A little off the Subject

Right now I am finishing up my medical qualifications and that's not very exciting. But while I am getting all of this done, I am still living a normal life.......for the most part.

I wanted to share a story with you that happened to me over the weekend and it made me feel really good. So here it is:

On Sunday, my Mom and I drove through the back of our neighborhood to get to the gas station. To get there, we pass by a little pond that's sits in the middle of our neighborhood. I pointed out a female duck to my mom that was across the street from the pond and she mentioned that she had seen a female duck just the other day with 9 little ducklings. We then noticed at the same time that this female duck was circling a storm drain and seemed kind of panicked. Our first thought was: What if she was the momma duck from the other day and her ducklings were in the drain? We decided to get gas and come back the same way to see if she was still there.

We drove back by about 10 minutes later and she was still there. We parked the car and went over to look in the drain. And sure enough, all 9 ducklings were in the drain squawking away. We tried to call the Animal Control and apparently they don't work on Sundays? This did not seem right, but there wasn't really anything we could do but leave a message.

About this time a couple had come walking out of a side street  and saw us standing there looking into the drain and came over to see what was going on. The man tried to lift the grate and it came loose. We decided to try and take it off and get the ducks ourselves. This was more of a task than we had anticipated. The average storm grate weighs 175lbs (or so I'm told.) Did I mention the woman helping was pregnant? So after the initial lift she had to let go for safety reasons. That left me and the man to lift this thing....success!! Not without a few scrapes but totally worth it.

Once we got the grate off, a man who was fishing in the pond lent us his net and we got the ducklings out! I have to give a shout out to the man who helped me with the grate because he was the one who willingly went into the sewer water in his flip flops to get the ducks. We set the ducklings into the grass and the momma duck came over right away and led them to safety.

I was so glad that we were able to help out. It made me feel really good knowing that we probably saved their lives. It rained pretty hard that night and I don't know that they would have been able to handle the water flowing in.

I hope this story has made you feel as good as helping them made me feel.

 Next Stop? Saving Penguins from the freezing water?......I don't think so.

Autumn :)

Dental Qualifications

As a follow up to my stress and frustration I was dealing with as I headed to the dentist last Thursday. I went in prepared to lay my money down and walk away feeling numb and broke, and decided to talk to the dentist about possible options in only getting one tooth done or maybe putting a temporary back on the area that needed work.
After taking a look and seeing how well it was holding out, he said that I could still be Qualified for the Ice without having to get my crowns replaced.
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!
This is by far the most exciting news I had all week. He told me that I needed to schedule an appointment to come back in and get PQed and that was it. So I scheduled a time to come in the following day. I returned to the Dental office on Friday and everything went great. It sounds like I am qualified, but they have to send it to this retired Dentist  who looks everything over, and upon his approval, I will be qualified.
In other qualifying news, I had my TB Skin test done on Friday as well and it was examined and approved this last monday.
The last thing on my list to be fully PQed is a trip to the Obgyn. That will be in about 2 weeks and then i can move on to the other list of things that I need to get done, including getting my computer laptop approved for use and travel.

Til Next Time!
Autumn :)

I hate Health Insurance

As I attempt to finish up my medical qualifications, I have run into a few snags with my insurance. After reading a current post from my friend Mattie's Blog (theadventuresofmatilda.blogspot.com) there was talk about how much Health Insurance in the States really does suck. I am currently witnessing a portion of this first hand.

It all started back in November when I started working through a temp agency and signed up for insurance on my first day......yes First Day! I was only working little jobs for them and never saw any medical dues coming out of my paycheck so I assumed you had to be working so many hours a week before you could qualify. Well I didn't start working full time with them until March, at which point I started investigating my benefits....(which I had signed up for 5 months prior on my first day.....yes First Day) The temp agency gave me the insurance companies number and I gave them a call, only to find out that I was never enrolled. Upon asking to be enrolled, I was told I missed the annual open-enrollment in January and would have to wait until 2012 before I could sign up.

Ahhhhhhh! How Frustrating!!!!!

So I went back to the temp agency totally confused and wanted to know why I was never enrolled back in November and if there was a valid reason, why I was never offered open-enrollment in January. I was never told who's fault it was, but they did their best and got me enrolled with the insurance company effective May 9th. Better late than never right?......Wrong.

The point of getting insurance for me was for the dental. I had chipped off one my front crowns and needed to have them replaced before Raytheon would PQ (Physically Qualify) me. I had been putting this off until I had insurance because it costs over $2000 for the procedure and I needed all the discounts I could get.

Long story short.....The insurance company wont cover procedures like these until you have been with them for 6 months. So lets do the math here. If I had been covered on the day that I signed up for this insurance (November 2010) I WOULD have  hit my six month mark in......yup you guessed it May 2011...Ding Ding Ding!!!!! I would have been covered for this procedure! But since someone screwed up, I am just about to hit my one month mark instead. And I cant wait until I hit my new 6 month mark in Oct because you have to be PQed 6 weeks before you leave, and I am guesstimated to leave in August, meaning that I need to have this taken care of by the beginning of July.

So 2 Days from now, I will be headed into the Dentists office with what money I have saved up and 2 credit cards.
In an attempt to stay positive, I will be getting brand new front teeth that will look 10x better than the ones I have now.

Until next time,
Autumn