Calculating In My Sleep

I'm not sure why I awoke multiplying percentages.  Except it was part of a strange dream.  What I really ought to say is:  I'm not sure why my dream was so much odder than usual.

I didn't eat any strange food to upset my tummy before going to bed.  Not unless you count the combination of left over Bulgogi from our new Korean BBQ place, and a spoonful chaser of  Unicorn Cake ice cream from HEB.

Bulgogi is a thinly sliced marinated meet dish that is then barbecued or stir-fried. Mine was stir-fried beef.  It was served with rice and six little sides: the kimchi was the spiciest of the sides. The remaing five sides: bean sprouts, fish cakes, bell peppers, cucumber, and something that escapes me at the moment, were somewhat bland in comparison to the kimchi.

The Unicorn Cake ice cream was an exceedingly sweet pink, blue, and white concoction with sprinkles and bits of white cake.  Its sweatness  remined me of cotten candy--one of the reasons the small pint sized container has lasted over two weeks of nightly noshing. I can only tolerate very small portions of that much sweetness in one sitting. Maybe it's because I'm so sweet...I said maybe.

At any rate, if the combination of Unicorn Cake ice cream and Bulgogi were the offender, it should have ambushed my tummy the first night I ate it.  By the time I was on Round Two of left-overs my tummy should have been adjusted to the unorthodox meal.  It was a rather odd dinner for sure, but I don't think dinner was my dream culprit.

The TV timer had turned the TV off earlier,  so I wasn't incorporating a form of some storyline my subconscious heard as I slept, like when I dreamt I was Thelma Lou from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? or when I woke myself up singing the  Inch Worm song that accompanied a childs toy commercial back in the 1960s.  I must point out I am aware, in my current non-dream state, that Thelma Lou was actually the girlfriend of Barney Fife on The  Andy Griffeth Show,  and The Girl Wonder on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? was actually named Velma.  I've always renamed and reimagined people.

Back to determing a plausable cause for my odd dream. 

I've not experienced undue work-related stress lately.  Quite the contrary, recently I received three welcome bits of news.  All three dangle the promise of better days to come. They are the light at the end of a very long dark tunnel, and they can't get here soon enough to suit me. My work stress has been greatly reduced just by the hope they instill.  Greatly reduced...but not totally eliminated.

I provided holiday coverage after the weekend.  That means I wrote care plans for all the admissions that occured hospital-wide,  during the weekend and holiday--3 1/2  days worth. While writting half the weeks work in only one day kept me very busy--I wasn't stressed--at least not any more so than providing hospital coverage any other Monday or holiday. 

Because it was  a holiday weekend I ended up writting 44 care plans.  (This tied my second highest.  Forty-six care plans continues to retain the doubious honor of "most").  I also sent a guy to another hospital for care we could not provide. That was still not too stressful. I was also being shadowed by two students who slowed me down asking questions and needing process explainations.

Okay, the shadowing was kind of stressful 'cause I had to be professional. And nice. In the morning. And the rest of the day. And I had to remember their names. The name remembering may have put me over the top stress-wise. But I'm still not convinced work stress was the culprit for the dream.

The memory of my dream is starting to fade, but the gist of it involved me being in a mall that looked suspiciously like the interior of a small regional airport, where an artist friend was providing pedicures. He had the audacity to be upset with me because I was in the process of  obtaining a written estimate from his competitors, who, he insinuated in a rather cattily-snarky way,  were on their way out,  due to some lease infraction.

I was of course getting the written estimate because the  owner, who resembled the waitress that served my bulgogi,  quoted me the outrageous sum of $150 for the pedi. I know my toes are in great need of a make-over; however, I can buy new toes for much less than that! 

Besides, all I wanted was a nail trim and color change.  Along with a nice long foot soak...while sitting through 2 or 3, or 10 cycles in the heated massage chair. 

Each time I asked for a verbal confirmation on the price of a pedi, she quoted me a different (lower) price. When she finally, in exasperation,  gave me the written estimate  $75 had been marked through and $50 was circled.

Because nothing about my dreams is ever straightforward, the estimate had the name of Sally on it.  Which left me wondering if Sally was another customer requesting an estimate? Or was Sally the name of my assigned nail tech?  Or was she Sally?

Before I could ask for clarification, a Lorretta Swift  look-a-like (Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan of M*A*S*H fame), sans the camo, began calling my insurance company to request authorization for my knee surgery.  I couldn't get a clear view of her nametag, but it started with an "S." Maybe the scheduler was Sally.

S obtained authorization and hung up before I was able to ask for further clarification. She began to schedule my surgery and pedi. I was horrified!

I was not ready to go directly to surgery. No, she assured me, today is the pedicure, the knee surgery has to be scheduled 7-12 days out.  She quoted some insurance regulation as the rationale.

I quickly informed her 7-12 days out I would be smack-dab in the middle of my 3 week working vacation.  I would be attending a confrence during the middle week. I informed her the timing for surgery would simply not do. "Besides," I asked, "what will my copay be?"

I continued to bombard her with questions and reasons 7-12 days from now was simply not workable:  Did she obtain authorization for both knees to be done at the same time? If she obtained authorization for only one knee--can she call back and request authorization  for both?  And then I begain listing all the reasons I would not be able to have surgery in just a few short days.  I have far too much to do between now and surgery: clean and organize my house, board the FurBoys, obtain home rehab services if I still need extra rehab after my stay in inpatient rehab.  No, I explained, there are just too many loose ends that need taking care of before I can intertain thoughts of knee surgery.

S calmly told me I would have a 30% copay on the 30K surgery and started to redial my insurance company to ask the details. The pricetag of 30K told me she received authorization for only one knee.  

I awoke multiplying 30K by 0.30 and vowing to obtain my own authorization since she obviously did it wrong. 

My copay should not be 30% and quite frankly, I expected a higher total cost to be quoted.  Sometimes you just have to do things yourself to ensure rget are done correctly.

Of course, if the  airport-mall-hospital is out of network, 30% would in fact be my portion of the bill.