Pinched

What a crazy ride I'm on.

KHPA communications now contain language with words like "hope-wish-try" and the December HCC meeting "might" deal with prosthetics but now, even that sounds iffy. I'm not supposed to take the new contract language personally, but what's a person to think after months of communication - OK, I'll admit it was pretty one-sided communication - and then the contract language is reworded to become more arbitrary, archaic and capricious? We do get a $40 a month discount for not smoking though. At that rate, I should be able to recover the cost of the C-leg in about...375 months or a little over 31 years. Fortunately, I'll be eligible for Medicare before then.

The good news is that the KS parity activists, led by Bob Barker, now have their teeth in this thing and it's not just me, the annoying voice in the background. The more the merrier - party on, people.

All of this detracts from the joy of the new leg and there are some shining moments. The down side is that I have developed some bad habits from the old leg that I have to overcome. Fear of falling is the biggest and that keeps me from using the C-leg as it's designed. The socket is still giving me grief - seems I might have *gasp* stopped shrinking so there's this constant argument about who is going to conform first? My leg or the socket? Flesh or carbon fiber? Logic says flesh, but suddenly my flesh is no longer weak and is fighting back. Nonetheless, I've had a few glorious moments where everything worked perfectly and I saw my reflection in a glass window as I walked by. Beautiful! I couldn't believe I was walking so well! I know it's there, it will just take me a while to gain control.

So...sadly, I think we're back to square 1 in our fight with HCC/KHPA/BCBS of KS. I got that 800 pound gorilla off my back for about 24 hours, but it's back now!