Tag Archives: insurance

Out with the old, in with the flu

I tease Kenn about how he seems to like to get his medical insurance deductible out of the way as soon as possible each new year. He gets an injection in his back once or twice every year and he should get one this month, so I figured that would be where most, if not all, of his deductible went. I was wrong. He woke up with a cough on New Year’s Eve. I asked if he needed to go to an urgent care center since odds were our doctor’s office wasn’t open. He assured me it was just sinus drainage and he’d be fine. He was not. His cough did not improve and he finally went to an urgent care center around 7:30pm. He tested negative for flu, strep, and COVID. However, the nurse practitioner (Holly) told him that since his symptoms had just started, it might be too early for anything to show up on the tests. She did prescribe a cough syrup for him since our over-the-counter stuff was having no effect.

Our oldest grandson was staying with us for a few days but I made arrangements to take him to his other grandparents early New Year’s Day in an effort to reduce any exposure he might have – just in case. Kenn did nothing but get worse during the day and when his fever got over 101 degrees, I took him back to the urgent care center. This time he tested positive for flu and strep. The flu didn’t really surprise me; the strep did. Holly told Kenn that the next few days were going to suck and that this season’s flu tends to hang around for two to three weeks. She also told him to be thankful that he had gotten his flu shot; he would be way worse without it. She said that she wasn’t even going to worry about treating the flu; it was the strep that needed treatment fast. We left with a prescription for an antibiotic and hunkered down for the long haul.

My efforts to keep our grandson from getting sick were in vain; by Friday, he had a headache, fever, and lethargy. Sigh. At least his other grandparents didn’t get sick. Poor Kenn was miserable. He had no energy and a horrible cough that kept him up most nights. I settled into my role as nurse, cook, and chauffeur. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to make things better. Kenn had a follow-up appointment with Holly this week and I took him in a day early since his cough was just not getting any better. Holly prescribed a different cough medication and an inhaler. She also backed me up when I said I thought he needed to reschedule several appointments he had this week. (Thanks, Holly!) On the plus side, his strep was gone!

The new cough syrup, Ninjacof, seemed to do the trick. Kenn finally got a couple of good nights sleep. As of this writing (Friday, January 9th) he seems to have turned the corner. He hasn’t run a fever for several days and while he is still coughing, it’s nothing like it was before. Kenn is usually very active; he’s always outside doing yardwork, etc. Not having the energy to do anything but sit around has been killing him. I knew for sure that he was better when I needed to run an errand this morning. Not only did he want to go with me, he asked if he could drive! Unless he takes a turn for the worse, he’s planning to go back to work next week, but only work half days until he gets his stamina back.

As for me, I’ve been fine. (Thank you, Jesus!) A friend also contacted me and let me know that she had some Tamiflu she had gotten as a preventative measure and had only taken a couple; she offered me the rest. I took her up on that offer and have had it on standby in case I started getting sick. If I haven’t gotten it by this point, I think I’ll be okay.

The only thing missing from the picture above is the Icy Hot. Poor Kenn coughed so much and so hard, his back muscles were spasming. Occasional massages and Icy Hot were added to the rest of the medication regime.

I hope your new year is getting off to a better start than ours and that you and your family are flu free!

Embracing Mayhem

Being an adult is filled with wonderful things such as making your own decisions, staying up as late as you want, and eating ice cream for breakfast. Of course, adulting also has its downside: bills, income tax, colonoscopies… you get the idea. One of the things that we have avoided is reviewing our insurance (home and car) annually. We have been with the same insurance company for decades in spite of growing dissatisfaction. This year, we reached the breaking point.

We purchased our current home, The Cabin, in 2017. We filed a claim against our homeowner’s insurance when Hurricane Michael moved through the area in October 2018 and ripped off part of the ridge vent on our roof. We’ve had several severe hailstorms move through the area since December resulting in damage to our roof (based on the pieces of shingles we’ve found). Kenn filed a claim with our insurance company. Following their procedures, we had our roof checked by several roofers who all agreed that yes, there was hail damage. The insurance adjuster came out where he met with our primary roofer. The adjuster apparently told the roofer that yes, there was hail damage but he told the insurance company that there wasn’t, so: claim denied.

A couple of months later another hailstorm moved through so Kenn contacted the insurance company again. If he had talked to me first, I would have asked him not to. I figured they would just deny a second claim and probably raise our rates to boot. Ah, if only it had been that simple. Yes, they denied our claim. Then, they added insult to injury by sending us a letter that basically said “Your roof is old, therefore it’s a liability. If you don’t replace it by July 28th, we’re going to cancel your policy.” To summarize, they won’t pay out on the policy that we’ve been paying on for years but they will threaten to cancel our policy because our house has an old roof. We have now submitted a letter from our roofer stating that yes, the roof is old and will need to be replaced in the next 2-3 years. We were notified this morning (finally) that the underwriter accepted our letter and our policy will be renewed for another year. We already have a plan in place to replace the roof next year.

Image from Depositphotos.com

However, this was the straw that broke that poor, much maligned camel’s back. We began the process of requesting quotes from several other insurance companies. Full disclosure: Kenn did lion’s share of the work; he spent hours on the phone with various individuals. Why? He is far more patient than I am. My skills came into play in reviewing the quotes, comparing them to our current coverage, and making recommendations. We selected a new company and began the process to transition all of our policies. But, that extra call to our current insurance company came back to bite us in the butt yet again. The underwriter for the new company won’t cover The Cabin because we’ve had three claims in five years. The fact that two of the claims were denied is immaterial.

We decided to go ahead and transition all of our policies except our homeowner’s. We’ll work toward moving our homeowner’s policy when the 2018 claim drops off in October 2023. In the meantime, it’s probably going to cost us a little more to have policies split this way (since we won’t be able to “bundle”) but we decided it’s worth it for us.

We got good, comparable rates from the new company but you want to know one of the things that made the biggest difference to us? Most of Kenn’s conversations during this process were with the actual owner of the agency. She was shocked to learn that in all of the decades we’ve been with our current agent, we’ve only spoken to him two or three times. Now, I get it. When dealing with an insurance company, or large medical practice, etc., you don’t always get to deal with the primary agent or physician (or whatever), but it shouldn’t be a choice that is actively discouraged at all times. So, our new agent’s personal touch meant a great deal to both of us.

So long Jake, your khakis are no longer enough – it’s time for us to embrace a little Mayhem.

Image courtesy of Allstate

So, how long has it been since you reviewed or updated your insurance?