Quarterback Sneak Results in No Gain!

Most of my friends are probably tired of all of my frequent baseball analogies, so I thought I would title this blog with a football one.

I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Hoffman this afternoon. But, if you have been reading my postings lately, you know that I am more concerned now about being able to pay my mortgage this month that my health. Long story short, if Kaiser doesn't get all the requested completed forms back to Metlife very soon, I may have a very small paycheck next pay period.

Here is the rundown of my Quarterback Sneak today: I printed out the Metlife forms this morning and took them to my appointment. After Dr. Hoffman's examination (everything is looking good by the way) I pulled out the forms and gave him the sob story of all the phone calls and trips that I have made to get the things filled out. He took a look at the forms and said that he would sign them if I could get them filled out. The forms are asking for a lot of info using "medical codes" that the doctor said he did not know. Basically, he just signs the things.

So Dana and I run downstairs to the medical records department. We told them that Dr. Hoffman was ready in pen in hand as soon as they could code the forms. But guess what, they don't code the forms at that Kaiser location. All the coding is done in another facility in another county. I then took a look at Dana's face and realized that we had better leave. I have seen that look before and was afraid that we were about to have a "code blue" in medical records.

But the infamous Kaiser database said that the paperwork was en route (via carrier pigeon?) to the coding location. The expected date of completion was June 14th. Too late for payroll.

Tomorrow morning I am going to email HR to humbly request that my 2-weeks off to recover from surgery be counted as vacation days - at least until this paperwork is settled. I completely understand that Kaiser, Metlife and Graphic Packaging have their rules - but unfortunately, Wells Fargo Mortgage Company also have a set of pretty strict rules.

Got the go ahead from the doctor to start applying vitamin E to my surgical scar in an effort to reduce the hideous thing from something that looks like an injury from a chainsaw accident to just an old fashioned knife fight scar. The doctor also took a look at my paralyzed vocal cord and said that it "settled" at about midpoint in my voice box. That is good and means that my voice should continue to get better. I won't be doing much yelling or singing in the future - but that might be a good thing.

I continue to run across folks at work and the ballpark who say they have been reading the blog. I had no idea that so many people were checking it out and wish I had put a visit counter on the page. With so many people reading, I wish I had something more profound to say. But if this paperwork thing doesn't get better soon, this blog will be moving from profound to profane - and probably be a lot more interesting.

Thanks everyone at work for the greetings back. I appreciate it.

Jeff