20-20

Ok, Linda never had 20-20 vision, but she told me some very good news today. Today was the first time that Linda could see one image without the aid of her corrective prism. She isn't ready to throw the prism away and get out her contacts; that would be too exhausting. But she's never been able to make one image before, even with effort.

Maybe it was just one of those days for her. Therapy went great. She walked from the lobby to speech without her canes. Her walking was faster and more smooth than usual, even if she lost her balance one time.

Speech went well. OT went well, PT went well. She had some trouble walking out at the end (because her ankle gets tired) but that actually went well too, considering. We have a little trick that seems to help. Normally she uses her cane in her right hand, but when her ankle gets tired, we switch to her left and it gives more support when she puts weight on her right. We would just have her use her cane in the left, but she's generally less coordinated that way, so it isn't easier most of the time.

Don and Ellie, in contrast, are sick. I was getting over my cold, but I think I have a sinus infection now. I always get these. Sometimes I am stubborn and get over them on my own, but a lot of the time I end up going to the doctor. I can't even count how many I've had since Ellie started the whole day care thing.

No cash discount

I called the wheelchair folks and asked for a discount. Nope. They gave me this line like we've already written off the rental from November and December. Whatever. I've seen the payments, and they've been paid plenty to cover those months; it just wasn't accounted that way. So while technically, they didn't receive $137 in November or December for rental, they did receive something like $300 that doesn't fit into an accounting box.

To a regular mortal like myself, getting $300 for a $274 expense isn't something you describe as writing off. But it seemed clear I wasn't going to make headway, so just I wrote out my check and we're going to be done for good now.

It's probably my fault. On our previous phone call, I had broken the magic. Andrea had been explaining that the insurance company was finally figuring things out, and that they were going to make their payments. However, they didn't seem to have their heads on straight, so they weren't interested in just paying out the wheelchair--they wanted to pay rental (even though it was more expensive).

I told her that if we got to next January and they expected more wheelchair rental (i.e. out of my deductible) on a $1600 wheelchair after receiving $3000 that I wouldn't pay it. We'd have to convert to a purchase at that point.

That broke the magic. Up until that point, it had been me and Andrea against the evil insurance companies. Suddenly we were on opposite sides.

See, you learn some things the hard way. I was frustrated, but there was no need for me to feel defensive yet in October over something coming in January. I should have played soft. Gosh, I'm worried that we're going to still be paying rental in January (out of my deductible). After paying so much that doesn't seem fair and right. We'd surely be able to convert to purchase at that point, right? That's how I should have played it.

We'd still have been on the same side making plans to straighten everything out when the time came. And there's a better chance that today we could have talked about my payment. Oh well.