Weaver's Web

I started on that mega-meme and even though LJ stores a draft, when I accidently hit the wrong key (thanks to an overly sensitive touchpad mouse), poof it was ALL gone. The saved draft was the original I was trying to edit. It's a meme 200 lines long and I was 1/2 way through it. Crap. Guess y'all don't really need to all that stuff, now do you?

Finally got the car back this afternoon. Took 4 weeks, but the repairs look great. On the downside, (not a biggie here) they didn't re-install the code to the stereo system and it took a return trip to the repair shop to find out how to recode the bloody thing. While I was waiting for the thing to reset, which took 10 minutes of waiting with the radio on, as I did it incorrectly the first time and that's how long it takes to reset so you can do it correctly, I managed to run my battery down so far that the car would then not start. So I'm going to have to keep my eye on the battery since I would not expect the battery to be so weak, that it would lose its charge in just over 10 minutes.

We shall see. Tomorrow I head over to our mechanic so he can check out the torn bushing on the rear passenger side, something that was not accident related, and that I will have to repair in order to have a proper allignment done on the car. Worse, according to the repair place, only the dealership is likely going to have the special bar that's required to allign this vehicle, which will mean a trip to the dealership for that, at a cost of $275.

Bloody wonderful.

I think I'm starting to miss the Prius.

Today is supposed to be the day I get my car back. But then again so was yesterday.

And the day before.

And the day before that.

And last Friday.

I called the repair shop on my way into work and was told it SHOULD be done by the end of the day today.

NEWS FLASH - they just called. The good news: it will be ready between 5 and 6pm and I will not have to come up with any additional money on the rental car. The bad news: they had the Mercedes dealership do the allignment and they found problems with broken bushings on the rear end, NOT related to the accident. Now what?

The car is still not done. During the initial estimate, they thought it would be ready the Friday before last, which became last Friday, which in turn be came today.

Now, they say late tomorrow.

Fingers are crossed all will be well.

I shall miss driving the Prius however. It's comfortable, the gas milage is superb and I will really miss having a bluetooth enabled vehicle. It's a blast that the stereo turns off automatically when a call comes in; moreover, not having to wear a headset rocks. It's been nice driving the past three weeks feeling like I'm not destroying the planet quite so quickly.

It's been a stressful October. Much has been trying my wits and my nerves.

1) The car accident- the 28th of last month I was hit. I will not go into major detail as I've posted several times about this. However, this morning the estimator at the repair place called to say that once they had torn down the bumper assembly there was more damage than previously seen, and it will add on another week to the repair as well as another $750. I called today once again to see if the police report is done and almost 3 weeks after the fact, it still is not. I still do not have either the name of the man who hit me, nor his insurance information, if any was in force at the time of the crash. I did at least find out from the police today, that he was not killed and the preliminary report faults him for the accident, but unless I want to go down to Rohnert Park during my work day to get the face sheet to the report (they're open 9-5, M-F only), they will not give me any more details. They need to see my ID in order to release anything to me. I still will have to come up with the $500 deductible when I get my car, which now will not be till next Friday, rather than tomorrow as originally promised. I will at some point see that money again, once my insurance company collects from his, or once my uninsured motorist coverage kicks in.

2) My trip to LA sucked. I went to see Mom and as usual, it was 36 hours of mental chess. Emotionally and mentally tiring. I love and adore her, but comments like, "I don't understand why you divorced your family," are wounding. That combined with the drive south thru a monsoon, and the drive back detouring around the I-5 closure on the LA side of the Grapevine made it a very long weekend.

3) My %$#@ing neck has been throbbing for the past three days. Woke up on Monday with it aching and it's just not letting up.

4) I'm behind in my own paper work. I've been taking two days a week to work on it, and letting my PA see patients, but somehow every last person in my office MUST ask me questions while I'm trying to get the paperwork done and hence it's like plodding through quicksand.

5) Exacerbating it all, is that even though I'm really working hard, there is so much stuff not getting in front of me in a timely manner that its jacking my frustration level up around my ears. Patients coming in for follow up and either lab results or ER notes or consultation notes aren't back, and I have to get a staff person to scramble to call for them, taking them away from the work they were doing. Chart notes that I'm certain I dictated are not on the chart, either due to my transcriptionist being way behind, or my staff person here in the office not having had time to put the notes into the chart. Letters to colleagues I dictated on the first of the month, finally arrived here today to be mailed, so they won't be seen until the beginning of next week, three weeks after they were dictated.

6) I wind up doing things that have to be done for people's benefit, that I will never get compensated for. Yesterday, while I was trying to get my paperwork done, I had a call from a doc from the endocrine clinic down at the University about a mutual patient. It seems that patient's mother called him all concerned about a serious long-standing medical problem and as the man's primary provider, the specialist called me. I wound up spending 25 minutes on the phone over 3 separate phone calls with the specialist, 15 minutes over 2 calls to the man's mother (he was at work and not reachable) and another 20 minutes over two calls to the pharmacy where he gets his drugs, or more importantly, where he has NOT been getting his drugs on a regular basis. This gentleman has a hormone disorder, which could, if not adequately treated, kill him in short order. By checking up on him with the pharmacy where his mother picks up his meds for him, it turns out he's been missing more than half of what he's supposed to be taking, for at least the past 6 months. AND he wonders why he hasn't been feeling well.....

It was the right thing for me to do, to sort out this problem and hopefully, with his mom riding heard on him, the appropriate meds will be taken. However, as I did not physically see this man, despite the fact that I spent a good hour either on the phone or going over his papers from both his chart and his med refills from the pharmacy, I CANNOT BILL for this care. There is something very wrong with this scenario.

It's 8:30pm - I need to go home.