Blog Review and the SSA

I had a little time yesterday and started reading this Blog from the very beginning. It’s interesting to look back and see how I totally failed all of the goals I set for myself 14 years ago. 

Here I was, struggling to lose weight when I weighed 207 pounds. Now I’m 232 pounds, unable to run anymore, on oxygen when I walk, trying to get on the heart transplant list and dealing with the same issues.

I’m trying to think ahead another 14 years and wondering what sort of condition I will be in. The most likely condition will be worm food. But just in case I beat the odds and God decides to keep me here a bit longer, I see myself in a Rascal Scooter, talking into my iPad as it converts speech to text, with the constant thumping drone of my artificial heart filling the silence as I watch reruns of Matlock, the one with Kathy Bates, complaining about trying to get down to 275 pounds and reminiscing about my glory days when I weighed 207. 

I’m actually looking forward to that!

Right now, I’m waiting on a return call from the Social Security Administration concerning a phantom payment that showed up in my account. I want to make sure it is a legitimate payment that won’t be recalled by them in a few months.

They said the wait time was 120 minutes and I’m well past that now at 148 minutes. That’s two and half hours to you and me.

Stand by and hopefully I’ll have an update for you shortly, at least by the next paragraph.

12:25PM: I finally got the return call from Fidel at SSA. It took about 2 1/2 hours for him to call back. That must be a bitch of a job. No wonder they’re humorless. In this case however, Fidel was very helpful and said the one time payment was an adjustment and I should be getting a letter confirming that.

So, I guess I’m okay to accept and spend this money. However, being the horrible saver I am, I’m going to attempt to keep most of this as a buffer for as long as I can.

I am going to go out a buy me a new shirt however.

 

Lament of the Wealthy American

 I am going to have to have another session with Social Security on the phone.

I was checking my bank account on Friday and the balance was way off from what I was expecting. Way off to the good. Upon further investigation, which means I looked at the account, I discovered I had a payment from Social Security in there that I had not expected. 

I got on the website and logged in to find out I had indeed been given an extra payment of about $1,200. It was listed as “One time payment”.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining.

However, I’m very suspicious of SSA when it comes to “Free Money”. I want to be sure this is legit. When SSA discovers they’ve made a mistake, they don’t just say “I’m sorry” and move on. They take back the money. RIGHT NOW!

I don’t want to wake up a month from now and find I have a $1,200 hole in my account.

So, it’s Monday morning and the first thing I did was jump on the phone to SSA. While I was working my way through the phone tree, I got myself logged on to the website and into my account. I also had planned to record the phone call. I want all the backup I can get.

At the end of five minutes of announcements and instructions, the recording said the offices are closed today due to the Federal Holiday.

Damn you, Christopher Columbus!

So I have to wait another day. It’s not as though this money is burning a hole through my pocket. I can wait. It’s nice having an extra buffer in there. It makes me feel like a wealthy American.

SSA Help Line

I just got off the phone with a woman from Social Security who has to be one of the most humorless people I have talked to on the phone.

I called because today is the day my Social Security posts to my bank account. It wasn't there when I checked my account this morning.

You may recall I have had some difficulties with my accounts because of a Low Life MoFo Scammer that tried to rip me off.

In the course of trying to repair the damage, I had to redirect my SSA Direct Deposit to a new account. That account number is 509 3825 968. (If you use the corresponding letters on the phone to those numbers, you’ll get a message that tells you I’m not giving you my account number.)

So I called the SSA Help Line and gave them my number for a call back. I'm glad I didn't wait on the line because it took an hour and 39 minutes for the lady to return my call. 

During that time, I called my bank and learned that the money was there, but in the old, closed account. They would move it to the right account by the end of the day.

So the humorless lady from Social Security called me back and I told her I had resolved the problem with my bank but I wanted her to help me with a new login system that SSA is changing to.

While she was on the phone, I went through the process of signing up to the new program. The website would not let me create a new account. It kept saying there was already an account associated with the email address I provided. 

OF COURSE THERE WAS AN ACCOUNT ASSOCIATED WITH THE EMAIL ADDRESS I PROVIDED. IT'S MINE!!!

We got to the point were she was not able to help me,. Nor could she direct me to anyone who could help me.

For the time being, I have access to my SSA account on line but I'm not sure what will happen when they switch over. And the wonderful sourpuss on the phone had no idea when that transition would happen.

Needless to say, I left an unflattering report with the after call survey. I wonder if anyone will follow up on that.

Not holding my breath.     

PFT Number One

Today we had an appointment with Lance at the Providence Pulmonary and Sleep Disorder Clinic. We have been looking forward to this appointment because it seems to be the last hurdle to get over to get on the Heart Transplant List.

I had to be there at 7:00 for a PFT. That's Pulmonary Function Test for those of you without lungs.

It turns out that the test was all for naught because nobody told me to discontinue Trelogy for 48 hours before the test. Trelogy is an inhaler I suck in every morning. It's supposed to open my airways.

Anyway, I had the test and then Susan and I waited for about 45 minutes for the meeting with Lance.

Lance is a nice affable guy who is a respiratory therapist, I think. He's also a very large man with an artificial leg. That doesn't bother me at all except for being treated by a guy who has some pretty big health issues in addition to me.

Lance went over the results of the test and they weren't great. I definitely have some lung issues being able to exhale strongly and some other stuff. I do not feel very confident for the results of the upcoming test since I will be off the Trelogy which is supposed to be helping me.

Stand by for NEWS!

DumbAss!

What a dumbass I can be! It’s really quite amazing. I don’t know if I can attribute this problem to bad eye sight, lowing cognitive skills, or just plain stupidity.

I’m in a portion of the year with my Prescription Insurance they call the Donut Hole. I can’t figure out why they call it that and I don’t really care. What I do care about is that the Donut Hole is making one of my drugs suddenly cost $187.00 for one month.

Supposedly, it will go back to normal next month and be affordable again. But for this month, I had the to bite the $187.00 bullet and get the drug.

I was refilling my weekly pill supply last week and when it came to my Jardiance pills ($187.00), I couldn’t find the new bottle. I looked all over. I pulled all the drugs off my shelf and looked at each one. I even threw away some that I no longer use. I reorganized that shelf at least three times. No Jardiance. Shit! Did I mention what it costs? 

So I have gone this last week without it. I can’t say I’ve felt any ill effects being off of it, but who really knows. It’s a diabetic drug that they have found has some good effects on heart patients.

I was refilling my weekly pill supply this morning and suddenly, from out of nowhere, there was my Jardiance bottle.

What a Dumb Ass!

I think it was there all along and I glossed over it. That has been happening to me a lot. I’ll be looking for something, look straight at it, and keep looking.

The long and short of it is that I’m back on my Jardiance and I am a DUMBASS!

Weight Loss Update

I just returned from my walk and it was a tough go. I did the mile around the park and stopped briefly about half way through to catch my breath. I should also note there was some ever so slight tightness in my chest. We will be keeping an eye on this.

I've been behaving myself pretty well the last couple of days and have not lost a pound. If I'm making the sacrifice of giving up beer and wine, I had better see some results on the scale.

239 Pounds

 I finally got in to see the Liver Doctor. Dr. Seth is a friendly woman I would estimate to be in her late 30's. She told us she didn't see any problem with my liver that would preclude me from getting a heart transplant.

She suggested I loose some weight. Ten percent of my body weight, which is about 25 pounds. I'm am going to dedicate myself to do it. I've been eating chocolate and ice cream lately. Time to buckle down. Plus, I think loosing 25 pounds would show the transplant people that I am serious about my health.

She also suggested I cut back on my alcohol consumption. I love my beer and wine but I like breathing even more. So I'm going to cut waaaaay back on my drinking.

Check back here to see how long it takes for me to ignore this post.