I know it's only been twelve days, but things seem to be both moving slowly and quickly. If nothing else, this will be a quick post.
First, a little housekeeping. I normally go back to my last 'Update' post, copy the headings out, and then make the new post. That's to make sure I don't forget anything I want to update you on. I'm going to be changing that up as some categories will be new (I'll always have a migraine header now), some are being dropped (why talk about work until I can return to working), and some are just new as I find ways to fill my time. It's a work in progress so it might change post to post but I wanted you to be aware.
Migraines
I had two 4-day migraines since my last post with a two day break in between. I tried, for the second week in a row, to have a normal Saturday while knowing I had a migraine and that's tough.
A gameday means getting up to an alarm, having breakfast with my brother (B) and mom, watching Game Day while going over bets and talking college football in general, and then watching the games. When Michigan is playing we'll watch that and rarely change the channel as we don't want to miss a single play or get behind. When Michigan isn't playing we'll generally flip between one primary game and two or three others.
Getting up early and breakfast during a migraine isn't bad. I'm generally just experiencing a headache as well as neck/shoulder pain. That can honestly come from sleeping or even a migraine hangover so it's not a determining factor for the rest of the day. B and I are slaves to habit and we both always sit in the same place. He's sitting in front of a large picture window and I have to turn a bit to my left to look at him. It's that window that's torture as he's silhouetted by that light. That bright, blinding, migraine helping light. Before the noon game came, I knew it was a migraine day by the fact that I could barely look at B while we talked. To his credit, he knows what I'm going through without making me complain about it and just rolls with the punches.
This week Michigan played at 3:30 in the afternoon so we started by watching Noon games. It wasn't bad but the migraine just slowly got worse and worse. By the time Michigan started playing, I was in pain (head, neck, shoulders), sensitive to light and sound, and my vision was blurry. I could see the TV well enough but I couldn't check scores on my phone and had to rely on B for updates on how our bets were going. The hard part was when Michigan did well. B and mom would both hoop and holler and even clap loudly. I've never been a big hoop/holler/clap kind of guy unless there is a surprising play. Each time Michigan did well I'd be cringing as I'm already in a brightly lit room and now having to deal with crashing, painful, cringe inducing noise.
I didn't feel better until well into the evening games when the sun went down.
Outside of making migraines worse while watching football, the migraines weren't all that bad. I keep a migraine journal that records the symptoms and their respective intensities for each day I have a migraine. I bunch all the days together for a single migraine so I can count both how many migraines I have and how many days are spent in a migraine state (I don't record the day before or the day after, which you can also count as migraine days, as I'd be counting almost EVERY day as a migraine day). I also put major events that are relevant to migraines on the journal like starting new medication, and visits with the doctor. The symptoms I record are: Pain, Sensitivity to light, Blurry vision, Sensitivity to sound, Confused thinking, and Neck/Shoulder pain. I'll average these symptoms at a glance to say how severe a single migraine is but that's really difficult to average out as symptoms come and go through a day, get worse and better through a day, and some are just more intense during a day as opposed to other symptoms depending on what I do. But, if I had to put a number on the migraines, the one from 9/23 to 9/26 was an average of 5/10 and the 9/29 to 10/2 migraine was an average 5.
Again though, these came about in very different ways. The first migraine, most of my symptoms hung around that '4 to 6' level intensity. The second migraine had intensities ranging from 1 to 9 with different symptoms being particularly bad on each day.
All the migraines haven't really gotten any better since leaving work.
Other Health
Nothing new happened in other health issues. I did find out about health and dental insurance, but I'll discuss that below.
Finances
There are two sources of income from here on out. Long Term Disability (LTD) and my 401k.
The LTD comes from a company that the state uses. It's the same company that pays out in workers compensation cases. I've always thought of them as an insurance company and I think they may ACTUALLY be an insurance company. When I think of insurance companies I think of organizations that want to take in as much money as possible and pay out as little as possible. Taking care of people happens only by accident. For instance the case manager I spoke to seemed to be more happy than not when she mentioned that I wasn't likely to be covered because I'd quit before the last day of my waiting period. When I spoke to her later and it sounded like I was going to be covered she sounded like she'd lost a battle with me.
Anyway, my LTD has finally been approved. Let me go over this timeline and see if it makes sense to you. I've been having migraines for decades and chronically debilitating migraines for about a year. I started a claim with them for LTD on 08/20/2023 (I actually just called for information but the rep talked me into going through the process and said we could change the dates later). I got my information to them on the 26th. I saw my neurologist on the 29th and his office got my medical information to the LTD company on the 11th of September. My last day at work was two days later on the 13th of September.
Those are the relevant dates. 08/20, 08/26, 09/11, 09/13. There's a two week waiting period between when the disability begins and when payment can begin. I'd think that they'd put my disability begin date as 09/14 as I worked on 09/13. If approved, payments then should begin on 09/28. Nope, they put the date of my disability beginning as the 'filing' date. 08/20. Payments begin on 09/05.
They approved the LTD through 11/30/2023. If I need to extend the disability past there, I need to get them updated medical information by 12/13/2023. And if I can return to work, which is relevant as they can then stop paying me, I need to get them medical information clearing me for work.
So they only approved me for three months of 'LONG TERM' disability. I don't even have a doctor's appointment before the 30th. I'd like to think that my neurologist's office put something in his paperwork that I'm starting a new medication that may show improvement in three months but I honestly believe this is the company's part of making this difficult. If, as expected, I'm not able to return to work I'm going to have to call up my doctor's office, tell them I'm not having any improvement, and have them send in paperwork saying that I'm not ready to return to work. I'd bet dollars to donuts that I'll get another three months at that point.
At least it's approved. And as annoying as it might be, unless my neurologist says I'm able to return to work I don't see how they could later deny me coverage until the 24 month final date (remember, I can only get LTD for up to two years).
As a reminder, the payments are 2/3 of my salary up to a maximum of $5,000 per month. My salary was high enough that I meet that maximum so I should be getting $5,000 a month gross. For the first six months that pays out on the 15th and the last day of the month. As they approved this on the 3rd of October, I expect my first payment will be on the 15th of this month. With them approving payment as starting on 09/05 I should get an almost full payment for the 09/05 through 09/15, and two full payments for 09/15 through 09/30 and 10/01 through 10/15. I figure, minus taxes and fees, a full payment should be $1,900 net. If it were three full payments that'd be $5,700 but I'd bet it will be closer to $5,000. That is a HUGE relief as it comes just in time that the rest of my savings run out and I'd have had to borrow money from mom.
Obviously, I'll update when I get the money and how much a 'normal' payment is.
That leaves the 401k. My initial plan was always to empty out the 401k, pay off Tiffany and all my credit cards, then have the remainder to live off of should the LTD not pay off. But as I talked to mom about this, she mentioned a possibility that I hadn't considered. NOT taking out the full amount. I'd have to take out enough to pay off Tiffany as her monthly payment is huge and even if I get the LTD for the full two years, I wouldn't get her paid off leaving me with a huge payment and no income.
But now that the LTD has been approved, do I need to pay off the credit cards? I have about $20,000 in credit card debt. My monthly budget, with only the basics and not including credit card payments, is just about $1,800 a month. That leaves about $2000 a month that I can push toward credit cards. I technically could make it work and probably pay off all the credit cards in the two year time frame.
I took a long serious look at what my credit card payments would look like with the goal of getting them paid off as soon as possible on a twice monthly $1900 income. I included the fact that I'd still be using my Amazon card (I'm just addicted to buying things from Amazon), my gas card for a monthly fill up, and since I bought summer tires earlier this year I'll have to buy a set of winter tires within a couple months (I have a Discount Tire credit card as it gives me a discount on tires there). The tires would be an additional $2000. I planned out payments accordingly with minimum payments on all cards and all extra cash going to the lowest balance card. Once that low balance card was paid off it's payment plus the extra cash would move to the next lowest balance card. So on and so forth until all cards are paid off. With that method I'd have the cards paid off in a little less than two years. Maybe a little more as I wasn't counting on continued interest accruing.
Interest was interesting and I figured it was too complicated to actually put a true number on. First, my cards all have different interest rates. Second, the monthly interest on any particular card will drop significantly as I pay it down. My interest rates vary between 10% and nearly 30%. I looked at an average of 20% through two years. Sure, it's not scientific and could be way off, but it was about $7000 in interest. So, was it worth taking the extra money out of the 401k? Again, that's not a simple answer.
Taking money out of the 401k means I pay taxes and fees/penalties. The taxes are 24.25% which they keep and pay for me. If I take out $1,000 my taxes are $242.50 and I only get $757.50. I also have to pay a 10% fee/penalty, but I have to pay that later. That means I have to withdraw $100 and save it back to pay at a later date. Now sure, I wouldn't save $100 back as I can get that later, but we're talking about withdrawing $42,000 or $62,000. So you see, it's not 'withdrawing' $42,000 or $62,000 as I have to withdraw enough to end up with $42,000 or $62,000 after paying taxes and holding back the 10% penalty.
The math is a little convoluted, but basically I'd pay about $7000 more in fees if I took out enough to pay off the credit cards. That basically wipes out the $7000 in interest I'd pay while paying off the cards for two years. Yes, it would reduce my remaining retirement fund by closer to $30,000 but I could save up the money I'd have used toward credit card payments back and, so long as I don't have to dip into it, later put that into an IRA or even invest it back into my 401k if its allowed.
Considering I'm still worried that they'll weasel out of paying me the LTD for the full two years, I think the peace of mind I get will be worth it.
I don't know the exact amount as I'll want to put it down on paper several times to make sure I take out enough to pay off the taxes and penalty, but I'm planning on taking out enough to pay off Tiffany and my credit cards as soon as I'm able. And that should be the first half of November.
Family/Friends
B, my brother, got really sick after being over here and watching football this past Saturday. Mom also got sick. Who knows who got who sick. Neither R nor I got sick, so I'd assume B got mom sick but I know enough to say that it still could have been either way. B is feeling better and back to work and mom is doing her normal slow recovery. She felt better yesterday and I haven't checked in with her yet today.
Speaking of R, he's going on another trip 'up north'. He's leaving Saturday the 7th and will return on Sunday the 15th. It's just in time for it to get cold as highs down here will be in the 60s (they've been in the 80s for the past week or so) meaning the highs will probably be in the low 50s where he's at. But hey, I can't complain too much as he likes being outside and doing stuff. He'd hate my vacations to big cities, no matter what the temperature was.
Now that I have my finances set, I think I'm going to plan a trip down to visit A and his family. It will be an odd trip as there won't be a time frame set on it. Normally I'd only have so many days off, so I'd plan the two day drive down and the two day drive back and only have the days in between. Now, I'll have a day to leave and enough medicine to last a couple weeks. If I get down there and find out that the migraines make hanging out too difficult, I'll just drive back up then. And if on the drives to and from I find it to difficult to drive, I'll just stop for the day. If I find I can deal with the migraines or, heaven forbid, actually go without some migraines for awhile, I can stay down there for a good long time. Hell, now that I'm thinking about it, I might take more meds with me as they're the limiting factor, and if things go well I can drive out to SanFran and visit E as well. But that will have to wait until I get that first payment and R is back from his trip. I figure I might start actually planning this out (getting banking together, calling A and making sure when he'd like me to visit) on the 16th or 17th.
Work
This category is dead until I am able to return to employment.
Entertainment
I've watched so many movies and TV shows lately that I'm growing sick of picking what's next. So, figuring it's October, I'm going to go through a 'scary movie' stage. Most of these are movies I've seen already but a few are new. I have them in order, but I'm not married to it and will skip around if I need a change up. Here's my list so far:
- The Exorcist (I've watched this one already... Amazing Movie!)
- The Exorcist II: The Heretic (Worst. Film. Ever.)
- Exorcist: The Beginning (just finished this last night. Not bad, not good.)
- Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (just started this one)
- This is a strange one as it's a rehashing of the same filmed materials from the previous Exorcist movie. If I get half way in and it's bad, I'll just stop.
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original)
- House of 1000 Corpses
- The Devil's Rejects
- 3 From Hell
- The Lords of Salem
- The Shining (the original)
- Halloween (2007)
- Halloween II (2009)
- Hellraiser
- Poltergeist
- Under The Skin
- 28 Days Later
- 28 Weeks Later
- The Fly (80s version)
- Human Centipede (HEY! I haven't seen it yet.)
- Halloween (2018)
- Halloween Kills
- Halloween Ends
- Evil Dead
- Evil Dead 2
- Army of Darkness
- Us
- Nope
- IT
- IT Chapter 2
New Tech
I mentioned the keyboard in the last post. The Razer Deathstalker V2 came in and it's good. It's a joy to type on, it's relatively quiet while having that satisfying 'clunk' you get from mechanical keyboards, and the software is working just fine so far. The media button hasn't been a problem either as I've been able to remember what it needs for play/pause (one tap), or next (two taps). I think that's the biggest area where I might get pissed off though as if I screw it up I'll almost certainly be looking for a new keyboard.
In the last update post I'd had my Steam Deck for a week. It's still just fine. I think I may just be moving out of the 'gaming' ere of my life. When I have a migraine I'm just rather apt to put a video on than play a game. Oh, I'm keeping it as it will be nice for traveling... but I'm not sure its going to get a lot of use at home.
Insurance
I actually have post work insurance now. I got a paper invoice for my COBRA dental insurance the other day and figured the health insurance invoice would follow in another day or so. When it didn't come I called and asked what was going on. It seems that since I have LTD, the state is paying for my COBRA health insurance for up to six months.
And I'm still hoping that I'll get the state disability benefits where they'd pick up my insurance for as long as I'm disabled. But again, as that requires 10 years of service and I have just under that, I'm not holding out too much hope. It's more in the "Try it and don't be disappointed when you don't get it" category.
So when it comes to post work issues, I'm more or less in a good 'wait' period. I'm on the new med and am waiting to see if it works (so far, not so good). I have to wait until early November for my 401k and to get my debts paid off. I have to wait until the 15th of this month for my LTD back pay and pay going forward, then wait until early November to submit new paperwork to continue it. If/when COBRA changes, they'll send me an invoice but that shouldn't happen until April. And finally wait and hold my breath for any word on disability benefits.
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