting me with an “are you excited about winning this cruise?”  To which I responded, “Actually, I’m trying to figure out how I got you guys, because I was trying to phone … ”

*click*beepbeepbeep*

She hung up on me.

I called the bank’s number again and got through to where I was supposed to.  After being on hold a while, I made sure to first tell the person who answered what happened.  She took notes to pass on to the back office to see if there was a security breach on their system.

Then I talked to her about my debit Visa being declined.  She checked, but there was nothing wrong with my card.  After getting more details, she put me on hold and went to talk to someone in the back office about it.  When she got back, she informed me that no transaction on my card was attempted, according to their system.

Which means that, somewhere between the clinic and the bank, something went wrong.

So, back on the phone with the clinic I went.  I told her what the bank told me, and she was surprised, because she had tried twice.  I told her the bank confirmed there is nothing wrong with my card, so she said she would try again later, then call me back if it was still a problem.

So far, no call back, but then if she tries to call my cell phone again, it might be a while before I find out.  I forgot to mention that she’d called the wrong number.

Ah, well.

So, more move related hassles to sort out.

Later on, I went and got the memory card from the camera, as well as the one that got locked.  I uploaded the photos I took…

And found pictures of Mama and the Twins.

I didn’t remember taking those.

I uploaded them all, then started trying to figure out what happened with the locked card, and if there was something I could find to unlock it on the desktop.

While I was doing that, my older daughter came by to let me know she’d taken some pictures of deer while we were gone.

I suddenly felt sane again. LOL

Here is one of the photos she took for me.

2018-03-01.whitetail.family

With the melt, it looks like there is so much more feed out there than there really is!  I’d emptied the bag this morning, and picked up 3 more on the way home, so we should be good for the Month.

Now, I am looking forward to a quiet evening.  I’m not used to talking so much.  My throat is sore.  I have a friend I’m hoping to talk to soon, and I don’t want to have to cut conversation short because I’ve spent so much time talking on the phone!

The Re-Farmer

Warming Up

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I must say, I’ve been really enjoying the warmer weather we’ve been having lately!

There is a down side to it, though.  Insects that would normally be hibernating right now, are coming out in droves.  Flies, I’m used to, but mostly it’s these guys.

20180225.beetle

They are EVERYWHERE!  As I started this post, there was one crawling up the wall.  Every now and then, we hear the distinctive “tick” of one of them landing on the floor or some other hard surface.  They congregate on window sills and corners.  When washing up before bed, I find them crawling across the soap.  Every now and then, we’ll discover one that’s crushed on the floor, as we’ve inadvertently walked on them.  I’ve even found my beside touch lamp triggered by several of them, walking along the metal base. !!

Our daughters have been vacuuming them up several times a day, lately.  Unfortunately, that’s not really an option on the main floor.

These are not our local species of ladybug (coccinellidae).  I’m told that these are the imported Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis) that we were told have been particularly bad this past summer.

Apparently, they bite, too.

Not much we can do about it but vacuum them up, really.  They’re still a beneficial bug, but can be a problem in greater quantities.

20180227cat.face

Maybe we can take a lesson from our cat and just chill.

That’s her, with her chin draped over the plant stand, in front of my crochet corner.  She has a thing about draping her chin over things.  Or using objects as chin pillows.  Typically, not the object the rest of her body is on. :-D

In other news, I got a call back from the septic guy that has been coming to our farm for many, many years.  I’d left a message for him over the weekend, mentioning that the tank hasn’t been done in at least two years.  We are concerned that the tank might back up into the basement, as has happened in the past, now that there’s suddenly 4 people using the system.  He remembered the farm and the ejector system we have.  While he was willing to come out and do the tank, he recommended against it, while the ground was still frozen.  He was confident that we’d actually be okay until the fall.  To get it done now, while the ground is still frozen, introduced a potential risk.  It would take a while for the tank to fill again with water, triggering the ejector to send it out to the field, far from the house.  Normally, any water in the pipes after it was emptied would drain back into the tank, but with the ground shifting over the years, there would be pockets of water remaining that would freeze, or the septic field itself would freeze, over the days it would take before warm water was once again being ejected from the tank.  This would cause a major problem.  The only way to fix that would be to find the blockage, then dig a hole to the pipe to repair it.  In his opinion, emptying the thank now would put us at greater risk for that sort of scenario than for our tank having too much solids.

So I’m thinking that we will likely get it done in the late spring (the earliest he recommended), then go back to having it done every September.

Meanwhile, I got a response from another expert I’d asked advice for regarding our situation with the Co-op we left behind.  It was most helpful.  He made some of the same recommendations the lawyer did, but had other suggestions that the lawyer, not being as familiar with housing co-ops, would not have known to suggest.

Oh, how I wish I didn’t have to still deal with this crap.

Speaking of dealing with crap…

painMy husband had a medical appointment today, adding two more people to his team of caregivers; a joint meeting with a dietician and a diabetic nurse.  It was not pleasant.  He was having a very bad pain day.  Pain is a complicating factor, as pain causes high blood sugar reading.  So does things like lack of sleep, and numerous other things.  We’re basically treating a symptom.

Thankfully, on having it pointed out to them that he was in great pain at that moment, they were willing to cut through the usual stuff (which he’d heard before, anyhow) and go straight to options.  The best one of them being that, in the future, they could have these appointments over the phone, instead of him coming in.

Meanwhile, I took advantage of the appointment and got the process started to move my own medical files over – then ran into an old friend in the waiting room!  It was good to see her again.  I look forward to our being able to get together to catch up.

Slowly but surely, little by little, we’ll get all this medical stuff switched over to our new home.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

 

 

Un. Be. Lievable. Part Two

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Drove out to get the mail today.

First, the good news.

Our daughters now both have their new medical care cards.  Yay!

The bad news.

My husband and I got our forms and photo copy of our birth certificates back.

Two problems.  They want a more legible copy of my husband’s birth certificate.  His had gone through a wash in a back pocket many decades ago, so it’s in rough shape, but still readable in its plastic holder.  Apparently, the photo copy wasn’t good enough.  I was able to read it, but whatever.

I’m thinking I’ll take a very well lit photograph of it, use software to bring out the text even more, then print that out and see if it will be good enough.

Then there was me.

Guess what they want from me?

Yup.

My marriage certificate.

Keep in mind that until 2004, I had a medical card in this province, using my married name.  I still have the darn thing.  But if I want my card to have my married name on it, they want a copy of my marriage certificate.

So not only can I not get my driver’s license transferred because my birth certificate doesn’t match my hyphenated married name, I can’t get my medical card, either.

And the 3 month limit is up.  They’re still billing our previous province, but how much longer can they do that?

And how much longer can we drive our van with out of province plates?

I was thinking I need to call my insurance company again and let them know what’s going on.  Turns out, I got mail from them, too, with a letter saying my file is incomplete.

No kidding.

So that’s on the to-do list for tomorrow.

I can’t believe that after using my married name for almost 30 years, this is now suddenly a problem.

I’m starting to wonder if I should just stop using my hyphenated name and go back to using my birth name.  But then, that name won’t match my current driver’s license or vehicle registration.  Even our content insurance, which I was able to update to our new location, has my hyphenated married name on it.

Un. Be. Lievable.

How is anyone supposed to be able to wade through all this in only 3 months?

The Re-Farmer

Watching Over Us

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Today was a day when we could really tell that Someone is watching over us!

This morning, my husband had an appointment to get a CT scan.  For this, we had to go to a small city that is an hour’s drive away.  The hospital is at the edge of town, though, so we didn’t have any extra driving beyond that.

He had to be there for 11:30, but with the winds the way they were, we decided to head out early, just in case.  Our route took us though another town where we stopped to fill the gas tank, then we continued on.

Through this.

20180213blowing.snow

When we tell people we live in the middle of nowhere, sometimes they think we are exaggerating.

The actual temperature today was quite mild – we warmed up to about -9C at home, and even warmer (-6C) in the city we went to.  The wind chills made it feel in the -26C range, making it potentially dangerous to be out in it for two long.

There isn’t a lot of snow, yet at times the road was almost completely obliterated, except for what I could see right in front of me.  I could always tell I was in the correct lane, for example.  The wind made it more of a challenge to stay on the road than the visibility did.

But the drive went well and even with our stop for gas, we got there early.  My husband got registered into their system and sent to the appropriate area of the hospital to wait for his test.

Unfortunately, an emergency came up and all the scheduled appointments got delayed.  He got in about 45 minutes late.  I could see he was really struggling, and by the time he was called in, his shirt was wet and his face beaded with sweat from the pain. pain.scale

I saw an “improved pain scale” being shared on Facebook lately.  I liked it, but decided to make up one of my own.  It’s annoying to be asked to rate your pain on a scale of 1-10, when pain is so relative and subjective – something his previous doctor admitted was a problem.  Most pain scales I see are just smiley to sad faces, which doesn’t work.

So I came up with this version.

I’d say my husband lives in the 8-9 zone.  Seven, on a good day.  When my husband was asked to rate himself on the pain scale, my husband answered relative to how much pain he was in before, and put himself at a 5.

With the delay, I knew we would need to get some food before we headed home.  Seeing his obvious (to me, anyhow) discomfort, I did a quick search for a rare treat while he was being scanned; McDonald’s.  Yes.  It’s a treat.  It falls under the “comfort food” area.  Thankfully, there was one nearby.

When he was done, that’s where we headed.  It turned out to be inside a Walmart.  We would have preferred a drive through, but oh, well.

I tried to find a disabled parking spot for us.  This place has probably 18 of them, and they were all full!  As I was driving around to find I spot that was at least close, I ended up having a vehicle riding my bumper, enough to interfere with my ability to try and turn into any spots I found.

So I figured I’d just get away from the tailgater and go around.

Just as I accelerated, it started.

A sort of smacking/clapping noise from the engine.  Something was loose in there!

We quickly parked, shut off the engine and popped the hood, but I couldn’t see anything unusual.  Leaving it, we went inside to eat.  Once back in the van, I started it and…

… the noise was still there.

Leaving it running, I popped the hood again.  This time, I could see something at the belt smacking a hose.  Shutting off the engine, I could see a strip with a frayed end.

20180213frayed.belt

I took a picture of it, then we went back into the Walmart and their garage.  Showing the picture to the guy behind the counter, he said it looked like the fan belt, and that they couldn’t do that kind of work.  There was, however, a Canadian Tire across the road, and they could do it.

Just in case, I phoned up my cousin for his advice.

One option we had was to simply cut the loose piece, then drive home and hope the rest of the belt didn’t snap along the way.

Not an option we preferred!

The other option was to drive it across the street and, hopefully, get it fixed right away.

We took option number two.

He also mentioned that he had looked at the belt when he worked on our van, and it had looked fine. :-(

At this point, we had two things going for us.  One was that it happened while we were still in town.  If we had started to drive home, rather than stopping to eat, it would have happened while we were on the highway.  Instead, it happened right near a garage.

The other thing we had going for us was funds.  We had nothing in the budget for this, but the money we got from the moving company to pay for replacing our electric pole was there.  We could use that, and replace what we used at the end of the month.  If we hadn’t got that money when we did, we would have been hooped.  Big time.

So, off to Canadian Tire we went!

Once inside, I showed the picture to the guy and talked about getting it fixed.  Unfortunately, he only had two mechanics in that day; lots of people have been calling in sick lately.  However, he had a customer to call with info about a part.  Depending on what the customer decided, they might be able to fit us in, instead of working on that person’s car.

In the end, the decision was made for the customer.  The part needed couldn’t be delivered until tomorrow morning.

Which meant they could work on our van, instead!

That was the third thing going for us.

Once in, the first thing they needed to do was a diagnostic (about $70), to make sure the belt was the only thing that needed replacing.  Depending on what caused it to break, the serpentine belt might also be at risk.

It turned out to only be the belt.

It took maybe half an hour (labour rate posted: $112 an hour) to get fixed!  Altogether, it cost quite a bit less than we were afraid it would.

The guy talked to us afterward, saying that there was a leak in there; either oil or power steering fluid.  I told him it was the power steering, but that several people have looked at it already, and couldn’t find where it was leaking.  He told us we would have to find it, because it was getting right on the belt, which corrodes it.  It’ll happen again.  Which we knew.  I’ve got to get the van saftied, anyhow, so I’m hoping the leak will finally be found.  He said that one way it could be found is if someone puts a dye into the fluid.  They would then be able to spot the leak using a blacklight.

Interesting.

Since we were there anyhow, and the fix cost less than we thought it might, we took advantage of the situation.  I needed a new headline bulb, so we got a pair of bulbs, slightly brighter than what we already had.  I didn’t want to go to the brightest, as I have no desire to blind oncoming traffic while driving at night.  I’ve had that happen to me too often, and I would never want to inflict that on anyone else.

We also picked up a new gas cap.  Just a couple of days ago, my onboard computer started showing “check gas cap” warning.  That was another thing on my list of items to replace.  I’m guessing the seal on the cap finally degraded too much.  The cold certainly isn’t helping.  If changing it doesn’t fix the problem, it’ll be another thing on the list of stuff to get it to pass safety inspection.

I just have to figure out how to remove the old gas cap, which has a tether.  The new one doesn’t.

Changing the bulbs will wait a day or two, when it warms up a bit more.

That done, we drove the hour home.

All together, we ended up being gone 6 hours, when we expected to be gone maybe 3 hours.

I made sure to drive right up to the house to drop off my husband, and he went straight to lying down. :-(

What a day.

Then, this evening, I heard a knock at the door.

Which was very disorienting.  We never get casual knocks at the door out here!

It was the electrician.  He had intended to come out this weekend to check how frozen the ground is, but never made it.  He made it today, stopping on his way home from the city.  He’d tested his drill out, and the ground is just too solid.

We’ll have to wait until things start to thaw out, then contact him again to get it done.

Which is actually kind of good, since we would not have been able to replace what we used of the funds for another two weeks.

Yet another thing that worked out in our favour.

Yes, Someone is indeed watching out for us!

The Re-Farmer

 

A Little More Progress… and not

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So today was the day our van was finally going to be fixed.

Except it didn’t.

Turns out there was a miscommunication.

When it was talked about, my cousin had mentioned picking up our van.  This was after I’d mentioned I was concerned about driving it with that grinding noise it was making. I wasn’t sure how he planned to do that, but no alternative was mentioned, so I waited on him to arrive.

Meanwhile, my husband phoned in some prescription refills, plus needed more distilled water for his CPAP.  So I left the keys with him while our younger daughter and I went into the next town to get some non-Costco shopping done at the grocery store, after hitting the pharmacy.  I made sure to text my cousin to let him know about the keys.

It wasn’t until he answered that I found out he’d expected me to have dropped our van off some time ago.

*sigh*

Which means he won’t be able to work on it until Wednesday.

I’ll be bringing our van to him and leaving it there, Tuesday night. :-D

Just a couple of days longer.

Meanwhile, a bit more progress was made with the unpacking.  I should have been working on the boxes in the office, but I decided to continue in the living room, instead.  I was getting tired of looking at the aquarium, all wrapped up in the corner.  So I took off the foam sheets duct taped around the outside, then had to use a stool to be able to get all the accessories from inside the tank and store them in the cabinet under the tank.  Then I could take out the foam pieces that were protecting the inside.

That done, I tucked the lights between the tank and the wall, along with the power bar we’ll eventually be using in that corner.  Got the ironing board put away.  There was also a taped together bundle with an umbrella, 3 shinai and a jo staff.

Curious, I took the stickers to see what these were listed as, on the sheet.

20180121_174912.25%The bundle with the umbrella and shinai was labeled “Anberallas”.  Or maybe it says, “Anherallas”.

The ironing board was listed as “Airlen Board.”

It hurts just to try and type that out. LOL

Now, all I’ve got left in that little corner to get rid of is my sister’s carpet shampooer.  A visit will need to be arranged, after our van is fixed. :-)

The only other thing left in that area that I need to figure out what to do with are the baskets of light bulbs on our piano bench that weren’t supposed to be packed.  They’ll likely just have to go to the basement. :-/

The next step for the area is to get a nimble daughter to climb over the piano and install the antique mirror of my mother’s that matches the piano so well.

We were planning to put some decor items on the piano itself, but one of the cats really loves it up there.  We’ll have to be careful what goes up there!

I’m totally procrastinating over the boxes in my office.  Totally.

We’ve got some progress in another thing that we had a delay on.  We’d done the paperwork to transfer our medicare coverage away from the province we moved out of, to the one we now live in.  We’ve had coverage here before and were even able to include our old health care card numbers.

The forms all came back.

They wanted ID. The girls each got their own form, but the one for myself and my husband had a handwritten note saying that we needed to include copies of ID for all the family.

Thankfully, my younger daughter was able to find her birth certificate that had gone missing – it turned out to be still in the suitcase.

Now it’s just a matter of signing the new form attached to the old ones, and send them in with the photocopies.  At least the postage is pre-paid.

While it doesn’t matter much for our daughters, who have no medical appointments or prescriptions to deal with, it might be an issue for my husband and I.  Our old health care numbers ensure coverage for up to 3 months after moving to another province.  We have doctor’s appointments (I made a “meet and greet” appointment with the same doctor for myself) in the middle of the month.  For me, that’s just a few days after my 3 months is up, but my husband got here 3 weeks earlier, so he’s already past the 3 months.

I’m not sure how that’ll be dealt with.

For the non-Canadians reading this, Canada’s medicare system is federally funded through our tax dollars, but provincially managed.  Each province is slightly different than others.  While the basics, like regular check ups, treatment, hospital visits, most medical tests, and specialists are covered, some things covered in one province might not be covered, or only partly covered, in another.  For example, when my husband was first diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea, we were living in this province, and the CPAP machine, humidifier, hoses and masks were fully covered.  After we moved, however, there was 0 coverage.  We’ve come back just in time for this province to change from full coverage to partial coverage.

Thank God for private insurance!

Yes, we in Canada do still need private insurance.  Especially for dental, eye care and prescriptions, which isn’t covered by our medicare system.  I know of one province that also has its own “pharmacare” for prescriptions.  There is a deductible, then the province covers the rest.

In a nut shell, we have medical coverage, but it isn’t “free”; we just pay for it through our taxes, like a group insurance program.  Some provinces also charge premiums.

It also isn’t universal as, while certain essentials are covered, each province maintains its own services.

It also isn’t all government run.  While there are certainly provincial health care clinics with both medical and support staff, many of which also include labs for blood-work and equipment for Xrays, we also have private doctors with private clinics (they bill the government for covered services), and private companies that provide a mix of services that can be covered by the government, private insurance or the patient gets billed.

Which can make things pretty convoluted, when you have complex health concerns, as my husband does.  Most of his medical care is covered by our medicare system, and the rest by private insurance.  So far, the doctors have managed to keep his prescriptions among those that are covered by private insurance.  Thankfully, my husband has a very good plan, so there’s a long list of approved prescriptions.

Did I mention, Thank God for private insurance?

I think I’ll just say it again, anyways.

Thank God for private insurance!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Looking Back

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It has been just past 2 months since all of us have been living here, in my childhood home.  Three months for my husband and younger daughter.

It’s been rather tumultuous, all things considered.  Hopefully, this will all have been worth it in the long run.  We shall see.

There are, as always, a number of things that we couldn’t know until we actually lived here a while.  Some of those things were budget related.

Living on my husband’s long term disability has changed a lot.  Thankfully, 60% of his previous income left us doing much better than others I know in a similar position.  Still, living in the city kept getting more and more expensive, while the income can’t change.  Our daughters had gotten themselves part time jobs, and my older daughter has been working on turning her art into an income, but they both gave that up to come with us, so that they could help their father and I as much as possible.  They gave up quite a lot of other things to come out here, too.  And with our van making noises it shouldn’t be making, and no money to get it looked at, all our options are severely limited.

So it’s 4 of us living on one fixed income, still playing catch up on the costs of the move and the bills we had to let slide a bit.

But we’ve been here long enough to get an idea of what some of those unknowns are going to be.

One of them was the electricity costs.  We knew, from living in the area before and heating with electricity, we would be looking at Hydro bills in the winter of about $400 or more.  Previously, our winter bills were in the $80-$90 range, while in the summer, it was closer to $150-$180.  We had to use an air conditioner all summer, for my husband’s health.  We won’t need an air conditioner here, but winters are another story.

Our very first electric bill came out to over $400.  I had actually expected it to be a bit higher, because of all the troubles we were having with the hot water tank, and needing to use the stove to heat so much water every day.  I knew the next bill would be even higher, partly because it covered the time period were we were heating the most water, but also because of the polar vortex that sent temperatures plunging and the furnace running.

We send in our meter readings in the middle of the month, and now have the new bill.  It’s just under $600.  And there was absolutely nothing we could have done to make it lower.

Ouch.

At least we can be sure that this is going to be the highest electric bill of the winter.  After this, it should start doing down.

Still.  Ouch.

The next unknown was the internet.  Our satellite package is only about $100 a month; less than the cable/internet package we had before the move.  Unfortunately, the maximum data available for non-commercial packages is 100 gigs.  Before coming out here, we averaged about 350 gigs a month usage.  Still, we can control that to a certain extent.  No more watching lots of Youtube videos, and no more World of Warcraft.  We take advantage of free WiFi elsewhere, as much as we can.

Reaching the limit on our package didn’t mean we would lose our internet for the rest of the month.  It would just be reduced in speed.  It would be enough to check our email or whatever.  Or, we could have the bottleneck removed and pay $2 a gig on top of our regular package.  There would be no slowdown that way.

That resulted in a bill of almost $300, even with reducing our online usage.

At the start of the month, there was a lot of downloading of updates and patches, which resulted in us reaching our limit before even half way through the month.  So options were looked at on how to get around that.

In the end, we got a second account, with a second satellite dish.  It was installed yesterday. By doing it that way, we’ll be paying around $200 + a month for internet, instead of $300 +.

We still haven’t received our first phone bill in our name, so that one is still an unknown.

Then there’s the fact that we’re feeding so many extra animals, including the deer.  We will probably be spending another $150 a month, just on that.  That wasn’t in our projected calculations at all.

The fact that we are no longer paying a housing charge of just over $1400 a month does give us the room to handle these extra expenses.  Or at least it would, if we didn’t still have to catch up on old bills, plus deal with additional expenses related to the move, plus we had to buy that new hot water tank, plus we have to get the van looked at, plus we’re going to have to put money into this house to make up for years of neglect…

It’ll probably be another 2-4 months before we get to a point were we can actually know if living here will be a financial improvement.

The next question becomes one of quality of life.  Did moving here improve that situation?

Well, for my husband, we’re not there yet.  First, there were the problems with not being able to get certain prescriptions, and the screw up with his insurance coverage.  So he’s been in massive amounts of pain.  Big drop in quality of life, there.  Then there is finding a new medical team to replace the specialists he left behind.  That will take time.  Still, there is the advantage of stress reduction in other areas, and stress = pain.  There’s also the fact that this house, for all its issues, is more accessible that the townhouse we left.  He’s no longer essentially trapped on the second floor.  Something as simple as getting up and going into the kitchen is something he can do now, without too much difficulty. The biggest plus is that we are close to his family again, but without reliable transportation, we may as well still be two provinces away.

For myself, there is a definite huge reduction in stress.  I’m still in contact with friends living in the co-op we’d been in, and I am so glad we’re not there anymore.  I honestly cannot recommend co-op housing anymore.  The concept is good, but human nature being what it is, it just doesn’t work unless the members are aware enough to get a good property management company in.  Otherwise, it’s just not worth the stress.

That stress was having quite a negative effect on my health, but since being here, for all the hassles we’ve had, there has been a huge improvement.  The pressure headaches are gone.  My sleep has improved.  I hardly ever need to take pain killers anymore.  My body’s aches and pains have reduced substantially, though I know they will never go away completely.  And I do still have my mystery pain in my side, and that chronic cough that no amount of testing could find the source of.   Unfortunately, while I’ve been able to set up the office part of things, I haven’t been able to set up my crafting side of things quite yet; not enough that I can get back to working on things or writing patterns, and I have not been able to get my photography area set up yet.  That should come in time, though I will have to evict the cats from what will be my work and photography area on my work table, which they have claimed for naps. :-D

And for our daughters?  They once again have an upper floor as their own space.  Sometimes, as I work in my office, I can hear them upstairs, singing together, and they sound so wonderful.  I know it’s been hard on them, but I do hope that, long term, this will be good for them, too.

We knew coming out here would be a mixed bag of positives and negatives.  We’re still figuring out what those are.  Plus, once we’re past those first few months of settling in, there will be new options ahead of us that we could not have done without coming here.

In the end, I do feel that we made the right choice.

The Re-Farmer

Really?

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As if it wasn’t bad enough my husband hasn’t been able to get one of his prescriptions refilled at all…

He gets one drug in two forms – instant release and extended release.  He was able to get one version, but not the other.

Today, he was going to open the new bottle of the one he got.

They screwed up the dosage.  Each tablet is only 1/3rd the dose it’s supposed to be.

Keep in mind that this is a medication he can only get in 30 day refills, and cannot refill more than a few days in advance of running out.  Not only that, but not all pharmacies have it in stock, or if they do, in only limited amounts.  They have to order in if they need more.

He phoned them up and they will fix it, but they won’t get the proper dosage tablets until Monday, when I will return the bottle he got with the wrong dosage.

I’m not sure he has enough left for two days.

Thankfully, my brother was a sweetheart and, when I asked about borrowing his van on Wednesday to take my husband to see the doctor, he told me to just take it home again and keep it until then.  So I actually have the wheels to go to the next town to take care of the prescription error.

Well, it’ll give me a ch20180113_163318515116999.jpgance to remember to bring the old prescription we found, from 1984, for proper disposal.

The Re-Farmer

Prescription for Pain

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When my husband had his first visit with a new doctor, one of the things he was able to get was a renewed prescription for one of his pain meds.  It comes in two forms; quick and slow release.  Because it’s an opioid, different rules apply.  Only hand written prescriptions, on a triplicate pad, are used, and they get signed for when they are picked up.  My husband had had a 3 month prescription, but could only get 30 days worth at a time.  As his files were to be transferred from his old doctor to the new, he got only a 30 day renewal, and was to book a follow up appointment for a month later.  That would be enough time for his files to get out here.

Well, the two versions aren’t in sync.  He was able to refill one of them right away, then the second one a couple of weeks later. Yesterday, the first one was one of several refills he called in to the pharmacy.  As he’d already used his 30 day renewal and didn’t have anymore refills left, the pharmacy needed to fax the doctor for a refill.  So I made arrangements to borrow my brother’s van to pick them all up today.

Except it still wasn’t there.  The doctor had never responded to the fax.

Even if he had, they could not fill it without the physical prescription.  Previously, the doctor had been able to fax the prescription to the pharmacy, but that’s not good enough, here.  They could get a fax and start it, but would not be allowed to give out the medication without the physical prescription.  This is one of those things that, once the doctor gives out the prescription, it must be brought to the pharmacy within 3 days. The clinic is close enough that the pharmacy can sometimes just send someone out to get it, though, which is good to know.

However, my husband is to see the doctor in less than a week.

Chances are, he’s not going to get the updated prescription until he sees the doctor.

Meanwhile, he’s out of the medication.  It’s one of the primary pain medications he uses.  One version of it is not enough.

Theoretically, he could have phoned the doctor and tried to make arrangements, but then I’d have to borrow the vehicle again to pick it up tomorrow, because it wouldn’t be ready by today.  Then I would need to borrow the vehicle again for the medical appointment a few days later.

What a pain.

For my husband, literally.

The Re-Farmer