T.C. – The Comeback

Hey All,

I’m waiting on hold with Medica right now. After stumbling through an explanation which I think I can now summarize as – needing an authorization for my non-PT fitness and health Program at Courage Kenny – I’ve¬ been placed on hold for about 20 minutes. Because it is not traditional physical therapy – I’m not working with a physical therapist – It is not historically covered by insurance. This is my first month on Medica, so hopefully they will flip the script and hook it up. Again, I’m on hold right now so if I have to abruptly stop, I do …….

~~~~82 minutes later~~~~

Wow, I know there’s no way to verify or corroborate, but I Homeboy who put me on hold just picked back up when I was Voice-to-texting that.

I know it’s en vogue to throw shade at health insurance companies right now, and I certainly was transferred three times to different siloed departments where I explained my story of need, told it was understood, then transferred to another person without any record of who I spoke with before. But. I expect that. On my last callback I reached somebody in the Prior Auth department who went beyond her duties to help me out. Nothing was resolved, but it sounds as if she is going to champion my cause. At least until 4:36 when she closes everything but her email and hopes she doesn’t get any more calls until five, but I can’t hate on that.

Okay, enough of the cuttingly honest malarkey.

There might be a few more typos in this post than in the past. I am using my new laptop + Dragon dictate (thank you cousin), but this is a learning computer, so it needs to form an ear for my specific flow, which is understandable. Much like when you first witnessed Die Hard, you didn’t fully grasp what it was. Not until your 10th to 18th viewing did you fully appreciate the genius.

My life is still a fairly tumultuous existence of up and downs. The strange thing about a traumatic and unwanted life changing event, and I always struggle to explain this clearly, is the inherent challenges and obstacles in attempting new things. With every step I take towards more independence I naturally run into increasingly difficult situations which then make me want to turn back. I’m sure there is some psychosocial term for this paradox, but it’s basically like a baby learning how to live on its own. Or a quad grocery shopping and struggling to be cordial to the 20 people that ask if they need help…I’m not helpless people, I’m just hungry. I really have made bounding leaps in terms of just being a regular dude again: I put myself to bed whenever I want, I don’t need to wait around trying to coordinate a PCA, even little things such as fixing my rugby or manual chair. I now, at least attempt to do on my own where a few months ago I would automatically ask for help.

Digression dive.

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There are two things I never thought about or possibly believed that I commonly said before I got awulll messed up. The first is that the only way to learn is to do – It sounds so obvious, but really, you can explain something to Joe Bag O’Doughnuts 15 times but unless Joe puts his head out and does it for himself, there is no way anything is getting done (Also a free TDaddy parenting tip). The second is that you need to work to make yourself better every day. Now, I know you already read that in some fancy script displayed on a teenage girls Instagram, but now that life is more of a struggle, I really see the need in working to be a better person. Consciously thinking every day to be more patient, more empathetic… basically less of a dick. The one sticking part for this is when it comes time to be a dick, you are not really thinking about that cutesy little ode you made that morning, you are thinking about the most cutting thing you can possibly say to the person that just offended you.

So, besides being an early American (working on independence), you can see I have had time to think about things.

I have also begun to throw my tentacles out in search of fulfilling employment. My desire is to get back into the electronic medical records/healthcare IT game. It is the work I did before I was injured, and it will allow for the past two and a half years of my life to be beneficial work experience. I have run the gambit of the healthcare industry, from demanding the A-teaM neurosurgeon at 2 AM a.m. on a Sunday to sitting on the phone with Medica for three hours to get some prior authorization form for an investigational health program. This has been quite exciting, the thought of making fat stacks and being a reliable and beneficial member of society really gets my blood flowing. This thought about work has also gotten my travel appendage tingling; I love Minneapolis, but the snow and cold are quite literally a roadblock in my day-to-day life. I’m not sure where, but I feel a permanent residence relocation down the relatively relaxed road. Damn. Forced alliteration.

I have also placed myself as a potential candidate for a few clinical studies around the country, testing how best to restore function. I can’t get into specifics, and I haven’t heard anything back, but there are a few studies going on as we speak that have had tangible success in bringing back function to a spinal cord injured person. The most famous, the implanted electrode study In Louisville, saw all six of the patients regain some sort of function. I don’t know the specifics or the levels of that restoration, so it could be nothing..but it’s not. I am more confident than ever that I will at least be able to pee and do all other bathroom/bedroom stuff by the time I want to have kids. Because I don’t think my highly talented and smoking hot wife will want to change a newborn’s diaper along with one of a bald, bearded, ridiculously good-looking, grown man.

I wish all you the happiest of holidays, and try to not take for granted being happy. Happiness in the now is better than any kind of potential happiness in the future. You never know what will happen, at least probably that’s the case. I’m pretty clueless about stuff.

T Storm