{{{Laura and family}}} That is too much in too short a time.

amyth, now I'm not only sad and worried for you, I'm extra furious at the leukemia for it's incredibly shitty timing. Not that there's ever a good time for it, but Fleabag and a book exchange and travel and birthdays and concerts and a degree! It's already awful; why does it feel the need to be so petty?

ICompletelyON, I had possibly the most spectacular overheard-in-passing encounter on the way to the shuttle this morning: Coming up the hill to the hospital, I passed a woman coming down the hill from the hospital. Stocky, somewhere between me and my mom in age, her hair in a cut I guess you might call Retired HR Middle Management and aggressively bottle blonde. She reeked of cigarette smoke—no cigarette in hand, but that almost visible aura longtime smokers wear even when they're not smoking. She was on the phone, and as our paths crossed I heard her say, "—and if they give us any crap, we're going to fuck up their—" And then the fog swallowed her up, and that's all I know.

I am in hold music hell trying to deal with medical coverage fuck ups. Send help.

They disconnected me after 20 minutes on hold!

Rat bastards!

Sophia, I'm so glad that I have helped inspire you in some way! I hope your grad school journey turns out to be what you hope—or more! And best wishes for the inspection. I can't wait for it to be behind you.

Laura, I'm so sorry for your loss. That's so much to deal with at once. Lots of love to your family.

Still waiting on the central line and the biopsy. But the urologist came by this morning and said they want to do the kidney stone extraction procedure tomorrow so that my kidney function is at a hundred percent when I start chemo. I totally get the logic, but all I could think was motherFORKER! Let's just do it all!

I made them give me the direct number before they transferred me this time, but I'm on hold again.

We've got about $8000 worth of medical bills staring at us right now (and we met our 5K in-network deductible early in the year).

$2500 is for a BLOOD TEST to see the level of Christopher's medication in his body. Only one lab does this test. We were told that we'd eventually only owe about $75.00. So far, the insurance has written off $250.

We then have an explanation of benefits related to anesthesia for my son's surgery. They're rejecting because it was out-of-network. I don't know if the in-network hospital used an out-of-network anesthesiologist or what.

We used an in-network surgeon at an in-network hospital.

We're waiting 'til the bill comes in to see what's what. I keep trying to put it in the backroom of my mind, but it sneaks out every couple of days.

We will not be paying that bill, even if it comes down to: "Remember how y'all almost killed my kid by giving him way too much blood thinner for two days straight? Yeah. You should probably find a way to make this bill disappear."

The health care situation in this country is so enraging. Complete insanity.

It really, really is.

My last day at my company is tomorrow! Seven years, five of which were great, two of which sucked beyond all telling. I will miss my team so much, but I am ready for the change.

I want a few months sabbatical but also want to strike while the iron is hot, so am flying to NY next week for a job interview...

Interview~ma, javachik. May you get a great offer with a start date far enough off to enjoy some time to relax before jumping into the fray again.