Discussions
Reply to: Navigating the healthcare system in the USA Posted November 1, 2022

Not really doctor information, but I worked as a pharmacy tech for a minute and learned a lot of name brand drugs have coupons to use on their websites. I really prided myself on finding deals for my customers! Anyway, different drugs have different things you need to do – some you just get a coupon code that the pharmacy can use, others you’ll need to register. Unfortunately, it seems most will not work if you’re uninsured or on government insurance, ie/medicare or medicaid. I also had a customer who retired from the fed gov’t and still had insurance through work and it wouldn’t work. But it’s always worth a shot! Also, you may be able to talk to the pharmacist about alternatives. I can’t remember the drug names, but there was an eardrop that was being prescribed for children that had a copay over $300 for some. It was really just two drugs that were cheap. the pharmacist had the doctor’s office re-write the prescription so they got two eardrops costing $16. After working at a pharmacy I truly believe your pharmacist is an untapped wealth of knowledge! 

Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted June 28, 2022
Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted June 27, 2022

Thank you for your kind words!! They brought tears to my eyes. I was an emergency dispatcher for almost ten years; towards the beginning of my career, a deputy told me to remember this emergency is not happening to you – you are in a safe building, away from it all. That made it a bit easier to take a breath and do my job – not in a “sucks to be you” sort of way but more of a “I am the one that can get you help” sort of way. That said, I feel like I’m pretty good at disassociating myself to things – not saying it’s healthy, but I can do it well. The tornado hit our home, both our vehicles, and both of our work buildings – it affected every aspect of our lives and there was no “getting away.” It has gotten better since I’ve gotten a different vehicle, and I try to “treat myself” a little more than normal. Who would have thought the majority of our lives are in a straight line?! LOL! As far as the contractor goes, he is really a restoration guy. So what happened is the tornado hit on a Sunday night; we called the insurance and they had someone come out to take pictures on Monday. They were not associated with the insurance, just there to verify something really happened. Then that insurance guy pushed it to large claims, so we had to wait a bit. Then, a large claims insurance guy called us and I had to arrange for an engineer and this restoration contractor to meet with us at our house and go over what needed to be repaired. A couple weeks later, the engineering report was done and we were waiting on the restoration guy to turn in his assessment – he was essentially doing the insurance adjustor’s job, no one from the actual insurance has been to my house. The restoration guy brought a construction contractor down to look at our house, and he (restoration guy) told me in my living room that was half packed up and looked like a bomb went off that “I’ve had enough stress, they will take it from here.” So they finished packing (which wasn’t much, but it was nice they moved the furniture and heavy stuff out) and then tore the upstairs down to studs. So all of this took a couple months and finally a check was cut from the insurance. The insurance has to send it to a middle company between them and the restoration guy, and then our mortgage company had to get involved as well, before the check was sent to the restoration guy. It was around Christmas so of course we figured it would be delayed. My husband started calling restoration guy and inquiring where the check was – the insurance cut it weeks ago – and was told the same thing, that it had to go through several steps and each step took a few days. This went on for a while and I got fed up so I called the insurance and started complaining. Our insurance adjustor said the restoration guy was supposed to have funds to start the work and not have to wait for our check. I ended up getting the number to call for our mortgage company and the middle company. The restoration guy NEVER did the paperwork to get it started. So I did it and we finally got the first portion of the payment for over $100k sent to us. They couldn’t send it straight to him because of their policy or whatever. Anyway, STUPID ME just signs the check over to restoration guy so that we can get started. YAY for us! Finally – Tornado was in October and this was March 1. Then, the construction guy quit answering his phone. We really liked the construction guy because he had been straight up with us and had a mutual friend who we would trust with anything. My husband ended up finding out that restoration guy did in fact give construction guy money – but then asked for the majority of it back so he could make payroll. Construction guy pretty much told restoration guy to get lost. So I called the insurance again and threw a fit. The insurance adjustor was mad as well, and ended up putting in complaints and filing stuff against the restoration guy. Suddenly, restoration guy came up with the money to give to construction guy to start. So, of course, the weather put us off for a while, but we finally have the windows and siding done even though there is construction stuff all over our yard it doesn’t look like it was hit by a tornado yesterday. The construction guy ended up telling my husband that restoration guy only gave him so much money and they were needing some more but he couldn’t get ahold of restoration guy. They finally did get in touch, and today is the day we’re going to find out if he gave them the money or not and call the insurance again. Construction guy told my husband that we’re the last job he is working with restoration guy on because this isn’t the first time this has happened, and that we were decent to work with and because our mutual friend. The next check we get, we will not give a penny to restoration guy and we will give it to construction guy as needed. Lesson learned – but in my mind I was thinking we weren’t supposed to get this money to start with. As far as my vehicle goes, the damage that was done was all cosmetic besides a broken windshield. The insurance paid me awesome for it – like $2k less than what I paid for it in 2014 – but a vehicle similar to what I bought in 2014, twoish years old and lower miles, is double the price I gave for it in 2014. For me to “buy back” my vehicle would be almost the full amount they were going to give me to total it, since all that HAD to be fixed was the windshield. It was beat up pretty bad, so we opted not to do that. Now is not the time to buy a car, for sure! Which we have the money but just not expecting that extra payment.  I know others have it way, way worse than we do. We are lucky we have insurance to cover all this and a place to stay. We’re lucky most of our belongings were fine. Most importantly, we are safe and healthy. I try to keep focused on this, but some times it’s hard when it seems like you can’t win for losing. It will get better. Soon we will be sitting on our back deck eating supper I cooked in my new kitchen. My 13 month old son will have his own room again. We have a vehicle that will last longer than the one I intended to drive until it died. It will get better soon, and this will all be a learning experience. 

Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted June 23, 2022

I’m struggling. In October of last year, our house was hit by a tornado, causing enough damage we couldn’t stay. We had to put our belongings in storage (thankfully we didn’t lose a lot inside our house, just everything in my son’s room and some in the kitchen/living room) and ended up moving to a small one bedroom, one bath cabin at a church camp. I was so thankful we had a place to go. They said we could stay until mid-May, but we kind of chuckled because, of course, we would be back home before then. The contractor that our insurance recommended said he could start right away while other contractors told us they wouldn’t be able to start until Spring. He started alright – the upstairs of our split level house has been gutted since December and is still that way. The contractor is a huge liar but since he had already been paid we couldn’t get out of working with him. Next check we get will NOT be going to him – we will take care of it with the contractor that is actually doing the work. Work has FINALLY begun within the last month – we have trusses installed and most of the outside work done. That said, in mid-May my husband repaired the plumbing upstairs (that was broken during tear out) and made the electric safe (damage from the tornado) so that we could move into the basement portion of our house. Again, very small and this time no kitchen. We have a grill and a microwave to cook with and wash bottles in the bathroom. It’s also fun trying to bath a 1 year old in a single stand up shower stall, too, let me tell ya! I worry about the economy and the price/availability of things we need, however, we have ZERO room to store much of anything right now. I also worry about the stuff we have in the rented storage container since it’s been sitting in 100 degree temps now, I’m sure some of it is going to be ruined. My vehicle was totaled by the tornado, so we have taken on an unplanned car payment, thus making it harder financially to stock up on food. My husband is looking to trade his truck in on something that we would be able to get rid of. (We live far from my family so my vehicle is the travel-long-distance vehicle, if that makes sense, we can just jump in it and go and not worry much about it not making it there.)  We did plant a small garden, but with our situation, I’m not sure how much I will be able to preserve. We have an Amish store nearby, along with a weekly farmer’s market, so I’m hoping to be able to stock up from them whenever our house is finished. On top of all the economy/food/house anxiety, my father passed away in January and my mother isn’t doing the best but she keeps it to herself and isn’t even considering moving closer to me or my brother – I am 9 hours away and he is 4-5. All this along with normal life stress has my anxiety through the roof. Something that I have learned from the tornado is that I want to make my house minimalist as far as things – we had/have so much that we don’t need and doesn’t really serve a purpose. My husband is in the works of making us more of a safe area to go to in case of another bad storm – when the tornado hit and blew the doors open/broke a window, we could feel the air blow underneath us. We’re planning on reinforcing a room and adding a metal door so that we can have a safe space and able to store some of our supplies with us in that room. Funny story – when we were looking to buy a home, I had to have a basement and my husband was not really wanting one because the experience he had with basements was his grandparents that flooded when it rained hard. A derecho went through and he was out working when it hit – he had to get from a shop to a house and it took two men to open the door to the house – there was a portable storage building rolling across the ground along with other debris flying about. Suddenly he was on board for the basement LOL! I’m sorry that I word vomited all over this post but it is nice to get it out. Anyway, we are newish to the prepper world and it is overwhelming, but this website and forum has helped a lot. I have started water canning a few years ago and now I’m looking into a pressure canner. We are hoping to become a bit more self sufficient. I am hoping being less dependent on “the world” it will help with the anxiety about whether or not the food, medicine, etc, is going to be available at the store when we need it.

Reply to: Philosophies for good mental health Posted June 23, 2022
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Reply to: Navigating the healthcare system in the USA Posted November 1, 2022

Not really doctor information, but I worked as a pharmacy tech for a minute and learned a lot of name brand drugs have coupons to use on their websites. I really prided myself on finding deals for my customers! Anyway, different drugs have different things you need to do – some you just get a coupon code that the pharmacy can use, others you’ll need to register. Unfortunately, it seems most will not work if you’re uninsured or on government insurance, ie/medicare or medicaid. I also had a customer who retired from the fed gov’t and still had insurance through work and it wouldn’t work. But it’s always worth a shot! Also, you may be able to talk to the pharmacist about alternatives. I can’t remember the drug names, but there was an eardrop that was being prescribed for children that had a copay over $300 for some. It was really just two drugs that were cheap. the pharmacist had the doctor’s office re-write the prescription so they got two eardrops costing $16. After working at a pharmacy I truly believe your pharmacist is an untapped wealth of knowledge! 

Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted June 28, 2022
Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted June 27, 2022

Thank you for your kind words!! They brought tears to my eyes. I was an emergency dispatcher for almost ten years; towards the beginning of my career, a deputy told me to remember this emergency is not happening to you – you are in a safe building, away from it all. That made it a bit easier to take a breath and do my job – not in a “sucks to be you” sort of way but more of a “I am the one that can get you help” sort of way. That said, I feel like I’m pretty good at disassociating myself to things – not saying it’s healthy, but I can do it well. The tornado hit our home, both our vehicles, and both of our work buildings – it affected every aspect of our lives and there was no “getting away.” It has gotten better since I’ve gotten a different vehicle, and I try to “treat myself” a little more than normal. Who would have thought the majority of our lives are in a straight line?! LOL! As far as the contractor goes, he is really a restoration guy. So what happened is the tornado hit on a Sunday night; we called the insurance and they had someone come out to take pictures on Monday. They were not associated with the insurance, just there to verify something really happened. Then that insurance guy pushed it to large claims, so we had to wait a bit. Then, a large claims insurance guy called us and I had to arrange for an engineer and this restoration contractor to meet with us at our house and go over what needed to be repaired. A couple weeks later, the engineering report was done and we were waiting on the restoration guy to turn in his assessment – he was essentially doing the insurance adjustor’s job, no one from the actual insurance has been to my house. The restoration guy brought a construction contractor down to look at our house, and he (restoration guy) told me in my living room that was half packed up and looked like a bomb went off that “I’ve had enough stress, they will take it from here.” So they finished packing (which wasn’t much, but it was nice they moved the furniture and heavy stuff out) and then tore the upstairs down to studs. So all of this took a couple months and finally a check was cut from the insurance. The insurance has to send it to a middle company between them and the restoration guy, and then our mortgage company had to get involved as well, before the check was sent to the restoration guy. It was around Christmas so of course we figured it would be delayed. My husband started calling restoration guy and inquiring where the check was – the insurance cut it weeks ago – and was told the same thing, that it had to go through several steps and each step took a few days. This went on for a while and I got fed up so I called the insurance and started complaining. Our insurance adjustor said the restoration guy was supposed to have funds to start the work and not have to wait for our check. I ended up getting the number to call for our mortgage company and the middle company. The restoration guy NEVER did the paperwork to get it started. So I did it and we finally got the first portion of the payment for over $100k sent to us. They couldn’t send it straight to him because of their policy or whatever. Anyway, STUPID ME just signs the check over to restoration guy so that we can get started. YAY for us! Finally – Tornado was in October and this was March 1. Then, the construction guy quit answering his phone. We really liked the construction guy because he had been straight up with us and had a mutual friend who we would trust with anything. My husband ended up finding out that restoration guy did in fact give construction guy money – but then asked for the majority of it back so he could make payroll. Construction guy pretty much told restoration guy to get lost. So I called the insurance again and threw a fit. The insurance adjustor was mad as well, and ended up putting in complaints and filing stuff against the restoration guy. Suddenly, restoration guy came up with the money to give to construction guy to start. So, of course, the weather put us off for a while, but we finally have the windows and siding done even though there is construction stuff all over our yard it doesn’t look like it was hit by a tornado yesterday. The construction guy ended up telling my husband that restoration guy only gave him so much money and they were needing some more but he couldn’t get ahold of restoration guy. They finally did get in touch, and today is the day we’re going to find out if he gave them the money or not and call the insurance again. Construction guy told my husband that we’re the last job he is working with restoration guy on because this isn’t the first time this has happened, and that we were decent to work with and because our mutual friend. The next check we get, we will not give a penny to restoration guy and we will give it to construction guy as needed. Lesson learned – but in my mind I was thinking we weren’t supposed to get this money to start with. As far as my vehicle goes, the damage that was done was all cosmetic besides a broken windshield. The insurance paid me awesome for it – like $2k less than what I paid for it in 2014 – but a vehicle similar to what I bought in 2014, twoish years old and lower miles, is double the price I gave for it in 2014. For me to “buy back” my vehicle would be almost the full amount they were going to give me to total it, since all that HAD to be fixed was the windshield. It was beat up pretty bad, so we opted not to do that. Now is not the time to buy a car, for sure! Which we have the money but just not expecting that extra payment.  I know others have it way, way worse than we do. We are lucky we have insurance to cover all this and a place to stay. We’re lucky most of our belongings were fine. Most importantly, we are safe and healthy. I try to keep focused on this, but some times it’s hard when it seems like you can’t win for losing. It will get better. Soon we will be sitting on our back deck eating supper I cooked in my new kitchen. My 13 month old son will have his own room again. We have a vehicle that will last longer than the one I intended to drive until it died. It will get better soon, and this will all be a learning experience. 

Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted June 23, 2022

I’m struggling. In October of last year, our house was hit by a tornado, causing enough damage we couldn’t stay. We had to put our belongings in storage (thankfully we didn’t lose a lot inside our house, just everything in my son’s room and some in the kitchen/living room) and ended up moving to a small one bedroom, one bath cabin at a church camp. I was so thankful we had a place to go. They said we could stay until mid-May, but we kind of chuckled because, of course, we would be back home before then. The contractor that our insurance recommended said he could start right away while other contractors told us they wouldn’t be able to start until Spring. He started alright – the upstairs of our split level house has been gutted since December and is still that way. The contractor is a huge liar but since he had already been paid we couldn’t get out of working with him. Next check we get will NOT be going to him – we will take care of it with the contractor that is actually doing the work. Work has FINALLY begun within the last month – we have trusses installed and most of the outside work done. That said, in mid-May my husband repaired the plumbing upstairs (that was broken during tear out) and made the electric safe (damage from the tornado) so that we could move into the basement portion of our house. Again, very small and this time no kitchen. We have a grill and a microwave to cook with and wash bottles in the bathroom. It’s also fun trying to bath a 1 year old in a single stand up shower stall, too, let me tell ya! I worry about the economy and the price/availability of things we need, however, we have ZERO room to store much of anything right now. I also worry about the stuff we have in the rented storage container since it’s been sitting in 100 degree temps now, I’m sure some of it is going to be ruined. My vehicle was totaled by the tornado, so we have taken on an unplanned car payment, thus making it harder financially to stock up on food. My husband is looking to trade his truck in on something that we would be able to get rid of. (We live far from my family so my vehicle is the travel-long-distance vehicle, if that makes sense, we can just jump in it and go and not worry much about it not making it there.)  We did plant a small garden, but with our situation, I’m not sure how much I will be able to preserve. We have an Amish store nearby, along with a weekly farmer’s market, so I’m hoping to be able to stock up from them whenever our house is finished. On top of all the economy/food/house anxiety, my father passed away in January and my mother isn’t doing the best but she keeps it to herself and isn’t even considering moving closer to me or my brother – I am 9 hours away and he is 4-5. All this along with normal life stress has my anxiety through the roof. Something that I have learned from the tornado is that I want to make my house minimalist as far as things – we had/have so much that we don’t need and doesn’t really serve a purpose. My husband is in the works of making us more of a safe area to go to in case of another bad storm – when the tornado hit and blew the doors open/broke a window, we could feel the air blow underneath us. We’re planning on reinforcing a room and adding a metal door so that we can have a safe space and able to store some of our supplies with us in that room. Funny story – when we were looking to buy a home, I had to have a basement and my husband was not really wanting one because the experience he had with basements was his grandparents that flooded when it rained hard. A derecho went through and he was out working when it hit – he had to get from a shop to a house and it took two men to open the door to the house – there was a portable storage building rolling across the ground along with other debris flying about. Suddenly he was on board for the basement LOL! I’m sorry that I word vomited all over this post but it is nice to get it out. Anyway, we are newish to the prepper world and it is overwhelming, but this website and forum has helped a lot. I have started water canning a few years ago and now I’m looking into a pressure canner. We are hoping to become a bit more self sufficient. I am hoping being less dependent on “the world” it will help with the anxiety about whether or not the food, medicine, etc, is going to be available at the store when we need it.

Reply to: Philosophies for good mental health Posted June 23, 2022