Okay, don't get excited. That's a total exaggeration. Except for one 4 sq inch of my left arm, I am totally fine. But that 4 sq inch area looks like I've been in a fight for my life, LOL.
I don't know why, but when I wake up in the morning and start to get out of bed, my dog is excited. It is one of the most thrilling things in her day. She comes to bed with me (in fact, she beats me there) and hangs around long enough for me to pet, scratch, massage the parts of her she puts within my reach. Then she leaves. She tends to sleep in the hallway between my room and the front door--maybe she's standing guard.......... But, sometime during the time I am asleep she comes back and lies there, just waiting for me to stir. When I wake up she jumps off and on and off and on the bed and "pounces" at me, not generally on me, but AT me. Then she's off and back on the bed again until I toddle off to the bathroom.
Two days ago she actually pounced ON me. On a 4 sq inch part of my left arm to be exact. She broke the skin in about 4 spots and that bled pretty good. And all around those 4 spots, there's a BIG purple bruise. I don't know a "real" term for this kind of bruise but my father used to call these things "blood bruises". It's like there is a lot of blood under the skin looking for a way to get out. A couple of times where the scabs on the 4 spots have broken, additional blood has actually leaked out and the puffiness I could see under the skin has gone down. It's really not sore, but it sure is unsightly! All in the name of "oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!! Mom's awake."
In my last post, I mentioned that I'd priced a reconditioned portable oxygen concentrator. It was a jaw tightening experience. I thought about it, weighed the pros and cons and called back. This time I got the head respiratory therapist on the line. For a little bit more, she got me a new machine from a box they'd opened to check out a recent shipment. So, it's new and comes with everything I need to charge it either from the wall or from the van's cigarette lighter. it also comes with a 3-year full coverage warranty. It weighs only 3.5 pounds and comes with a shoulder strap and a carrying case. No tax but I did have to pay for the shipping. It should be delivered within the next couple of days. I put as much as I could on my credit card which will increase my cash back points, all of which I will use to pay for the machine.
I am really looking forward to an increasing level of freedom with this thing. I am very self conscious whenever I have to drive without oxygen supplementation. I'm afraid I'm a danger to myself and other drivers when I drive without oxygen these days. I will also be able to do things like go to church again. I'm thrilled.
Not long after I did the deal on the portable oxygen concentrator, I opened the mail. I found a bill for 29 months worth of monthly payments on the regular oxygen concentrator that lives in my living room. I paid faithfully for 5 years. Then the bills stopped coming, March, 2021. That was exactly 5 years from the date I got the darned thing. I thought I had paid the darn thing off, kind of like a "rent to own" purchase. Note: I had nothing to do with it's original arrival at my house. A doctor at the hospital ordered it and had it delivered here when she released me after a dandy case of double pneumonia. So, I never knew the original terms for the thing.
You can imagine I was pretty upset to get a large bill after just making a major purchase. I tried calling the toll free # on the bill. You sit through offers for free medic alert devices, low cost auto insurance, addiction treatment and many more things you don't want. Then you are told that if you didn't get what you wanted from all of that garbage, call another number. So you call that number and to my total dismay, I am once again listening to the offer of a "free" medic alert device, low cost auto insurance, addiction treatment and all the same things you didn't want when you called the first number. I finally got a functional phone number for these idiots by calling the CO company who had had to call them for a copy of the original prescription from 2015. I can't begin to guess how they got a valid number................
Anyway the upshot of all that maneuvering is that there is some legal limit on how many months they can bill for back billing. So, if that information is correct, the $400 bill should be significantly reduced. A reasonably intelligent customer service person should let me know next week after she checks it all out. And to add a little joy to the whole thing, they have credited me with paying them a payment this month. I pay all the bills through my bank on the internet. This company is not even listed on my list of payees anymore. There is NO WAY I made a payment to them. Besides that, there is no charge to my checking account for the payment amount!!!
It's a mystery to me but an opportunity for God to do His supernatural thing. We shall see.........