Tag Archives: Blogging

What’s the first thing you should do after you break your jaw?

18 Jul

Start a blog, obviously. If you must insist, you can go ahead and seek medical attention first, but I do hope that you’ll consider publicly documenting your recovery.

When I first learned that my jaw would be wired shut for three weeks, I had a lot of questions about the road ahead. I wondered about things like how I would eat, how I could keep my teeth clean, and whether I’d be able to teach my classes. My oral surgeon and dentist gave me some answers, but I wanted to hear from people who had been in my position. I didn’t know anybody who had broken his or her jaw before, so I turned to the internet. Google turned up a few accounts, but these were generally either forum posts focusing on a single aspect of the recovery or summaries with only the most general information.

I started this blog because I wanted to document my recovery in a way that might be useful to others with similar injuries. I aimed to share everything that I learned and experienced through my recovery, just on the chance that it might help somebody else at a later time. Looking back, though, I didn’t do a particularly good job of it. Somehow, I neglected to take any pictures of my mouth while it was wired shut, and I wrote relatively little about food. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m a bad blogger and that this is a bad blog, but it’s a reflection of the fact that having a broken jaw can be overwhelming, and it’s not really possible for one person to write about everything that’s relevant to the topic.

It is also the case that people’s experiences with broken jaws will differ. Different people break their jaws in different places, recover differently, and have different daily routines that are affected in different ways. This level of diversity ensures that anyone with a broken jaw is uniquely qualified to add something to the understanding of broken jaws.

As for the practicality of starting your own blog, their are a number of sites that will run a blog for free. This blog is currently on WordPress.com. Another popular service is Google’s Blogger. These days, I’m also seeing an increasing number of blogs on tumblr, but my knowledge of that service is minimal. I honestly don’t really know how these three services stack up against each other, and I don’t think it matters much. All of them are more than sufficient for communicating information.

Finally, if you do decide to start your own blog, please send me the URL, either by leaving a comment or by email, so that I can add it to my blogroll.

Tags: , ,

Eleven week billing update

22 Jun

I decided to consolidate billing-related posts into a weekly digest from now on. I’d like to be able to say that it’s because I’m too busy to write a new post every time a bill comes, but that would be a lie. The only reason I can offer is that I was tired of thinking of titles for posts about billing.

With that said, here’s what’s happened in the last week.

  • I received a statement from my oral surgeon. It was dated June 10, which was the day I had the arch bars removed. It was addressed to my father, but at my address, apparently a result of confusion over the fact that one of my insurance policies is through my father. The statement said that I had a balance of $1,963.18 which was “Due Now.” This number is apparently the $1,888.18 for the surgery left unpaid by the UC Berkeley insurance plus a $75 fee for the office consultation the day after the accident. I had expected my second insurance plan to pay something, so I was a little bit surprised to see the whole amount due now. The statement also stated that interest of 18% per year would be charged after 60 days and that my entire balance was 61-90 days old. This latter measurement apparently began from the date of service rather than the date of billing.I called the office of the oral surgeon to see if they had billed the second insurance company. I was told that they had, that I would receive another statement after the insurance had paid, and that no interest would be charged until then. The statement I received was apparently “just an updated statement,” which apparently means I can ignore the part about the balance being due now.
  • I also received a letter from Meridian Resource Company, LLC, on behalf of Anthem Blue Cross seeking to determine whether somebody else may be liable for some of the charges from the oral surgeon’s office. The only way I can imagine that this would be the case is if the road condition were such that the City of Oakland were liable, but I doubt that this is the case.
  • I still have a bill from Bay Imaging Consultants for $53.79. They seem to have not billed my father’s insurance, so I should get them to do so. I’ve been lazy about it, though, because the bill doesn’t have a due date.

Tags: , , ,

%d bloggers like this: