Y'all there are a lot of big things going on here!

Furious on your behalf, Cindy, and boggled about why anyone thinks our system is worth preserving.

Excited on your behalf, javachik! And hoping you get offered a dream job that doesn't want you to start until January.

Maybe my new favorite academic acronym will amuse: the "non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) population"....

Argh, Cindy. I'm sorry you have to deal with such a mess.

Go javachik! I am excited for you!

Insurance stuff is a fucking nightmare. I should go check on my various bills and see what's new.

I may have been a bit pissy in Slack talking about our open enrollment (we're switching insurance providers again). Maybe.

Oh and they never would've found this at all if it weren't for the kidney stones, and the enlarged lymph nodes in my abdomen that they found when they did the CT scan in the ER. Which is frightening/amazing to think about, because I feel totally normal.

I wouldn't wish kidney stones on anyone, as you know, but damn, I am glad you had them.

Cindy, that's horrible. Such BS, especially the out of network anesthesiologist (I was worried, when I had my surgery, that something like that would happen, but I had no ability at the time to figure that shit out or ask questions or god forbid change hospitals to try to avoid it or something--and my impression is that usually they can't/won't tell you ahead of time, anyway! Insurance in this country is so incredibly fucked up)

Yeah. We're waiting for the bill.

He was originally supposed to have his surgery in September, and we had a pre-op appointment with an on-staff anesthesiologist, so I don't know if someone else actually administered the anesthesia during surgery, because the date changed and our surgeon squeezed us in (she did it on her on-call day).

I hate insurance. Our work is going crazy and they had to put off open enrollment for a week "to give more people time to prepare for the increase in price". I am still thinking of switching to the PPO plan for $50/month rather than the HSA where I pay $5 and put $45 in the HSA. I really think in the long run it is cheaper to have the deductible in the HSA and pay $5, but I am TERRIBLE at paying bills and maybe need to have a co-pay. I wish the doctor's would just take my money for the whole bill.

Oh and my landlord's daughter sent a note:

I will let you know (if you need to do anything further) but it sounds like as of right now everything is in good condition.

Thank you for taking care of the problem and I wish you the best going forward and working through any issues you were having! :)

Laura, I'm sorry for your loss.

Cindy, that is so infuriating.

Sophia, does that mean you passed inspection? If so, YAY! I'm so glad all your hard work paid off.

I may have been a bit pissy in Slack talking about our open enrollment (we're switching insurance providers again). Maybe.

Very similar conversations have been had in Hangouts. (Why the bleeping bleep are we switching, we just did that last year, whose good idea was this?)

amyth, I'm never going to be Team Yay Kidney Stones, but I'm grateful that your doctor's thoroughness found the leukemia before you were symptomatic.

I passed the Landlord's inspection, and now they will schedule the city. I think things that I might not pass on are more the landlord's responsibility than mine- like once they made him put up a railing on my attic stairs and add a carbon monoxide detector.

Jesus Christ. Speaking of insurance drama: just got a bill from the hospital for something they did in April of 2018!! They suddenly want me to send $860??! From a year and a half ago?? They were like "Oh well your insurance re-processed the claim THIS April" (after originally doing so last July?)