The last two days have been very trying. Thursday it was only a matter of dealing with bureacracy and finding my paychecks for substitute teaching. Friday was upsetting because I was dealing with an insurance company. If any of you are in the insurance industry or linked to someone who is you may not want to read any further. I have nothing nice to say on the subject.

This may require some recapitulation. As you may know I am headed for the east coast next week. I have to stop in Hawaii for a week on the way back in June. You may also know I have injured my wrist and need an MRI to determine the actual cause of the pain. I don't believe I have mentioned the need to see a gastro-enterologist about the pain that causes the blackouts or the podiatrst about the broken bone in my foot and the general trouble I have with those appendages. I had hoped to get pictures of all those areas while in Hawaii.

Well, I got a call from my insurance company. It turns out that the hospital there in Hawaii doesn't have the equipment or expertise to handle what the hand doctor wanted done. He had requested an 'open MRI' which they had interpreted as meaning I was to have a surgical procedure before they shoved me into the MRI machine. However 'open' in this case merely means the machine is built to look at small parts of the body, i.e., it isn't a closed donut shaped machine but a smaller open machine. They didn't know that when they called. They wanted me to change my flight so I could stop in Los Angeles to get the work done at UCLA. This took several phone calls over two days.

Finally I called COntinental and explained what I needed to do. They went through their system and told me that they could get me to LA by June 10 but couldn't get me out of there until mid August! I said thanks but no thanks.

I called the insurance company and told the agent that they win! I paid lots of money for insurance but there was no way for me to get treatment. They will call me back. Maybe they can still do something in Hawaii.

In the meantime I am limping around the house in a special shoe, wincing from the pain in my wrist, and passing out every ten days to two weeks. Life is a bitch sometimes.