Tag: Research

Not Moving, Just Doing Research

Not Moving, Just Doing Research

After talking to my husband about some of the details about moving, he decided it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to move to Connecticut. He wouldn’t want to move while his father is sick. We would both miss our granddaughter so much. And Connecticut is an expensive place to live. We talked about moving to northern Arizona, but that is even more expensive than Connecticut. We’re just going to do some research to see what the rental properties are like up north, but most likely we won’t be moving anywhere for at least a few years. This brought down my stress level a bit. I don’t want to move and then have either me or my husband regret it.

I have a feeling that we won’t be moving for a while. It’s hard to move away from your family. I know; I’ve done it twice. Both times I moved away to go to Arizona. Moving away from family is so hard. I probably wouldn’t be able to do it if I didn’t see my mom every 3 months. I also know that I can go visit my family at any time if I need to.

The Confusion of Medicare Plans

The Confusion of Medicare Plans

I’m trying to do some research to make sure that I pick the very best Medicare plan, both medical and pharmaceutical. I have all of the information I need to gather accurate data, however; it’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I take 14 medications and see 9 different doctors (I only see 6 of the doctors regularly). I spent about 3 hours today trying to find out which pharmaceutical plans approve my 14 different medications. I’m also trying to find out which medical plans have my doctors as in-network. I think I want a PPO instead of a HMO.

Anyway, I spent hours trying to figure this stuff out, and I didn’t really get anywhere. I wish this didn’t have to be so difficult. Luckily, people from Medicare are helping me, and my Mom is offering her assistance. I want to start figuring this out early, because I have a feeling that the end date will sneak up on me before I know it.

I’m hoping that in the end, after I choose and enroll in a new Medicare plan, my medial and prescription costs will be less throughout the year. Right now, with Original Medicare, I am responsible for 20% of everything, and that turns out to be a lot of money. I just have to do the best research I can and make the most knowledgeable decision to help save some money.

Lessons I’ve Learned: Be Open-minded

Lessons I’ve Learned: Be Open-minded

I’ve learned a lot of different lessons over the years. I thought I might share what I have learned with you one lesson at a time; hopefully you don’t have to learn these things the hard way like I did. One of the more recent lessons I’ve learned is to be open-minded. I have always wanted to do things when they were my ideas. I would listen to other people and allow them to explain why they believe I should try something their way, but then I wouldn’t act upon it. A few of these examples include writing, meditation, and doing research.

My AA sponsor used to tell me all of the time that writing would help me work through some issues. I always told her that writing wasn’t for me, even though I never spent much time trying. This went on for years. Writing was also suggested to me by others, and I continued to ignore the suggestion. Finally, my aunt told me that she thought I would be good at blogging and that I could get something out of it. She suggested that I simply look over the idea and see if it’s right for me. After a few weeks, I finally took her suggestion. I now blog every day, usually multiple times a day, and I find it to be extremely helpful. I generally can write my way through issues that I’m struggling with; by the end of a post, I have come up with a solution for the problem I started writing about. Imagine how much easier my life would have been if I had simply been more open to the idea about a decade ago.

Multiple people have suggested to me that meditation could help me. My mom, aunt, sponsor, and several others would bring up the idea of meditation. For some time, they tried to talk me into doing it, but I was against the idea. I had an experience with meditation when I first got sober, and it wasn’t a good one. I had a hard time sitting still, and I was forced to work on meditating. Personally, I don’t like to do anything I’m forced to do. I’m extremely stubborn and I would prefer choose to do an activity on my own terms than have someone else strongly suggest I try it. It has been twelve years since my negative experience with meditation and I was unwilling to let go of that until just a week ago. I finally decided, based on my aunt’s suggestion, to try guided imagery meditation to hopefully help improve my painful bladder disorder. Maybe I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I was willing to try meditation years ago.

It has also been suggested that I do research regarding any suggestion from my doctors. Research is something that I like to do, but I generally only do it when it’s about something I’m already interested in. What I should do is research every option so I know the truth about my choices instead of just researching what I think is a good idea. There’s a lot of information available to help make decisions regarding our health. I struggle when it’s time to decide how to move forward with my physical or mental health. The research that I do is a great way to help me make educated decisions.

I have come to realize that my life could have been easier if I had been more open-minded. What I have learned from all of this is to work hard at being open-minded. The willingness to consider new options and ideas is a wonderful quality that a person can have to help make their life easier to manage. I don’t have to keep looking back at my past when I wasn’t open-minded; all I need to do now is look to the future with an open mind.