I think I posted earlier in this thread about my 27, now 28, year old cousin that was diagnosed with a brain tumor over the summer. Went through brain surgery and then rehab for speech and motor functions. She wears her glasses more than she use to and doesn’t want to drive at night but otherwise back to her normal self.
The biggest thing was having a great standard of care and support system, which it sounds like you have in full. Wishing you nothing but the best.
In Virginia balance billing for many providers is breach of contract with most insurance companies. Can speak specifically to behavioral health and dentistry.
That said, many providers do it anyway and neither they nor their patients realize it’s bad practice, because nobody knows wtf is going on with health insurance.
USA #1
We appreciate all updates.
Maybe a mod should excise smith hobbes to his own thread outside politics.
All good, I think. I have difficulty with speech from time to time, and for some reason letters with “p” and “W” come out weird. Brain in a quirky thing. REALLY nice to get my hobbes name back - I’ve had it during my Prodigy gays (I’m old).
So, we’ll see. Dunno how much I’ll time I’ll be here, but I’m around - not really up to speed with whats been going politically (been a bit busy) but I’m hanging in there. I appreciate all the responses given - you’re all more of a community than you think you are, even if we won’t always agree with everything.
Now if my damn Neurosurgeon will just give me an OK for a beer, all will be good.
MM MM
I just read about this in the other thread and immediately teared up. I come over here and learn that you came out of the surgery okay and, of course, started crying again. This time tears of joy and relief.
All the best.
I don’t really follow this thread and missed this…best of luck Hobbes. You’ve been a great poster and person and one of the people I most hope to meet irl. I hope this is a minor as possible.
Joyful thoughts to you @john_smith, @hobbes9324
Sorry it’s not the best outcome but you are a fighter. Watching the nba is known to help better anything.
I just want you to remember before you went into the hospital you said you were a big Mavericks fan. 
I was a huge prodigy user back in the day but my username was like RX09AQ785G1.
“make a quick and easy payment” on the 1 1/2 times the average cost of a house
Really glad the hospital clarifies that additional bills will be coming from individual doctors.
The ICU patient is supposed to confirm every possible doctor is in network while on the edge of death, apparently.
My darling 3-month-old nephew got referred to some medical device scam facility (by his pediatrician, mind you) for positional plagiocephaly, also known as flat head from lying on your back. If you aren’t familiar with this racket, it’s a $3,000 plastic helmet–or cranial orthosis–that “corrects” the uneven development of your infant’s head, is to be worn 23 hours per day for months, and may have to be replaced if your infant outgrows it. It’s rarely covered by insurance from what I gather.
Plagiocephaly is now quite common in children this young, likely attributable to the Back to Sleep campaign (1994) that was initiated in response to research linking stomach sleeping to SIDS. However, these cases (1) vary in severity, and (2) the best randomized trials find no evidence that helmets are any more effective than doing nothing at all in moderate to severe cases in relatively young patients. Helmet therapy may be beneficial in severe cases presenting at an advanced age. I prefer this succinct title/abstract pairing from The Journal of Family Practice:
PURLs: Helmets for positional skull deformities: A good idea, or not?
Kate Rowland, MD, MS and Nil Das, MD
Probably not. Helmets appear to be no more effective than waiting for natural skull growth to correct the shape of an infant’s head.
I spoke with my brother and sister-in-law who were already wise to this being a used car dealership, but they kept the appointment out of curiosity. Apparently it was so fucking bad that it shattered their already low expectations: pressure selling, scare tactics, unscientific claims, etc. I wonder what percentage of children are told they don’t require the device? The market is dominated by just a few players now who have locations spanning the country. But Mayor Pete wants to know what happens to all of the insurance and other medical scam jobs. Under a Lawnmower Man administration, the people involved in this shit would be in Guantanamo making shoes for pennies.
My nephew is fine, and after only a couple weeks of standard-of-care conservative treatment, his head is rounding out nicely. And that’s good, because we could use some more Roundheads about right now.
According to my mother, my father was terrified about my infant misshapen head. He thought I might have been retarded lol
I guess first-time parents are basically scared about everything when they have a kid but even that’s absurd to me.
These places are bad enough on their own just doing their own marketing. My brother came away with the impression that a large part of their business is based on self referrals. I didn’t check but I’m guessing their SEO and forum spam games are on point. Probably not something your dad had to contend with, and there weren’t facilities for this in every metro area.
On the hand, it’s another level if your doctor suggests it. I don’t think people will push back nearly as much because they trust their doctor considerably more than a salesperson. But, like, the most generous interpretation here is that the doctor has a strong / minority / outdated opinion on helmet therapy. The alternative involves device reps and makes my fucking blood boil.
Meaningless anecdote:
My gf and I (mid 30s) don’t have kids, so I’m not super in the know of my circle’s children. However, an old poker friend and I occasionally have lunch and he and his wife signed right up for this helmet for their first born son. They’re fairly well off, but I imagine this scam is brutal towards those less fortunate.
It was the mid 80s, so probably not.
Also, it appears that the helmet therapy became more of a thing during the Safe to Sleep campaign when people were paranoid of SIDS. This led to more issues involving misshapen skulls.
That whole helmet therapy thing is so barbaric. The Huns were fucking about with their skulls like that 1500 years ago.
Ask me about the time my wife had a miscarriage and needed a dilation and curettage and afterwards the doctor tried to wrangle us into his prepaid legal MLM scam.
paging LFS
IIRC, he had a 2p2 helmet thread
Ok, let’s hear it.
I have a similar story about a psychologist I was forced to see when I got my dui ~20 years ago