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I'm actually enjoying this relaxation thing. My body can feel it and is saying 'UM HELLO - THANK YOU!!' I don't feel near as tense or amped up and my back has already loosened up from just a few hours of chilling. We just put an an oldie but goodie - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! Some background noise to take a nice nap to. The pups are being sooo good. Definitely some rib bones coming out tonight when all is said and done. I did really well driving myself today, was a tad nervous but did just fine. I used to take that daily route every workday before they moved our office so being familiar with the area and knowing the backstreets helped a lot. Only 4 more radiation treatments left and each one seems to go by faster than the last. And talk about a small world!!! Turns out the A/C guys that are here doing the install happen to be an old friend from high school and his two sons! On top of my mom being close with the owner and them all knowing my situation just makes me that much more at ease!! I told them to just take run of the house and if they needed anything from us to just knock on the den door and let us know. It's so funny how things just seem to work out when they do even when everything else seems against you. I'm just going to enjoy the good vibes of this week and maybe even catch a kat-nap!!

I If I understand what you are saying, I think the only way is to 'edit' your original blog post and add on to the the body of the first entry. When you "add blog entry" it makes it's own separate little blog but, still under your umbrella. But I like the immediacy of you carrying on in the comments...it's more conversational

I hope you got some much needed rest and have a relaxing day, Hellkat. I was part of the 3 a.m. crowd this morning so I feel your frustration there. The insurance issues and practices make my head spin. There must be a better way than making people fight so hard to receive the benefits that they pay mightily for.

Pups are in the crate and being good! I have two that are driving me crazy. I have never had two dogs that feed off of each other looking for trouble. They are white goldens and they are 1 and 1/2 years old. My husband tells me they are teenagers now and should be getting better. I truly wonder. I am glad you have those fur babies. They sure make you feel loved. You have had so much thrown at you at one time. The exhaustion will finally hit. Rest today, sweetie, you deserve it.

Well I know where I am going to come when I have an insurance question. I think the Cleveland Clinic has the worst billing system. I can't tell you how many times I have received a bill a year or two after the fact. I have gone and sat with their billing people and come out with my head spinning. They are making it more and more confusing. Hellkatbaby, I know you must feel exhausted but sleep has to be around the corner. Radiation does zap your strength. It took about a week and I was sleeping a lot. I love the mask idea. Go Team Deadpool!

Linda I can definitely tell my body needs the rest. I've been going and going in nesting mode for quite sometime trying to get everything in order and starting to feel that I'm pushing myself just a bit too much, starting to feel the strain in my back which I don't need - all those little details can wait for another day. I've got my recliner and pillows all set up, pups are being good in their crates so all I need to do is just chill out once I'm back from treatment and let everybody else do their job for the day.

Not sure how to make a 'new entry' yet w/out starting another blog so I'll just carry on in the comments - keep it simple. So 3:00 am finds me again - ugh. I guess this will be part of the new norm for a bit, but I was really hoping I could have stuck it out a few more hours. I felt as if I were double dreaming which was really strange. I guess with all that's on my mind it's not surprising. Part of it was about my treatments, nothing bad but just feeling like I had already gone today and came home to realize HA! Jokes on you it was just a dream! And the other part was about while at the center they happen to run out of A/C (since mine at home gets fixed today) and how they were charging us extra to sit near a window unit while waiting and charging our insurance for it. Just kind of the crazy stuff. Next thing I know I'm staring at my darn clock. Speaking of insurance and knowing how to be your own patient advocate. Again, being a part of the health ins. biz we see a lot of messed up stuff as far as how the business end runs. Again never ever mistake anything medical or insurance wise for charity because in the end it all comes down to the mighty dollar - PEROID!! Standard protocol for certain things is to DENY, DENY and DENY even if there is no reason to DENY. For example - this 'Pill' that I am supposed to take was DENIED. I received a ROBO call from the pharmacy yesterday saying there was an 'issue with my insurance and my medication denied.' Well I KNEW exactly WHY they denied it and immediately contacted my Dr's to explain this 'conflict of interest' between the pharmacy and my ins. co. and the Dr's where very thankful that they did not have to do any extra leg work of calling around to figure out WHY or HOW a life saving/changing pill would be denied?!! Without giving out too much detail this is all I can say. Any time companies merge to where a pharmaceutical co. is now running an insurance co. is a great conflict of interest. Naturally all other pharmacies become NON-PAR as this 'new' co. basically forces you to use them and them only which is not always 'ideal' for the member/patient/dr's. But again it's the nature of the beast. We get many complaints from our OWN EMPLOYEES as well as members about how they are out of the certain medications constantly and making people wait to have them filled. Well the average Joe not knowing the ends and outs stresses and frets and waits not realizing or knowing that by law they can only pull that crap once. After that there is a number you can call and they HAVE to 'pre-cert' certain meds to another pharmacy at the PAR RATE! However again, unless you know the ends and outs - you wont really know. And it's sad. Going through what I am facing and hearing PT scan denied/meds denied/MRI etc is frustrating enough because I KNOW it's all BS. So as a member advocate I beg you all to please READ YOUR POLICIES all the way down to the very fine print with the largest microscope you have!!! When your ins. co tells you NO - KEEP PUSHING! DO NOT ACCEPT THAT NO AT FACE VALUE. Another tip - anytime you go to a PAR Dr. or facility it is ILLEGAL for them to try and balance bill you for ANYTHING as they are paid at a CONTRACTED RATE!!!! Even if you insurance denies them something simple as a lab test - THEY CAN NOT BILL YOU UNLESS YOU SIGN A WAIVER!! Be very, very careful regarding these 'waivers'. Another great tip - WAIT FOR YOU EOB FROM YOUR INS CO. BEFORE STRESSING ABOUT A BILL. I received my 'ER' Observation bill stating I owed over $1500.00 even though my deductible and out of pocket are fully met, par facility, not signing your waiver go stick it up your ARSE!! And of course on a closer look at the 'bill' found they had not even submitted he claim to my ins. co yet. Sneaky bastards. So when I did get my EOB it turns out that all was approved at their CONTRACTED FLAT DRG RATE - meaning you get what your contract states and not one penny more! If for some reason w/in that 31 day period I have to be readmitted it all still follows under that one flat rate and not a dime more. Sorry - I just had to get this off my chest DEADPOOL STYLE simply because a lot of the times the 'powers that be' literally tie your hands and I just can not and will not follow those misguided un-ethics. So now that those tips are out of the way - this AM I will drive myself alone for the 1st time to and from treatment. Since my dx my Dr's keep asking 'AND YOU'VE NEVER HAD A SEIZURE' WTH? So just that word has made me a bit cautious as if I'm going to have a seizure! And the LAST PLACE you want something like that to happen is behind the wheel of a car!! Well after a few weeks of being on steroids and my 1st few treatments and finding my new legs I would test myself and go the back way to the store or just up the road driving like a little old lady lol. Yesterday I drove to treatment and had my mom with me just in case. I did fine - radio off, phone off - no distractions as school has just started back and I pass one elementary school way under the 15 mile per hour limit. Just better safe than sorry. But now that they have cut back on the steroid intake and let me know the treatments are doing their job has brought some calm in that area. If they thought something like that was a possibility now they would have not started to wean me off them. But I still plan on being very, very cautious especially with my crazy sleep patterns. So Team Deadpool is going solo tomorrow for a bit. I think this is a good thing for me another step/fear to over come!! Another good thing with the A/C people coming out is I will sort of be forced to do nothing but rest and recharge. But I need it!! It will give me a chance to break out some of my puzzle books or those Adult coloring books that I haven't had a chance to really dive into and get creative - stop buzzing around the house like sally homemaker for a bit so to speak. Wait - Deadpool doing house chores? Shut the front door!! LOL. But in all seriousness because I get to keep my mask - I'm painting it as DEADPOOL and I'm going to hang that sucker on my wall as a daily reminder to never give up, never give in and do everything with a special style and flair and wicked sense of humor behind it!!