bevinva

Heating a sock stuffed with rice works too, and it smells nice.

tamms_1965

I second that emotion.

Bob

but not beans, oh my god that smells foul

ian-mstm

We have a thing filled with cherry pits... wonderful smell. Works like a charm every time.

Ian

ukintexas

Lol - and so bloody true unfortunately!

NiceOneDelBoy

Figured I would Chime in here with information gathered from my own experiences with health insurance and neck/shoulder pain. There are so many reasons for neck and shoulder pain and a lot of it is still un chartered water. Your symptoms can point out in the right direction but it's not always accurate without tests.

I am not in the medical field but just going on what I have learnt. Pain in the shoulder is very often referred pain from a neck problem. A disc herniation MAY cause loss of sensation or strength in your arm, also check your arm for any muscle loss - for me it was my triceps.

Other pain in the neck can be a crick, a trapped nerve, muscle spasm, myofascial tightening, Scar tissue...like I said a whole bunch of things.

After an injury I had pain in my neck and shoulder over time the pain increased. After multiple trips to the doctor he finally did some reflex tests. Ask the doctor about them, like holding a piece of paper between finger and thumb, or making an "OK" sign with your finger and thumb and having the doc test the strength. These are simple tests which a doctor (GP) can do without ordering anything under the insurance other then the visit. However it is likely that a doctor will send you to a specialist to perform more accurate tests, like an EMG which tests the nerves or an MRI.

An extruded disc 90% of the time will be reabsorbed within 6 weeks. First try any non-invasive treatments, PT, acupuncture, muscle relaxers, pain killers, stretching, Yoga Pilates, Heat and Ice. I tried all of these and I am still a work in progress, but am, like you, only using surgery as a last resort.

A chiropractor could be contradictorary, I have consulted one, and did not like it (my own opinion) consult your doctor and get a diagnosis (if possible) before letting a chiro go near your cervical spine.

An orthopedic surgeon will say surgery if it is a herniated disc that has been herniated for over 6 weeks. Although he/she may suggest an epidural injection first.

Like you have done always check to make sure a doctor accepts your insurance, know your co-pays, co-insurances and deductibles and always ask...will this be covered. The insurance Paid over 2k for an MRI for me, my portion was 10%.

If you have a medical procedure performed on you, make sure each person there will be covered under your insurance. I was put out for an appendectomy and the hospital brought in a surgical assistant who was not covered. If this happens, then fight it.

This is an outline of my limited knowledge, I am not saying you should do one thing over another, but just my advice of someone who feels your pain and is going through a similar situation.

Good luck.

chartreuse

This bit strikes me as important. Before we had any health cover at all, SWMBO had a bad foot and we had to suck it up, go to a walk in clinic and pay.

The doc got an x-ray done, looked at it, diagnosed the problem and prescribed a remedy. Job done, we thought, paid up and left.

We noticed a note on the paperwork that said "if we send your x-rays to be reviewed by somebody else, there will be an additional fee of $$" but didn't think anything of it. After all, it was all done and dusted, right?

Few weeks later, we got an additional bill. Called to query, they said that they had sent the x-ray for review anyway, after treatment was finished, and we owed them money, as per the term on the paperwork.

As it turned out, we told them to shove it and they backed down. But it was clear that, in their lexicon, "if" translates as "profit center". So beware of "ifs".

lansbury

Its the fact that they say we just do this test but do not say and it costs X. You get the treatment and then have to wait until you see the bill to find out what you pay. Bit like supermarkets not pricing anything and you only find out at check out.

chartreuse

That's because everything costs whatever they think they can get away with. One price to a guy with no insurance, different prices to different insurance companies and yet another price to the government.

That's why I argued that, instead of spending a fortune to make us all bond-slaves to the insurance companies, the govt should just have published what it pays for different procedures.

lansbury

OK so 5 x-rays later and being examined by an orthopedic specialist it is possible I may have a touch of arthritis in my neck which could possible have trapped or aggravated a nerve. Now I get to pay to be tortured by a physical therapist who will stretch my neck.

Must say I was impressed with the facilities. X-ray equipment on site and was all done very quickly and when the doctor wanted a couple of more done it took 5 minutes. Physio startes tomorrow. What happened to waiting 3 months to get an NHS appointment.

geordieland

I used to work in a medical office and have a bit of knowledge in this dept. The reason they cant tell you ahead of time what it'll all cost is actually because, believe it or not, the charges are worked out based on your diagnosis, which, obviously they cant do until they've done the test. The discounts are worked out based on whatever the insurance company will pay. Usually the lowest they will go is what they would get paid by medicare for any given procedure and there is a published list for that, but I'd bet its not available to the public - so..........be sure if you are paying cash or for whatever reason arent putting something through your insurance ALWAYS ask what the price will be if you pay cash.
Remember that regardless of which insurance company you use, there will always be differences between individual plans and PPOs and HMOs.
An other thing to watch out for are medical equipment suppliers, make sure they are covered by your insurance company to issue you with things such as crutches otherwise that can be an unexpected expense.
Also its possible to have your treatment denied by the insurance company because they dont approve of that treatment for whatever diagnosis. This scenario cost me $600 in Chiropractors bills that I thought I was covered for.
Most importantly though, if your insurance company denies something, get on the phone immediately and find out why - usually there is a time limit for challenging a denial and sometimes it can be as simple error or as easy as a request for more information and can be an easy fix. Otherwise, its something you'll know better about another time.

Hope that lot was useful!

MsElui

I had routine blood tests done at my in network OB-GYN whilst pregnant. HOWEVER the stupid gits sent the blood tests to an out of network lab so i had to pay extra for that out of the blue.

Kaffy Mintcake

That's unfortunate. I just mean that I don't think all doctors are interested in making the bill for their patients as high as possible by sending things out-of-network deliberately or by ordering tests solely to avoid litigation or so they can charge the patient. The posts I read on BE seem to imply that doctors are never acting in the best interest of their patients.

chartreuse

That might be 'cos people use "Doctors" as shorthand for "the medical services business I was dealing with".

I've no doubt that there's good and bad in doctors just as in any other group of people. But even a doctor who's a decent person may not have any say over how the hospital administration inflates the bills.

Kaffy Mintcake

That I can agree with!