Fraud Continued

Today's story is a little more serious in my mind. This fraud was committed by my old dentist. When we moved to Riverview I got lucky in that a new dentist opened an office almost right across the street from where I lived. I began to go there and except for the wait, I was very happy with everything. Once I split with my ex, and my health insurance kept getting changed around, I wasn't able to go every 6 months as I prefer to do. I was finally able to work out a plan with the dentist and scheduled my cleaning and appointment. It had been a while since I had x-rays so those were taken as well. I was told I had 3 cavities and how would I like to proceed. My plan was to do one at a time over a couple months to help spread out the cost which altogether was going to be around one thousand dollars to get all 3 done.

Before I scheduled to go back and get them done, I made plans to move so I thought I would just wait until I got settled and then I would take care of it. I moved, got new dental insurance so I made my appointments. As it had been a few years, it was time for new digital x-rays which were taken as well as the full exam done by my new dentist.

Imagine my surprise when she turned to me and said everything looks great, no cavities. She had the x-rays up on the computer and I was looking over her shoulder to follow her as she went through them. I was thrilled and relieved to hear that I am taking care of my teeth, but I was also very upset to know that my other dentist lied to me and was actually going to DRILL into MY HEALTHY teeth and put a filling in when it was not needed. Maybe I will give him the benefit of the doubt that it was not an intentional scam, but he just didn't know how to read x-rays. I am not sure which is worse, committing fraud or being incompetent. Especially because when I called to work out a plan, they knew that I was getting divorced and my financial situation was changed as I no longer had dental insurance. 

I mean has it really come to where we need to get second opinions on whether we have a cavity or not? It saddens me to be taken advantage of and I wonder is it because now I am a single woman and perceived as more vulnerable? All I can say is I am SO glad to be with my current dentist who is absolutely wonderful!! I love her!

Follow Up 09/21/16
I have an interesting follow up. I went in for my normal cleaning only to find that my previous hygientist had mysteriously disappeared. The new hygientist does a gum check with that horrid sharp object and tells me that all my numbers are awful, that my last x-rays show bone loss and I need to have a deep cleaning at around $1200.00. I was like whoa, how had all this changed when everything was wonderful at my last appointment. I was told that my records were lost and they have no idea why I wasn't told this at my last appointment as they were looking at my last appointment x-rays in addition to the gum test. Something odd to me was they said I didn't need new x-rays. They literally had me in tears as I was expecting a simple cleaning that is covered by my insurance and now I am being told I have problems that are going to cost me a ton of money. I did leave in tears as they would not budge on other options. I got home did some research and decided I needed another opinion as I could not figure out how 6 months ago my gums were great and now I am in dire straights. My dad was told something similar at his appointment(different dentist) so we both thought we'd get another opinion. We made our appointments with the dentist that had done a lot of work on my dad's teeth years ago. Unfortunately for my dad he was told he definitely needed the deep cleaning. But lo and behold, after getting new x-rays and another fun gum check, my second opinion dentist was quite baffled as he said my x-rays showed NO bone loss, not even a tiny bit and my gums were all in the normal range, not even one was bad. I was relieved, but also very disappointed as again, I was scammed by a dentist wanting to do unnecessary work. So my words of advice is get a second and even a third opinion on expensive dental work!!

Lately I feel like I am really getting taken advantage of. Two situations really have me wondering is anyone honest anymore. The first and really non-harmful one is, eHarmony. Back in December I figured it was time to get out there and start dating. They were doing a special, sign up for 6 months and pay over 3. It was a learning experience and I got some good stories out of it but by my third month I knew it wasn't for me and I went through the process to end automatic renewal. I wanted to do it then because I was afraid time would get away from me and I would forget to cancel and get charged.  At the time as I was looking at my screen tell me it was complete and that even though I shut off automatic renewal, my membership was good until June. The last thing I was thinking was to take a screen shot of that page. Forward 3 months and I sign in to check my checking balance. It was off by about $200.00 and how surprised I was to see that it was eHarmony charging for automatic renewal. No worries, I looked up their phone number sure that I would get this refunded. It didn't even need to be refunded as the charge had just hit my account and was still pending. They could easily cancel the charge and all would be well.

HA! I spent at least 15 minutes pressing one to tell them that I didn't want to speak with an AT&T rep, or any other rep but an eHarmony rep! At first I thought I dialed the wrong number as the computer voice was trying to get me to go off on many different tangents. By miracle I get an eHarmony rep only to be told that they have no proof that I turned off automatic renewal and it was too late to get a refund. After going back and forth I asked to speak with a manager only to be told that a manager would tell me nothing different. I thought I was in an alternate reality. I have never been refused before when I have asked to speak with a supervisor or manager. I explained that I know I turned off automatic renewal because it told me I had as well as reassured me that my membership would continue till June. I was again told that they have no proof of that and my ONLY option is to email their billing department and ask them to reconsider. Oh, and that will take 10-14 days before I would hear back. AND the only way to deal with them was by email. They take no calls. 

I can't even begin to tell you how angry and frustrated I was. I have NEVER seen a company do this. Because I was so angry I did some research and low and behold I am not the only one who turned off their automatic renewal only to be charged and told there was no proof that they did this. SCAM!!!! I then contacted my bank, the government's internet fraud department and Consumer Affairs to complain. I also filled out eHarmony's form only to get back a letter the other day stating that since they have no proof that I turned it off I was going to be charged and they would no longer discuss(discuss?? don't you have to have an actual conversation to use the word discuss?) this with me. 

I am currently waiting to hear back from my bank and the other institutions. So be warned! My advice is to NEVER sign up for eHarmony. If you must and cancel automatic renewal please take a screen shot of that so when the day comes that you are charged you have proof that you turned it off.

My hope is to come back and say that I was victorious against the big bad company who completely takes advantage of people and is committing Internet FRAUD, In the meantime, I still get my match report every day telling me I have 6 new matches. BE WARNED!! 

As this story took way longer to tell than I had originally planned, I will finish this post tomorrow:-)

It's been a difficult couple of months. I have been flaring and my body is throwing one thing after another at me. As soon as I recover from one thing, the next day something new starts. I am also learning my body no longer likes the heat as it used to. Back when I was still able to be physical, I would go running outside at 1 or 2 in the afternoon, never giving it a second thought. I had water with me, but it was never an issue. Today I go get the mail and by the time I come back in I am exhausted LOL! 

What I wanted to write about was perseverance. Because this month has been such a challenge I have been doing a lot of thinking about it. A lot of the time I was on my pity pot, wondering why it had to be so hard. Then I would hear about someone else's struggles, or watch something on TV that would remind me how blessed I am. But even with being blessed, it comes with a great deal of frustration. I will have to good couple months and go out with my friends, gain some stamina so I begin to work out. My outlook opens up and I get excited about the future and when I can begin to work towards those goals.

Then.........my disease decides to remind me it's there, and in a BIG way. It will wake me up at 4am shivering so hard I literally can't talk and then my temperature spikes to a whopping 102-104. It's not like some illnesses or injuries that will gently remind you they are there. Those who have Sarc can relate to what I am saying. My favorite is to be woken at 4 am violently vomiting, or another favorite where my back hurts so bad I have to get up and get on my exercise ball and roll around the floor. My boxer of course likes to help. That is until the big ball comes out. She thinks it's hers and goes into attack mode. But the ball is so big she can't get a bite of it(which is a good thing!)For some reason Sarc likes to attack at night so you have to get out of bed.

When I am waving my white flag of surrender, Sarc will recede a bit, but it leaves behind a heavy cost of fatigue, pain and frustration. All that progress I made at the gym is gone. When I return I will be starting over. I have done this over a hundred times in the years since I have been correctly diagnosed. I can't tell you how man times I have wanted to call it and say enough! It's over I cannot do this anymore. But what choice to we have? Sure I could say enough and curl up and wait for it to be over, or I can take what I have and do something with it. I have been called many adjectives through out my life, stubborn, will full, relentless. But those serve me well now, as I start over and over and over. You just don't give up on people, and I would never give up on myself!

I finally got to the paddle boarding class this morning. It was SO beautiful.  Our guide took us through Mangrove tunnels and it was so cool. I can’t wait to go back and do the other tunnels. Our group was getting tired so we only were able to go through one. You can almost get lost in them as they wind around and you come out into little bays. Our guide took a lot of pictures and I will post some once he sends them to me.

http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2011/06/16/hidden-sarasota-south-lido-key/

 I was proud of myself, I didn’t fall in once and I outlasted a grandfather, mother and a 12 year old boy! That really surprised me. Once I get used to my own board, I am going to try the Yoga class. It looks like so much fun, plus what a great way to work on balance. One of the things I have lost the most through my Sarc is balance.  Doing Yoga on the board should really help with that.  

I also can’t wait to take my board up to Rockmere and get on the River. It will be easier than on the gulf.

 What a crazy couple of days! Because of both having Melanoma and Sarcoid, I have to be careful about my eyes, because both diseases can effect them. I was told originally to have my eyes checked every year. My last Opthamologist gave me the warning signs and told me I only needed to come back every 3 to 4 years unless I had symptoms. My eyes have been great, except for needing reading glasses which is driving me crazy. But lo and behold on Monday my left eye felt like there was something in it. I use Q-Tips around my eyes so I always get those little white strands in my eyes. Looked in the magnified mirror, couldn't see anything so back to my dad. Well about 2 am that next morning it was really driving me crazy so I went back to the mirror with a flashlight because it's easier to see the strands. Didn't see anything and when I took the flashlight away, I had that weird vision you get when a light flashes in your face. I kept waiting for it to go away and I noticed in the lower corner of my eye was a big black spot. It kind of freaked me out. When I took my dog out, the black spot would go almost white. Then back to black when I was inside. It wasn't getting ANY better after a good amount of time and I got really stressed. What if I did something to my eye? When I thought about my symptoms, dryness, redness, feeling like something was in it I began to think it was the Sarc. I got really concerned now. I noticed in about an hour, the black spot was gone but the other symptoms remained. So I made an eye appointment for the next day.  Of course what happened? I looked again with the flashlight(in the daytime this time) and actually found a large strand. I had a little trouble getting it out, but finally got it out. My eye didn't feel better immediately so I began to wonder if that was the cause of the irritation or not. By the time I woke this morning my eye was completely back to normal so I can take a nice deep breath......... I changed my emergency appointment for a full appointment just to be sure. They are due to be looked at anyway.

I can't tell you how relieved I am that I don't have sarc of the eyes. Anytime the inflammation spreads it's not a good thing. Especially with the eyes and especially since I have a double whammy with the melanoma and sarc. I will share a story with you about that, but that is for another day!!

I may have had to spend an hour and a half on the phone getting it figured out, but I finally have a domain for my blog!! So from now on please visit me at www.sarcoidosissurvivor.com!! How exciting is that!! Even the tech who was helping me got excited as we figured it out. It was a team effort so koodos for Google and for myself who is becoming a regular techie:-) I have even posted a few fixes on a techie site..who knew. I used to always describe myself as a tech flunky, but not anymore.

On the health front I am trying to get all my tests run so they can figure out why I am getting these fevers all the time. I've seen about 7 different doctors who have no clue, and even the infectious disease doc has no idea. Except they all say well it could be the Sarc. Anything can be the Sarc, ggrrr! I had a doctors appointment this morning and sat beside a woman wearing a doctors mask. She assured me she wasn't ill, that her husband had been getting these fevers and no one could diagnosis them and they finally did with a strain that is antibiotic resistant and he is in the hospital for 30 days!! No thank you!! He also has a weakened immune system....scary!

I also have a lesion on my thyroid gland that I need to get checked out. I have a CT scheduled and my doc wants to do another echo for pulmonary hypertension which really scares me. Plus it's time for my yearly eye exam and I currently have a kidney stone I need to get checked to make sure it hasn't grown. I have had so many lithotripsies that the docs are balking at doing anymore so it will be interesting to see how they want to get this bugger when the time comes. All the joys of being a sarkie!!