HealthyConcerns.com

Addition to the MedBlogRoll: Back Talk

I've had a middling-to-bad back most of my life. It all started with a car accident my senior year in high school. I was driving a '72 Chevy Impala with only a lap belt, and I ran right into something. Bit a chunk out of the steering wheel, which was a quite noticeable and immediate injury...broken teeth and all. So we didn't think much about the whiplash factor, but my back wasn't really the same.

I think I exacerbated the problem for the years I lived in New York and walked everywhere with a very heavy bag carried always on the same, left shoulder. Yes, I believe you're supposed to switch...little did I know.

Now, years of constant computer use has probably taken its toll too.

So, I've subscribed to the Back Talk blog, part of Spine-Health.com. Part of what I like about it is that they don't focus solely on the back and back pain. I know that sounds weird, but they also talk about things like insomnia and depression...which, whether symptoms or causes, are often co-existent with back problems.

I haven't been inspired to add a blog to the MedBlogRoll in a while, but thought this one was worth your perusal if, like me, your back is something that you all too often have to think about!

I don't get it

So, we've been wending our way toward providing health coverage for our full-time employees, including medical, dental and access to a vision plan.

And here's something I don't get:

Why is it any of Blue Cross' business which employees aren't opting for their coverage and why? Or Delta Dental's business either, for that matter?

For Blue Cross each employee who isn't taking coverage via BC has to fill out part of their application form anyway. Stating that they're declining and why. And while I understand English, so I ostensibly understand the explanation I'm getting from our benefits administrator, I don't understand it.

They don't want people avoiding health insurance when they're healthy (and thus avoiding paying into the coffers) and only signing up when something goes wrong. But isn't that why they ask you all those intrusive questions about your health on individual applications? To determine pre-existing conditions and get out of covering them?

So, this other requirement (which just complicates getting everything in to complete your application for the people who do want coverage) is, I guess, a requirement they feel they need because people must not be honest enough to fill our applications truthfully.

I just personally found it an invasion of privacy to give my personal information to a company whose services I did not choose.

Am I being too touchy? What do you think?

The winning BlogHers Act Issue: Global Health!!

Now, help us narrow it down (yes, Global Health is a dauntingly HUGE topic) by taking this poll and spreading it around! The deadline for voting is August 25th.

PS-I'm going to keep the poll sticky at the top of the blog until the voting closes.

Fee free to share the poll, and here's the post that explains how the project will roll out after voting closes.

Now, aren't you glad Health won as the single red-hot issue? Go help us refine it even further!!

Corneal Ulcers R Us

It wasn't bad enough for my blogging that I was organizing this little blogging shin-dig which left me little time for actual blogging. Then I had to go and contract an infectious corneal ulcer which has left me fairly incapacitated for days.

What's a corneal ulcer? Well, you can read about it here. Basically, as the doctor I finally saw on Tuesday said, it's an open wound in your eye. Yes, it's as yummy as it sounds.

Right now I'm sitting in a darkened room, working on my laptop with its screen brightness dialed way down. I'm working on the laptop, instead of my desktop, because the desktop is near a window, and because the desktop has this gorgeous huge screen that even at reduced brightness is just too bright for my eyes to take.

I'm working in little 15 minute increments and then resting.

And every 2 hours I have to put drops in my eyes. Drops that sting. Every 2 hours is better than the every 20 mintues I had to administer them back on Tuesday after my initial appointment.

And for the last two nights I've had to wake up every 2 hours to put in those drops that sting.

And what is the lesson? The moral of this story? Do not hang out waiting for large, swollen, red, painful, photo-sensitive eyes to get better on their own. Just suck it up and go to the doctor.

Original, I know.

I'm not feeling particularly brilliant, though, because corneal ulcers suck!