Are you kidding?

Can't it ever be easy? I just don't understand sometimes how things go so wildly off in the wrong direction. It's like life hits a patch of black ice and spins out of control for varying periods of time in life.

This morning, thankfully was a brief encounter with these moments - although it certainly didn't feel like it while we were in the midst of the mess.

John went for his test this morning, and all hell broke loose... I'm not kidding! Apparently there was some sort of mix-up (we'll get more into that later) with our insurance coverage and they basically held him hostage at the lab for 2 hours!

He could have paid the bail money of $150 for the cash price of the test, but knew that if we surrendered the money - we'd never see it again. Being that we'll be surrendering a LOT of money for tests/procedures of this sort over the next month... paying anything more than you have to out of your own pocket becomes a big deal.

So, we naturally have an HMO - which for the most part we have been really happy with. It might be a little bit more of a run around if you need to do certain things, BUT with proper warning - you can deal with them in a civilized manner and move on with daily life.

When setting up the appointment for John - no one asked about our insurance information - so I figured that everyone had the information they needed for the coverage. I also thought that the referral for us to go see the fertility specialist covered BOTH of us... I mean seriously - does it not take a MAN and a WOMAN to make a baby? Hello?!

So, yes... it is my fault that I didn't ask enough questions... but once again - do any of these people actually do their jobs? GAH!

Anyway, so this morning - at about 8:30, I get the call from John that they won't let him leave until he either has his referral or pays the $150 bail money. Which launches me into a never-ending series of phone calls for the next hour and a half.

Three - 3 - phone calls to our primary care doctor's office AND three - 3 - phone calls to the Reproductive Endocrinologist's office... and an hour an a half of our time... (John actually was stuck at the place for 2 and a half hours) and I finally was able to get the paperwork John needed over to the lady.

I mean really - what is it with doctor's offices? First of all, I wish I could have a job so cushy! I mean the office hours for both of them are just a suggestion. You'd think being the first call of the day would warrant you getting through rather quickly... but no. The primary care doctor's office opens at "8:30" but it took me several tries and at least 10-15 minutes of waiting to get through to them.

Then the RE's office opens at "9:00" but literally - I couldn't even get through to the automated service until 9:15... and then it's a circus act to actually get someone on the phone... I must have gone through every extension listed on the message before finding a live person to talk to!

If it wouldn't be more of the same everywhere we went - we both probably would have just tossed our hands up and fired these people this morning. This was the craziest bunch of stress - I've ever dealt with and I've never felt more powerless than waiting on these people to do some paperwork that they really had zero motivation to get done for me.

I mean - they aren't the ones getting the extremely frustrated phone calls from John while he was waiting... they were getting mine, and I guarantee mine were a LOT nicer than if they'd have talked to him this morning.

Whew! Never in my life have I felt the words... "Calgon take me away"... ring anymore true than they have today.