Author: mybadkidney

Health Equity CSR

Ugh. So Costco managed to screw up billing my FSA order. First, two of 12 items never showed up. I have a video of the UPS delivery, and he clearly drops off five packages. However, there were only ten items in those boxes/packages, so I filed a claim on Costco’s app. Surprisingly, they immediately shipped out replacements at $0. Did their system show that the items were not shipped? My previous order info still states that everything was shipped and delivered.

Next, Costco billed the entire amount of $300+ to my FSA card. That is fine, but they then charged again as individual items were shipped out. During the billing frenzy, Costco also issued a refund for the original amount. That is great for a credit card with a high limit, but the FSA card has a limited amount of funds that I am trying to deplete. The credit transaction takes much longer to process so I am showing a negative balance for 2022. I just called Health Equity and spoke to a CSR. She said that the credit takes three to five days to clear. However, I have a specialist appointment in about an hour, and additional charges to the FSA card will likely go against the 2023 balance. Well, that sucks because I am trying to spend the remaining $90 from 2022. I can see the $300 credit Costco appear on the account one day before the spend deadline and I will lose the $90. Not a huge deal but I hate bureaucratic bullshit like this.

Also, I had a challenging time speaking with the Health Equity CSR. Right away she said I sounded metallic, like a robot. I was using my cell phone directly (no mic or speakerphone) so there was nothing I could do to improve sound quality. Then I had difficulty getting her to understand my issue. It really sounded like a comprehension issue on her side. In the end, the call was mostly useless, and I would just have to wait until the credit showed up on my card.

More Rain Coming

This past weekend’s weather was pretty extreme for Southern California, where our usual forecast is sunny. We had rain, wind, and even a blizzard warning, which is super rare here.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-25/storm-saturday

It was 38°F outside yesterday morning. I had the heat turned up pretty high since it was freezing inside the house.

I typically rely on the iPhone weather app, but it is not really accurate. The app shows that it is currently raining and will stop soon. I looked outside and my driveway was completely dry. Maybe the app is showing me weather at the nearest weather station nearby?

House Cleaning Procrastination

I just realized that a year has gone by since my parents moved out of my house. I lived with them for the past twelve years, so the move does not seem like it was that long ago. They have been back here most weekends to clean out more stuff, either to take to their new house or to throw out as trash. I was supposed to clean out my old bedroom and turn it into a game/music/utility room, but so far, I have made very little progress. I am so tired by Friday that I just end up sleeping the entire weekend every week.

It is also not helpful that IKEA has been out-of-stock on two shelving units. My parents took two shelves in the hallway to their new house, and all my stuff that was originally on those shelves is just sitting on the ground. Since that is the first thing I see coming up the stairs, it feels like I have made zero progress.

Neuropathy 20230226

Every time a new attack occurs, it feels like the worst one ever. The top of my right foot near the toes just started hurting and it already feels like an eight on the pain scale. Usually, the pain and numbness get worse over time before the pain subsides. It is hurting so much that I cannot even pinpoint the pain. The entire front of my right foot is hurting and very numb.

Lately, I have been getting a pain attack every few days. This sucks.

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I was pretty happy when the pain started fading after only a few hours and I fell asleep for a few hours. I just woke up at about 4:00 am. The pain is gone in my right foot, but a new attack just started in about the same area on my left foot.

I just booted up my work computer. May as well get some work done since I am not sleeping for the next few hours.

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Awesome! It is now about 5:00 am and the pain in my right foot has returned from yesterday. I guess we are back to double neuropathy again. Remember, when you feel like your life sucks, it can always get even worse.

FSA Shopping Spree

While I was on dialysis, I had many medical appointments and out-of-pocket expenses. I decided to put money into a FSA account to get some income tax savings. Up until last year, I was able to use up every dollar in the account because I had to pay the out-of-pocket maximum on my January dialysis bill. That changed when I signed up for Medicare, but I still had a lot of expenses to pay. This past year however, I did not spend as much as I forecasted, and was left with half the account balance, or about $1,300.

What to do? Go shopping of course. I knew that there was a FSA store, specifically set up for people to burn down their FSA account balance. I thought that the prices would be marked up, but when I went to the website, the prices seemed normal. I also looked up items on Amazon and on Costco’s website. Finally, I was running out of insulin pen needles, so it was time to order that as well.

After several hours of shopping, I think I have drained the account down to around $432. There is a bunch of stuff in my Costco cart. I just need to get close to the balance with tax.

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After struggling a bit, I ended up removing some stuff on my Costco cart and only spent ~$300. That means I have about $100 left on the 2022 FSA account that I need to spend by March 15th.

I think I can do that on Amazon.

Repairing Damaged Kidneys

I saw an article in The Straits Times, a Singaporean newspaper, which says there is promising research on a protein (interleukin-11) that may be able to repair damaged kidneys.

Patients with kidney failure may be able to reverse the damage, if a new treatment is proven to be as good in humans as it is in mice. Safety trials in humans will start in 2023, and if all goes as well, clinical trials in patients will begin in the next two to three years.

That is amazing news. It seems like the average life of a live donor transplanted kidney is about fifteen years. If that is true, then I may need another kidney transplant when I turn seventy, or else go back on dialysis. I am hoping that there will be a medical breakthrough, either an artificial kidney, non-human kidney replacement, or this wonder protein.

Optometrist Appointment

I have not had my eyes checked since before the COVID pandemic. I have been to the same local optometrist for several years now. The last time I was there, they prescribed me two sets of glasses: one for driving and one for computer use. The total came out to almost $1,200. I fell for the sales pitch and added a bunch of stuff but ended up not even wearing the driving glasses. This time, I think I will juet get a set for computer/reading and keep using the old driving glasses.

The optometrist also likes to run a thousand tests on my eyes, even though I see an ophthalmologist and a retina specialist every year. It is all covered by my VSP vision insurance, so I let her do whatever she wants.

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Prescription eyeglasses are a total rip-off because there is a monopoly. A company called Luxottica owns the market and keeps prices high, much like DeBeers and diamonds. Mark-ups can be as high as 1,000%.

Here is a Los Angeles Times article.

I will probably get ripped-off today too on glasses, but I have over $1,000 left on my 2022 FSA and I need to spend it by end-of-March.

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I am back. It was not too bad. My prescription did not change that much but my eyesight is worse due to the beginning signs of cataracts. The optometrist said even with correction, my best eyesight is going to be 20/50. I also found out that they can correct your vision during cataract surgery by putting in a prescription lens in your eye. I was considering contacts again after 35 years but the optometrist suggested I wait until after the surgery, if I get it.

Anyway, I got one pair of glasses. With insurance, it was only $242. I am unsure why I paid over $1,000 last time for two pairs. That means I still have a lot of cash left on my FSA card that I need to burn before the end of March.

Cox Internet Plans

KBS World’s YouTube account has all the full episodes of Invincible Youth. I already downloaded season 1 while it was showing, but I have not seen season 2. Since 4k Video Downloader allows you to download playlists automatically (paid), I set it to download all 46 episodes at 1080p, which is about 1.5 GB per episode.

Since I have a data cap on my Internet service, I wanted to check where I was in the billing cycle. Unfortunately, the cycle started yesterday so this ~75 GB will count against my current month data cap. That is too bad since I only used 400 GB out of my 1,280 GB cap last month. Anyway, I saw that there was an identical plan to my current plan for $23 less. I am currently paying $90 for 250 Mbps.

Instead of just clicking, I clicked on the chat option. The chatbot was useless for my question so I asked for an agent. Hearing that it was a pricing question, the first agent quickly passed me to the loyalty department. That is double-speak for “trying to keep you as a customer” department. Anyway, long story short, the loyalty agent claims the offer I saw expired in January 2021, yet was still on the customer website. At least that is what I concluded since his chat answers were not always relevant or coherent. After a few exchanges, I gave up. I did go online to check, and the non-introductory rate is $90/month. Cox must use a pretty persistent tracking cookie since I had to turn off Wi-Fi on my iPhone and use Safari to get “new customer” pricing.

어떻게 이별까지 사랑하겠어, 널 사랑하는 거지

This is a beautiful song by AKMU or Akdong Musician. They are a brother/sister duo under the YG label. The brother, Lee Chan-hyuk, composes the songs and writes the lyrics. The sister, Lee Su-huyn, has a wonderfully unique voice. The English title for this song is also very long: How can I love the heartbreak, you’re the one I love.

Here are some of their other songs on my Spotify K-Pop play list:

Church 20230219

I fell asleep last night at 7:30 pm. The original plan was to get up in about an hour and eat dinner. However, when I woke up, it was 11:30 pm. At first, I thought it was 11:30 am (no am/pm on iPhone lock screen) and since the lights were on, I could not tell if it was light or dark out. For the next several hours, I failed at trying to fall back asleep. After dozing off, I woke up at around 8:00 am. It took me about fifteen minutes of lying in bed to decide to get up for church. I have really been slacking since the beginning of COVID, and I have been trying to attend Sunday service more.

Our church has around 1,000 adults spread across three services. I am guessing about 300+ people were at the first service, and I saw less than ten masks being worn. I was not expecting anyone else to wear a mask, so I brought and wore my own. There is definitely a COVID risk, but I think it is pretty minimal with a good mask on. Since it is a fairly large church, I usually do not see anyone I kn0w. Today was a good exception in that I talked to four people; that is much more than my normal church visit.

Depeche Mode‽

Depeche Mode released a new song. There are only two of them left in the group and they are also sixty years old. The song does sound like vintage Depeche Mode. That is pretty amazing.

They were huge in the 1980’s and would sell out stadium concerts. I remember their music was on constant rotation on KROQ and MTV, when MTV still showed music videos.

Look at how young they look.

Fast Food Decisions

I do not cook that much. When I was still married, I did cook more often since my ex-wife did not like to cook. We also ate out a lot. Now, ever since my parents moved out, I rarely cook. Meals are a combination of take-out, eating at work, food from parents, or frozen food. Thank God for canned soup and frozen dumplings.

On days when I do go into the office, I often start thinking about whether I should stay after 7:00 pm and get food from the work cafeteria, or leave and pick something up on the way home. Most times, I would leave the office, ponder several fast food options, then go home empty handed. Sometimes I will heat up something, but often I just crash and fall asleep as soon as I get home. For example, I left work early at about 1:30 pm. I did not eat lunch yet and I contemplated about four or five places to stop on the way home. As usual, I just kept driving and ended up at home without any food. I still have not eaten anything (it is almost 5:00 pm) so I guess I will just wait a bit longer and eat dinner.

Life just feels so disorganized however.

Double Neuropathy II

I was hoping the last time was a one-time event. It is not.

I fell asleep at 8:00 pm last night and got up at 1:00 am this morning. Soon after, the insole of my left foot started hurting. I hate it when neuropathy hits that spot because usually it is very painful. While that was happening, toes in my right foot started hurting. I said “toes” because the pain is so widespread, I cannot even tell which toe is hurting. So right now, I am getting shooting pain in both feet.

Well, this is going to be a shitty Sunday.

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This also meant I did not eat dinner last night. I miss dinners quite often now, especially on days when I go into the office. Usually I am so tired that I just fall asleep on my bed as soon as I get home.

Morning Commute

I took a few photos while the traffic was stopped on the 91 Freeway. It was a long commute, taking about 90 minutes.

View behind through driver side mirror.

I have done this crazy commute for almost twelve years. If I was not contemplating retirement, I would probably buy or rent a house closer to w0rk.

TWICE Instagram

Two TWICE (K-Pop girl group) members on Instagram Live. There were >170k viewers at one point. I always wondered how people managed accounts with huge followings. How do you interact with 170,000 people on a live video? Messages were scrolling nonstop and 99.9% was just junk.

Double Neuropathy

For the past ten plus years, each peripheral neuropathy attack has been in just one location. It changes for each attack, but it was never in more than one place each time. I remember thinking that it would suck a lot more if I get multiple attacks at the same time.

Well, that day has come.

I got an attack in my left heel yesterday. I was going to stay home and rest, but I was having issues with my home/work computer, so I drove into the office with this massive pain in my heel. It sort of backed off a bit during the day, but when I got home last night, the attack picked back up. However, this morning, a new attack started on one of my left toes while my heel was still hurting.

Arg, today is going to be a terrible day. 😭

I am eyeing my stash of expired Percocet pills.

My New EV

Just kidding.

This is the Spectre, the first electric vehicle from Rolls Royce. It will probably come out in Q4 2023. There is no pricing yet, but it is likely to be around $400k. Here is a first look video from Top Gear:

The interior looks super luxurious, and for sure more comfortable than my Tesla Model S.

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I did try to make a reservation to test drive a Lucid Air but no one called me back to set up an appointment. I am positive I filled out a webform with all my contact info. Next weekend I am going to a Mercedes-Benz dealer to check out an EQS.

Windows 11 Update

I have been putting this off for a long time, worried that the update would either brick my computer, or previously installed apps will not run anymore. I finally decided to go ahead with the update, and finally got to this point after an entire day. First, I needed to uninstall VirtualBox, but I could not find any installers as it was installed with another program. Then I had to free up some disk space. I “only” had about 22 GB of free storage space, and that was not enough.

I really hope this works. The screen now says 26% so it is super slow but making progress.

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It is done and seems to work. Of course, I have a lot less storage space left on my C: drive but that was expected. I am still getting used to the new layout, especially having the Start menu in the middle of the screen.