A few good decisions

Ok, things are looking up. The fever episodes seem to be passing. Whatever *it* was, it seems to have exited stage left.

(BTW- I canceled the appointment that I had scheduled today to see my surgeon in Tel Aviv- I didn't think it was necessary. I made the right decision.)

It's Chanukah with the family... thank Gd. My kids actually *do* play with dreidles (here they are called in Hebrew "sivivon, or plural "svivonim"), and it is so wonderful. Last night they were all on the floor having spinning contests with the cool lighted dreidles they got. We also give them presents each night of Chanukah. Good time had by all. And, since I was feeling better last night, I even made "latkes" or potato pancakes ("lilivot" in Hebrew) for dinner. They came out ppurrrfectt! Oh, so greasy and yummy. :-)

So, with fever gone, am left *only* with pain, and no medicine that I can take to ease it. That is my returning to normal (as my friend MG put it). But, I decided today that I want to try for an earlier appointment with the pain doctor by going to him privately. The appointment I had was with the cupat cholim-- national health-- and it was for the end of January. But, if you go private, you pay for it (as opposed to the nat'l health which is free), and the doctor is usually much more available. Many of the top doctors here have a private clinic; that's where the money is for them.

Robert & I bought private insurance for specifically this sort of thing. That's how we could do the July surgery totally privately; the supplementary insurance paid for it. Incidentally, we bought this insurance about nine months before I got NF. So *all of this* is covered. No pre-existing condition. Someone was watching out for us. We are the ones who don't fit into the statistics of supplementary insurance. With us, they pay out much more than we paid in. It goes that way sometimes.

So, I called his private clinic, and voilla-- they had appointments available from next week on. I took the first convenient time, the 15th of December; in two weeks. It's not great because it happens to be the day after I have to go to Tel Aviv to see Prof. Meller, but it's doable. I realized that not only is it six weeks earlier than the free appointment, but sometimes the doctors actually treat their private patients with more time and care than the patients they treat via cupat cholim. And I find that they are more accessible by phone if you are a private patient. So, that's what I decided. Again, I am confident I made the right decision. The insurance will pay for like 70% of it, and the rest of whatever the cost will be is totally worth it. It's a bit of a drag to have to file all the paperwork to get reimbursed... going around for signatures, copying, faxing, etc, but the bottom line is that we have the insurance, and it is supposed to be for things like this.

So, there is a plan. Please Gd there will be a solution.