What Constitutes Health care?

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Today I had the bright idea to go to Kmart and buy an exercise ball, one of those giant things that look like they would have been fun to play with in gym class.

My reasons for doing this are three-fold:

1) I fell down a flight of stairs in late October and injured my back. I had been in physical therapy up until the day I went home for Christmas. I used one of these giant red balls in PT and it was fun, helped strengthen my back and it was red, my favorite color.

2) My $500 insurance deductible for PT started again January and the cost, in addition to the co-pays, was prohibitive, so I figured I'd buy the exercise ball and a foam roller, which I also used, and do the additional exercises in the apartment, discontinue PT and save a lot of money.

3) The balls were on sale at Kmart, which merged with Sears, where I have a credit card.

Problem solved, right?

Not so fast!

All but one of the exercise balls were made in China and the Kmart version of the foam roller, which was filled with air instead, was also made in China.

I fretted. I panicked. I paced up and down the aisles. I checked almost every bloody box trying to find something that wasn't made in China. I thought about forgetting the boycott, about going back to PT just so I wouldn't have to deal with this. I thought about crying.

I thought I found a loophole in our rules. Did we ever discuss buying things that were medically necessary? I couldn't, or didn't want to, remember.

In the end, I bought two exercise balls, one that was made in China and one that was made in the Philippians, the stand to hold the ball (made in China) and the air roller (made in China).

I was angry and frustrated. Good thing the laundry detergent, which was also on sale, was made in America. At least I didn't screw that up.

That night, over dinner, I brought the health care issue up with Luke. In an attempt to be nonchalant, I listed the pro's of my point of view, "it saves me money," "we never discussed this before, so it is ok," "it's my health after all." I tried to ignore the con's in my thinking, hoping Luke would ignore them too.

He heard me out but did not agree. He cited the "good faith rule" (see Rules, Rules, Rules posted January 16, 2007) and thought that I needed to make more of an effort to find equipment not made in China, after all, he pointed out, one of the balls was made in the Philippians. I was not pleased with what he was saying and a long, drawn-out discussion took place.

In the end, I agreed that if the situation were reversed, I would have wanted him to make more of an effort to try and find something that did not violate the ban. I agreed to continue looking, but I wasn't happy with this agreement. I felt like I had failed again, and this whole damn mess was my idea!

We agreed to add the "good faith rule" to the ever growing list of restrictions (see Additional Rules, Rules, Rules posted on January 26, 2007).