Humor in Healtcare | You Just have to Laugh….

I know it’s been a long time in coming. Most of you follow me on Facebook, so we haven’t truly been out of touch. But, wow! My life has been an amazing roller coaster of wonderfulness since Christmas. Yes, my last blog was about re-entering the Caregiving world. Truth be told, I was not happy about that. And it wasn’t even that dramatic. Well, it was for my husband, who had a serious leg injury, but for me it was “vanilla-caregiving-101.”

Since then, I’ve spent almost two months with my daughter welcoming our new grandchild and then a hasty return to presentations, TV appearances, having a caregiving script-in-hand read by professional actors, and working on getting more gigs to tell the world to get #prepared for the tsunami of caregiving!

I have neglected this blogosphere and I return renewed. I was truly thinking about what best serves my readers. And to look at my most well-received posts, I would say you guys love to laugh……….but even more, you love to be informed. So, like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, our journey is going to be those “Road to…………” movies where we can have a laugh or two, but I’m going to teach you what I learn about all this aging, caregiving. long-term health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, nursing home, Elder law, estate issues blather as best I can.

Today…….the “Road to Medicare!” This could be 327 posts or more. In fact, it’s so chock-full of road blocks, potholes, orange cones, warning lights and yes, even smooth paving that we could have a blog about only this.

Lo and behold, I know someone who does that! And in my inbox this morning, she sent me three myths of Medicare. I had already decided to talk to you about our Medicare experience after dinner with friends last night when everyone was chiming in about signing up…and there in my inbox was Universe confirmation that yup, we need to talk about this.

My husband will turn 65 soon, and since I try to take my own advice, we called the Medicare Guru and asked her to guide us a bit. We are fortunate to have retirees’ insurance, and since I won’t turn age 65 for AGES (um hmmmm, had to say that), we knew this could be shark-infested waters. If we made a mistake in the sign-up process we could suffer some real financial consequences. The Guru gave us sage advice and the following week my hubby went online to sign up for Medicare.

Five minutes into a seven-minute process I hear, “Cathy!” Uh-oh. I run to the office to see consternation all over my husband’s face. There’s a trick question. Are you covered by your employers’ health care plan? Yes, we are, sort of. No box for that answer. I know it means, are you currently employed with health insurance? I know that because, well, because I know that. But lots of people don’t know that. Right next to the trick question on the computer screen is a teeny, tiny button with a question mark in a circle above it that says, “help.”

“Push that button,” I say to my husband. He looks at me like I told him to engage the nuclear codes. But he does it with a rivulet of sweat poring down his forhead. Right there in black and white it says, “this does not mean retiree insurance.” Hmm! Okay then. Up until that moment, my husband would have answered that one question, the only trick question for him, incorrectly. And that could’ve caused some real problems for us in the immediate future. And that is one teeny, tiny problem with signing up for Medicare.

Below are the three myths that the Medicare Guru, Joanne Giardini Russell at Boomer Health Group shared in my email today. You can reach Joanne or her associate Gwynn Sharick-Elberson at 248-871-7756. It’s free to talk to them. They are super nice! Tell them Cathy sent you! You will love them.

Joanne Giardini-Russell

810-599-7116 – mobile

248-871-7756, ext 101 – office

Check out this video: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/rApnWNNRYtwo3KBSW58Y42?

What better time to try and laugh than now? I’m trying….really, I am.

My mom provides me with great material, although I don’t think she means to, and I don’t think she’s always happy to be the topic of a humor blog on a regular basis.

My friend, Lisa on the other hand, LOVES being my topic. I was thinking of her today and all the antics we’ve been through in the last seven years since she fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). I know, I know, it doesn’t sound funny, but we became the Lucy and Ethel of healthcare.

There was the time I dropped her off with our best friend, Terri to walk a few blocks to the hospital for a check-up because there was a water main break and traffic was horrendous. I thought it would take me hours to navigate the streets and park. As Lisa and Terri literally waded through the streets of Philly, I found a parking spot in 5 minutes right in front of the hospital.
Then the neurologist wanted to do a stay-at-home brain scan. This is where they wrap your head like a mummy and put some electrodes in there and record you for three days. After they wrapped her head, we decided to go to Marshall’s to look for a hat to cover her mummy-head. Not one hat would go over the wrappings, no wonder the Mummy was so mad, not a fashion was made for him. From Marshall’s we went to the park to do a photo-shoot. Yeah, I just couldn’t pass up that opportunity.
Fun with my Mummy!

Before and After Photo Shoot. Lisa really is quite lovely!
We had to drive an hour into Philadelphia every time she needed to see her eye specialists, which was a lot. It took us at least 10 trips before we figured out that cheap parking was right in front of the hospital and easier to get to.
Then there was the time they changed the procedure to check-in to the eye clinic. They decided that people could check themselves in, using computers. The computers were tightly packed into an area where you had to stand up to use them. This doesn’t seem weird, but a lot of the people in this eye clinic use walkers and wheelchairs. They can’t fit into the space where the computer is located and if they’re in a wheelchair, they can’t reach the computer. AND remember this is an eye clinic. All of the patients are having trouble seeing. We practically peed ourselves trying to figure out how this is a good idea.
Then I took her for surgery and she had to be back in the hospital at 6:00 AM the next morning. It was a long day and a quick night, so we stayed at a hotel right across the street from the hospital. I forgot we were parked in a parking garage between two big cement barriers and ripped my side-view mirror right out of its socket. It dangled from its electrical cord attached to the car. After having it bang against the door for five blocks, I folded the mirror into the car, had to keep the window open for the 50-mile drive home in February snow, and the hi-tech mirror blinked right into my face every time I needed to change lanes or turn left.