Bloody, Preparing for the Long Road
This morning I had to do the blood draw and vitals measurement which is a requirement for our insurance. Because of Covid we actually got to skip the testing for one year so this will be my first numbers check in awhile. The BP, height, weight and waist measurements all seemed to be very similar to the last time I was checked a couple years ago, which is good. Of course the blood work is the real indicator that matters to sniff out if there is anything lurking beneath the surface. As always, I can feel my anxiety increasing the second I sit in the chair, although I do my best to hide it. I had a man pulling my blood this time which is something new. He seemed to know his stuff and despite 5 or 6 vials being pulled I came through it ok.
It was a fasted blood test, I had not eaten in 12 hours so the DD coffee and Pop Tarts I brought along were consumed quickly afterward. I have talked before about how the county does their insurance coverage. To me it’s a model for all health care and hell even for numerous other situations in the world. In a nutshell, if you put in the effort you get rewarded. If you don’t you pay a penalty. With our insurance there are three levels of coverage. To qualify for the best coverage with the lowest deductibles you need to have the blood draw done, get a physical, talk to a health advocate if there are any red flags and then take remediation classes to address those flags if any. So in theory you could be a morbidly obese smoker and still get the best coverage if you jump through all of the required hoops.
If you just don’t give a shit and refuse to do any of these steps you get thrown onto the basic coverage with high co-pays and high deductibles. It makes little sense to do this but you get out of it what you put into it, next to nothing. I am curious how many employees actually give such little effort that they choose this route?
This weekend will be the start of six days of me completing the long list of things on my mental checklist that need to be handled prior to leaving for my long Thanksgiving road trip to the Dallas area to visit my sister. I feel like I have a ton of things to keep in the air but that is a pretty normal feeling for me prior to any road trip. This will be my longest journey since I drove up to PA for my brother’s 50th birthday last summer. Although almost all of my road trips over the years have been with a co-pilot, that last trip was solo as this one will be as well. Even by yourself there are tons of memories to be made along the way, they are just more enjoyable when shared with others, in my experience.