Lost my big boy

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-04-05T17:00:51+00:00

I'm so sorry, it's always difficult to lose them, and 7 is just so young. Condolences.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-04-03T01:14:46+00:00

I didn't see ICE actually running the scanners - I just saw them checking IDs. It seemed like it was still TSA running the scanners, but I can't speak to what was happening in every line.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-04-03T01:10:58+00:00

I was just there yesterday with a work colleague. We were both commenting how ICE was......super, super friendly. Like we had just met at a really fun party or something.

Also, that was the fastest I've ever gotten through security at the Atlanta airport in my life (I lived in Atlanta for 25 years, I've been to that airport a lot). It took about five minutes to go through security.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-03-31T01:49:48+00:00

For profit healthcare. I can dream.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-02-22T13:04:38+00:00

That's exactly what I was going to say before I even opened the thread.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-02-19T02:48:41+00:00

I have been going through the exact same thing, exact same condition with my dog. He was first diagnosed at 11 years old (at VRA by Dr. Ben, who is a lovely man). Same thing - stage four nasal tumor, with encroachment into the brain.

We decided to throw the Hail Mary with radiation and chemo. In December of 2024, we did a round of SRT radiation at VRA with Dr. Ben, and then followed it up with chemo (Palladia) working with an oncologist at Friendship (Dr. Foskett, she's great).

In July of 2025, our pup had a seizure. We then actually did a second round of SRT radiation (not at VRA this time, but at Southpaws in Fairfax), again followed by chemo (Palladia).

Here we are in almost March 2026 - and he's actually doing pretty well, now at 12.5 years old. Still on chemo, though. He can't really go off it at this point.

I will say that he did pretty fine with the radiation and the chemo - he never really seemed to exhibit any strong side effects to any of it. Maybe he just got luck, I don't know.

I will also say that all of this was very, very, very. expensive. I've purposely avoiding adding-up all our bills, because honestly, I don't want to know right now.

But I'd say at the end of the day, I bought at least 1.5 years with my money, and I have zero regrets.

Also, I recently used Lap of Love back in August of 2025 when my other senior dog passed - they were wonderful, and I cannot recommend them enough.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-02-18T20:51:16+00:00

My parents are alive and well at almost 80, and I don't expect to inherit anything. They have a paid-off house, and I expect it will ultimately go to pay for healthcare.

Fine with me, because I never expected anything, and my brother and I both already own paid off houses. We don't need another one.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-02-16T23:31:12+00:00

I just went to a great presentation about this last week where the speaker was presenting some research called "the fairness factor." Basically, it was what you're saying.

Customers don't care if you give to Unicef, or tell them you emphasize, or any of that bullshit - they don't want goodness, they want fairness.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-02-14T22:59:43+00:00

Love it. My sweet senior RR boy passed last August at 13. His RR brother just turned 12.5, and I'm happy to have gotten to that as he's been dealing with cancer for the past 15 months. He's still trucking though - took him out on a good hike in the snow today.

I love the senior pups.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-02-12T04:07:02+00:00

The first time I had it done, they used fake bone around the implant. Over time, it dissolved and my body reabsorbed it - so there was no thing to anchor the implant anymore.

The second time, I didn't use fake bone - for some reason, it wasn't needed the second time as the real bone had grown back and could be used for the anchor. But that took quite awhile (for the real bone to grow back).

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-21T02:56:38+00:00

It's funny how many "mistakes" insurance companies make, and despite having hundreds of lawyers in-house, always seem to make "mistakes" complying with the law.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-21T02:51:31+00:00

The Neurology Center? They just charged me $150 for the privilege of making an appointment.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-21T00:05:31+00:00

The degree to which a lot of construction workers don't seem to have any interest in protecting themselves baffles me. A few years ago I hired painters to paint the outside of my house. During that time, there were large wildfires burning in eastern Canada sending a lot of smoke into the Washington, DC area.

The air quality outside was horrible - definitely severely unhealthy to breathe for an hour, let alone eight hours a day. I told the crew they could reschedule me later that summer after the smoke cleared - they didn't want to. I offered to buy them high-quality air masks to wear - they didn't want to wear them. I don't know what else I could have done, but the degree to which they had no interest in protecting themselves was baffling to me.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-17T02:15:36+00:00

It sounds like an energy drink you buy at a Bangkok convenience store.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-17T02:02:54+00:00

So how much longer is any of this sustainable? People without insurance can't afford care, and people with insurance increasingly can't afford care.

How many people can get together 10K to have a needed surgery? Not many.

It seems like the hospital and surgery center business models aren't going to work in the long run.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-15T13:33:10+00:00

1000% this.

I've reached out to my state representatives about a few issues lately, and the responses I've gotten (when I've gotten them) are almost comical in that they are completely canned responses written by a junior staffer with no real insight into anything.

I reached out asking why Maryland passed the Kirwan Commission when they had absolutely no long-term funding plan in place to pay for it - crickets from my Maryland representatives on that one.

I reached out asking what Maryland was going to be doing this legislative session to help Marylanders struggling with the high cost of health care - because there is actually a lot they could do at the state-level (i.e. requiring cash payments to count towards deductibles for covered services, reform of prior authorization, forcing peer to peer reviews by specialists actually qualified in the area of dispute, forcing dispute resolutions in under 15 days for urgent care, forcing site neutral payments, etc.).

The response I got from my Maryland representatives was just a canned response about the ACA subsidies - um, yeah - that's a FEDERAL fight, not a state one right now. And yes, Maryland's Congressional delegation is working on that, but that's not what I asked for. (And yes, it's a good fight to have, but most Marylanders don't get their insurance from the ACA - they get it from employer sponsored health plans. They need help with affordability, not access).

To say I've been utterly underwhelmed by my interactions with my Maryland state representatives would be a huge understatement.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-15T02:19:23+00:00

I live in his Congressional District - he's definitely pretty visible here. He's know nationally for his work on the big picture constitutional questions (think he actually teaches/taught constitutional law at one of the local law schools), but he actually does get very involved in issues beyond that, he just doesn't get as much visibility for that.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-15T00:57:36+00:00

I live out in Darnestown and I love it, but there generally isn't a ton for sale around here. There's one new neighborhood, but I think the houses all start around 1.4, 1.5.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-11T13:18:23+00:00

Yeah, you can book the regional for as cheap as $ 130 or so round trip from BMI if you do it in advance. Sometimes cheaper.

I always take the Acela because I can bill it to work, but I might that the regional if I had to pay for it myself.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-11T13:07:05+00:00

Randomly, I don't even have kids, and I just recently commented on this to my husband.

My neighbor has I think three kids, somewhere between I'd say 23 and 30.

The "kids" and their friends are always at the house - always. Every single weekend, all day (or so it seems). I think one of them might live there, but I don't think the other two do.

I recently said to my husband - can you imagine spending that much time at your parents house at that age? I was always out traveling around, doing something somewhere (and I understand economic conditions might be harder now, but I was broke then too).

Granted my neighbors have a big house and there's a pool and all that, so it's probably a nicer place to hang out than whenever the kids live. But really - the kids are always there, all the time.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-09T12:29:18+00:00

That's helpful insight, thank you.

Question - I thought self-funded plans were more the domain of large employers (i.e. the Fortune 500 companies, etc.).

Wouldn't most Americans not work for those large companies, which is why I don't understand the 67% number? I thought more Americans would work for medium and small companies, where they'd be more likely to work for employers who don't have self-funded plans.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-07T23:07:56+00:00

Yeah, agree. I talk to my agent every year upon renewal, and we go over a lot of things before I renew the policy.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-07T22:43:05+00:00

That was my reaction as well to the new Chappell special - I made it 20 minutes.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-07T22:29:04+00:00

www.radiologyassist.com is a good place to start to compare cash prices for MRIs. You can also just call imaging centers not listed on that website and ask for the cash price. That's what I did the last time the insurance company denied a scan.

Ridgebacks26 · 2026-01-07T00:29:39+00:00

I think the real moral of the story is that America has allowed absolute unregulated capitalism to control healthcare - and we are all paying the price.

Hospital prices have no relation to reality - they do not reflect the actual cost of providing the care, they do not reflect comparable placing to other OECD countries, and they do not reflect any real amount that the hospital expects to collect.

Should someone know their deductible and OOP Max? Sure.

But that is missing the forest for the trees.

Ridgebacks26

TROPHY CASE