Tone Parsons

I thought I’d toss an update to my insurance woes out there, just in case anyone cares.

My case with Prudential is still under appeal.  They sent me a letter the other day saying that they should have a decision by the end of next month.  I’m hoping that it goes in my favor, as I’m still not getting paid and my savings is dissapearing at an alarming rate.  Social Security shot me down on my second appeal, and now I have just under 60 days to file my last appeal.  That involves lawyers and court (something I can’t afford).  I’m not sure how I’ll swing that one, but I’ll think of something.

On the medication front, my doctor and I decided to mix things up on the pain killers.  Sadly, the new blend of narcotic goodness is less effective at cutting the pain and now I sleep about 18 hours a day.  I guess we’ll have to go back to what I was taking before.

I do want to thank those of you who have written or called me with kind words of support.  It really means a lot to me!

Sorry for the lack of posts as of late.  It’s hard to write when you’re not feeling good.

I have, however, been a little busy over the weekend.

We went to the AF2 Arena Cup Awards Ceremony on Sunday!!

It was all kinds of fun, and we got a chance to see all the people who had won awards for the 2008 AF2 year!

Quite possibly, the best award went to Nick Gatto, the kicker and team captain for the Texas Copperheads.  He won the SFC USA Kicker of the Year.  What was amazing about Nick was that he was born missing the lower half of his right arm.

That didn’t seem to stop him at all though, and they showed footage of him on the field.  Man… that guy can seriously kick a damn ball!

Of course, Sergio Gilliam of our home town Spokane Shock won the Spalding Rookie of the Year award.  Rumor has it that he’s in contract talks to move on to the NFL for next year.  Man… we’ll miss him.. he’s the interception king!

Then… on Monday… we went to the AF2 Arena Cup!

Oh man… what a game!!  While the Spokane Shock didn’t win, it was tied at the end of the game and went into overtime with instant death.  The Vipers finally won it by one point with a final score of 55 – 56.

It was also incredibly loud in the arena!  The anouncer stated that the db level was 109.6 in there.  Damn… that’s concert loud!!

We came home a little dejected because our team lost, and very, very horse (from screaming).  Even though our team lost, it was still a great time!

First and foremost, thank you for all the comments and emails on my previous post. I really appreciate it!

I was in full panic mode when I wrote it and have calmed quite a bit since then.  I’m going to let the appeal process run through it’s course, and if that doesn’t work, I have a few plans of action (thanks to everyone who wrote me with suggestions).

I have the name of an attorney who specializes in exactly this kind of thing, and I’ll be making a formal complaint to the insurance commission (apparently, insurance companies hate it when you do that and it lights a fire under their butts to get things fixed quickly).

Financially, I’m ok for now.  My wife and I had been saving cash like mad for the last 8 months, and between us, we still have enough to float things for a while (even though we had to pay for a new roof and some concrete repairs for the house).  We’ll be ok as long as this gets sorted quickly.

Again, I can’t state enough how much I appreciate your concern… it really means a lot to me!

*sniff*

I have the best reading audience EVER!!

For those who haven’t been following along, let me give you the cliff notes for the past 8 years or so of my life.  This is a pretty long post, so I’m putting in a “more” tag (just click it to read the rest of the story).

October, 2000 – I was hired by a fantastic company for even more fantastic pay!  They have a fantastic culture, the benefits are amazing, and my position of Senior Applications Engineer is both challenging and rewarding.

June, 2002 – While doing charity work for Habitat for Humanity, I injured my back.  Actually, I was shoveling rocks and felt the disk at L4-L5 go crunch.  Intense pain began to appear in my left leg.

May, 2003 – After a great many tests and MRI’s, I went in for surgery.  They performed a discectomy on the herniated disk, removing the chunk that was pressing up against the nerve that went down my left leg.  The surgeon told me there may be complications from the procedure, as he had issues getting the nerve out of the way to cut.  I felt pretty damn good… for about 6 months. Read more