Life Lately

 I don't know if I mentioned it already(I've been kind of loopy lately)but I saw the new neurologist a week ago Monday.  Now I am fully untangled from that crappy health system. rah.

She didn't know this other neurologists name so she thinks he is a resident....a doctor with training wheels as it were.  That would partly explain him never answering my messages through the patient portal or the many phone calls logged into the Neurology Department.  He's too busy being pulled to here to there like all resident students.  And it would explain him calling me in the evening from his dorm or whatever his housing situation is.

Anyway, I now have a full fledged Neurologist who knows her shit AND can  be reached if needed.  I watched as she went through the 50 pages of my neurological medical records the other healthcare system sent over(remember, this is the same system that gave me to a Pediatrician when I went seeking a Primary Care Provider)and she was circling stuff and marking through stuff, while shaking her head and I might have seen a few eye rolls too.

Basically Mr. Resident was woefully under medicating my Essential Tremor!  New Neurologist DOUBLED one medication dosage and increased the other by a quarter.  She also told me if this wasn't enough to control them fully, she would add another medicine that is often used with my main medication, as those two sort of work in tandem to control ET.

I also let her know I was going to Virginia to possibly have FUS(Focused Ultrasound)procedure and she was all for that. 8-)))  Even if I get the FUS it will only help my dominant hand and I'll still need medications to control the other side.  After 9 months to a year patients can have the other side of their brain done if needed but I don't know where we will be a year down the road.  I can still go back to Virginia to that particular Neurosurgeon if I want.  I probably will because if we relocate to PA the closest one now to that part of Pennsylvania who does this procedure is in Philly and we won't be as close as staying with my brother in Virginia would be.

I've been to a couple of webinars on FUS and ET with Neurosurgeons and they both say there is no way to know how long the FUS procedure is effective for(your experience may vary).  I may end up back with the ET on the treated side a number of years down the road but I feel it's something I need to try.  I hate being on all these drugs and if this gets me off them or at least lessens how many I need I am all in.

I'll leave you with a nice sunset we had the other evening.  The sun sets at the back of our property.....

                                           

All the trees back there obscure the whole view but it's nice anyway.

Tomorrow maybe I'll talk about my return to the creepy eye doctor's office too.  That was a royal cluster but what can I say.....I am being held hostage in Louisiana and what passes for competence here. lolz

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the June 21st Edition

There are a few Frugal wins over the past week.

*   Picked up prescriptions at Walmart with no money OOP.  Filling that Humira prescription the first time put me in the Catastrophic category so I pay nothing for medications until the year ends and everything resets.

*  Every PT session I grab a bottle of water from the fridge there.  So free 14 bottles of water so far and counting. 8-)

*  I hit up Walmart on Tuesday after PT........

10 x Cesar wet dog food for $9.80.

2 x G-Fuel drink mix sticks for $13.96

That's $23.76 spent.

I got back $7 on Ibotta, $8.26 worth of points on Shop Kick, $4 on Shopmium, $4 worth of credit on Alexa and $6.98 on VTAGZ for the G-Fuel or $30.24 in cash and credits.

I bought all this at my local Walmart that same day.....

2 x Gatorade Water=$3.36

2 x Beggin' Strips=$6.96

2 x Carefree Pads=$17.46

5 x Dove Hand Soap=$24.85

1 x Colgate Toothpaste=$4.96

1 x Barilla Pasta=$2.52

1 x Soft Scrub Toilet Cubes=$3.77

1 x Soft Scrub Cleaner=$3.27

1 x Dial Body Wash=$3.97

Total....$43.98 after using a free $25 gift card and $7.25 in coupons.

I received back $33.25 Ibotta, $4.12 Shop Kick, $6.00 Shopmium, $3.63 OTC Offer, $5.00 Alexa credit, $4.25 Swag Bucks and $9.50 on Fetch or $65.75 in cash or credits making all this a $21.77 moneymaker.

The pads, pasta, toothpaste and body wash will go to the food bank.

*  Remember that $20 gift card we won at Trivia last week?.....

Well we went back for trivia on Tuesday and the freaking place was closed!  They closed up that day and never notified anyone or even put a sign on the door.  Great!  We win a gift card and now we can't even use it.

So this regional chain only has one location open now so we drove there Wednesday to use the card and play trivia. 

*  So we drove to the bar's other location on Wednesday for trivia and to use this gift card.  This is their last location.  And even though I was scared now to win, we got 3rd place! lol

*  On the way home from the closed bar Tuesday evening, we stopped at CVS so I could use my $5 in ECBs......

2 x Garnier Shampoo on sale=$8.00

1 x Cereal on sale=$1.99

I used a $4/2 Garnier Q and paid with my $5 ECB and .63¢.

I earned back a $2 ECB for the shampoo. Agh, another trip to CVS is on my horizon now. ;-)

This pictured is all bound for the food bank.

*  After PT on Thursday I stopped at where else? Walmart and picked up all this....

1 x Old Spice deo=$12.97

2 x Dove Shampoo=$11.96

2 x Clorox toilet cleaner=$5.36

1 x Crest toothpaste=$8.97

6 x Cesar dog food=$5.88

1 x Bactine liquid bandage=$5.97

2 x Splenda liquid sweetener=$6.99

Total.....$58.10

The only items bought at Kroger were the Splendas, they were BOGO and I got $4.10 from Ibotta(2 x $2 Splenda and a .10¢ any sugar substitute offer).  Plus these were bought on Wednesday got me to my $5 Midweek Bonus.

The rest of the rebates/credits were $22.99 Ibotta(including a $3 Weekend Bonus), $13.34 Shop Kick, $1.50 Shopmium, $4.00 Alexa, $8.50 Swag Bucks, $4.00 TaDa and $2.50 on Fetch.  $60.93 in rebates in total so a $2.83 moneymaker in total on all that.

The deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo will all go to the food bank.

*  As for Kroger and my KCB account...it continues to be a f**king cluster!  The last phone call was with "Charleen" and she can't find the $3.30 from 5/17 or the $12.50  I am owed from 5/19.  She can only see I didn't get a .75¢ KCB offer and put a ticket in.

On Wednesday I get a Korporate form letter from "Mherie Ruth".  After checking with the KCB team it shows that "the offer has already been redeemed on 05/19/2024 with 2 total redemptions".  WTF!  This tells me nothing....no specifics or identifying information.  It's just word salad.  Then she goes on to tell me how to send my KCB to my shopper's card.  I am not an idiot....I know full well how to do that!  That is not the problem.  So I responded in kind and just laid them out as the worthless pieces of sh*t they are.  ALL the items I didn't get back KCB for are going back to the store(except for the Tortilla chips Hubs ate lol)and I am done with this totally dysfunctional operation.  They would rather dance around customers and talk nonsense to them than Fix. Their. System!  This is a major corporation and there is no excuse for offering a system, making a customer jump through hoops to comply with this system and then deny the customer what they are owed.  Ridiculous.

*  I saw a new neurologist this week.  She is on the ball and gave me the thumbs up to fly to VA and try to have that Focused Ultrasound Procedure.  She doubled the amount of meds I was on for ET too as I was severely under medicated for the condition.   I have now transitioned away from that crappy Healthcare System to a new one that is competent.  I am so relieved!

*  I found money!

I found two pennies in Walmart when I went in to return something on Saturday.  1 penny by the CS desk and another by a self-checkout machine.

This penny was found in a different Walmart on Tuesday.

This penny was found in CVS on Tuesday evening by their self-checkout.

This penny was found on the carpet by the vending machines at PT.  I got there early so used the restroom and spied this coin.

And then I found this dime at the Walmart by PT under one of the self-checkout machines.

Total Found last week.... .15¢ 

Grand Total Found this Year.......$5.11 & 5.30 Euros

That's all I got.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy