http://youtu.be/fqFUmo8VVg0
Actually, my eyes are fine. And so are Jee Yeun’s. It’s her left shoulder that has been giving problems for a couple of months now. By problems I mean excruciating pain if she tries to raise her arm above her head. Otherwise, she just suffers a continuous discomforting dull pain.
Today Jee Yeun got to experience the wonder of American medicine close up and personal for the first time. Of course, just getting to that point was quite the adventure. As I wrote about here, it took OPM, the government agency that “services” my retirement, from April until July to add Jee Yeun to my health insurance. Yesterday, I got a letter from OPM confirming that she had in fact been added, retroactive to June 1. And oh by the way, you owe us an additional $179 for that month of coverage I never enjoyed. Nothing to worry about they assured me, we’ll deduct it from your next annuity check.
At the exact moment the OPM missive was delivered I was on the phone with Blue Cross confirming that Jee Yeun had in fact been added to my plan. “Nope, nothing in the system for her” I was advised. The kind lady said she’d call the “hotline” in DC and find out what was going on. She called back 30 minutes later and said it had all been taken care of, so we were covered. I was impressed that Blue Cross was so efficient and effective, but given my universally bad experience with several government agencies my satisfaction bar is set pretty low.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I had called my family doctor to try and get Jee Yeun an appointment. Seeing as how I prefer to get all my routine medical examinations done in Korea (cheaper and easier) I hadn’t visited Dr. Marler in well over a year. I was dismayed to get a recording saying that Dr. Marler was no longing practicing in Columbia. So I asked my daughter if she could recommend a new physician and she had me call her her doctor. When I did I was advised that the first available appointment with Dr. Oliver was in three weeks. So I took it.
Meanwhile, Jee Yeun’s shoulder pain continued to increase. My son-in-law is apparently buddies with Dr. Oliver, so he was able to pull some strings and get us in today. Hey, isn’t that the American way? So we made the long ass drive out to Lexington this morning, filled out seven pages of forms, and we were granted access to the Wizard of Oz medical care.
Dr. Oliver is a personable chap. He apologized that his staff had not understood the urgency of the need for an appointment and that we had had to travel so far to see him. He even chuckled when I told him that as a young man I had become quite adept at unfastening a woman’s brassiere, and now in my later years I had become proficient at hooking one up (Jee Yeun isn’t able to reach behind her back). He gave us about 20 minutes of his time, moved Jee Yeun’s arm around and about to assess mobility and varying degrees of pain. His diagnosis: a possible tear in the rotator cuff. He ordered up an x-ray and suggested physical therapy. He also prescribed an anti-inflammatory cream to be applied to the shoulder. He told us if the physical therapy is unsuccessful he’d do an MRI to get a better idea of what was wrong, and if necessary, surgery.
We were then sent to another clinic down the road where we filled out more forms and had the x-ray taken. I was disconcerted that the paper I was given to provide to the x-ray tech said “right shoulder” when if fact it is the left shoulder that is causing problems. Got that fixed and felt relief that we weren’t there for an amputation.
Apparently we are going to be called by the physical therapy provider directly. And we are supposed to be contacted by the pharmaceutical firm that makes the shoulder cream (apparently it is made to order). And that was that.
Driving home, Jee Yeun simply said “in Korea, you go to the doctor and get everything done in one place while you are there”.
Indeed.