Participant #1:
You are listening to Hello Cupcake, it's Me, a podcast with your host, Michael Peterson.

Participant #1:
Hey everyone. Michael here with Hello Cupcake, it's Me, a podcast. And today is Th, April 30, 2022. And how are you? And before we get into everything, please make sure you hit like and subscribe and let's get into it. So starting off today's episode, we're going to talk about Tuesdays Trivia. So me going to let me try to start that every Tuesday I go to Trivia, one of the local bars, and we play against other bars locally and nationally. And this week we kicked ass and took all of the names. We are in first place, Bronze Division. And if we do really well again this week, we will then make our way up into the Silver division. And we showed up, guys. We did so well. There was at 1.9 of us playing. One of our players was actually back east. His wife was at the bar with her iPad and she had it set up so he could see the things on the television and he logged into the bar and it was just really kind of cool to see how this husband and wife team, even though they were like on opposite sides of the country, we're still able to have like a date night with one another. And I thought that was way cool and awesome. So really excited that our little team got to kick butt like that. In other news, with what's going on with me, I'm kind of debating on scrapping the website that I've been working on for the last little while or maybe completely revamping it so that it doesn't have access to all the other information that I put on there, such as like, my YouTube videos and Instagram and Twitter and so on and so forth. My thought process behind that is that I'm trying to drive traffic to each one of those websites. And if I have like a one stop shop, am I actually driving traffic to those sites? So I don't know. I got to kind of like reevaluate things, but at the very least, I'm going to leave it so that the podcast is available on there and you can always reach the podcast here on Anchor. Fm. Hello Cupcake, it's me.

Participant #1:
Just some thoughts that I have with that. I've put a lot of work into the website and I'm really kind of happy with the way that it looks and how the functionality has come across. I've had a couple of beta testers look at it and taken their feedback and their criticisms and so on and so forth into account. So I don't know. I mean, from a social media marketing standpoint, it doesn't make sense to have a website like that. But at the same time, I'm all about convenience and trying to get all of my content out to my viewers and listeners and readers. Honestly, because I think I have a link to the blog on there also, which I need to update the blog because it's been a little while and there's some stuff that I need to just pound out on a keyboard that I can't just get in front of a video camera or a microphone and talk it out. Some of my more deeper thoughts take time to actually physically create, so just some things noodling around in my mind. Also, last night I binge watched an entire series on Netflix and it was so good. If you are LGBTQ community member or somebody who likes that type of programming on Netflix. There is a British Romcom type of situation and it's geared more for LGBT youth, but still a good program called Heart Stopper.

Participant #1:
Everything that LGBT youth go through in school and trying to sort out where they are in life, what their sexuality is, what dealing with their first crush and their heartbreaks and their ups and downs. And it's kind of cringe worthy at times, but for the most part it was a really good show. Each episode is between 25 and 30 minutes long and just a lot of fun. And if you have LGBT youth in your home, very clean, very discreet, very family friendly. So I think it would be something that you might want to watch with your kids or suggest or even yourself want to watch. Like, I'm in my 40s and I watched it and still really enjoyed it and really happy that I took a chance on it. So moving on from there. I had a doctor's appointment this week and that was on Wednesday. Wednesday was just one kick in the balls after another because it was the anniversary of my father's passing. He's been gone now nine years and I maintain a Memorial website for him and my grandmother. And every year I update it. Actually, I update it a couple of times a year. I update it on their birthdays and on the anniversary of their passing, or just like whenever I am feeling sad and want to kind of talk to them, I know that it's 100% like just for my own satisfaction and getting my grief or whatever else out and just like a Deer diary type situation. So I was dealing with all that on Wednesday. And then I thought that I got the Wednesday update video done for the YouTube channel, but apparently my computer thought that I didn't need to have that done and I had deleted the source file after I came home from my doctor's appointment without first checking to make sure that it was taken care of. And then when I went to my doctor's appointment, the appointment itself was really good. But I was given a prescription for a medical device called the Tens unit, which is like an electrode pain reliever. And the way that my insurances are set up is if one doesn't pay for it, all the other one picks up on it. Well, for whatever reason, trying to get any pharmacy to do a dual billing is damn near impossible. And so, because I have Medicare, Medicaid, most places want to charge Medicare first because it's my primary insurance and Medicaid secondary. And if it's something that Medicaid normally won't pick up on, but Medicare will reverse that if it's something that Medicaid would pick up. But Medicare won't pick up. Nine times out of ten, they won't bill for Medicaid. They want to build the Medicare. And it gets really confusing and complicated and infuriating and all that other stuff. So my doctor's office did, like, the very bare minimum in trying to find a durable medical equipment supplier that would send out not only fulfill but send out the device and have, like, a monthly refill of all the monthly or bimonthly refill of the diodes needed in order to run the machine or what have you. So I went as far as calling both of my insurances and getting a list of places that should, according to Medicaid and Medicare, that have the ability to bill and could send that out to me. So I called, like, Riteaid, and I called a couple of other local pharmacies, and Riteaid was the one that sounded the most promising but really kind of pissed me off because the pharmacist was like, well, you're not a doctor, so I can't talk to you. And I'm like, well, I'm the client that gives my doctor the permission to talk to you. So, yes, you can talk to me. I have all the information that you require. The only thing I need to do is have my doctors Fax you over the prescription. Well, go ahead and Fax over that prescription and we'll get back to you. So after about three or 4 hours of waiting for them to get back to me, they finally got back to me. And doctors like, yeah, sorry, they said they wouldn't do it. I'm like, okay, well, I need you to work on this. Well, we really don't have the time to devote to this issue. I'm like, what the fuck do you mean you don't have the time to devote to this issue? Like, this is quite literally what you need to do as a prescriber's office.

Participant #1:
After, like, an hour and 45 minutes of trying on my own, I just kind of gave up. And I might try to hit it again hard and heavy on Monday, but, God, that pissed me off. Here is a six page document coming from the insurance prescriber or whatever you want to call the insurance company saying that, yes, this company can and will be able to do it and then contacting that company. And they're like, well, no, we can't. I kind of want to call back and turn them into Medicaid and Medicare and tell them, listen, I tried to run this prescription through them. They refused to do it. So what do I do now? Like, seriously, what the hell are my premiums that I pay monthly for if it's not to be able to get the prescriptions that are required and actually done up by a doctor? So yeah, a lot of bully going on with that. But you know, I am happy to announce that I'm nowhere near as heavy as I thought I was. Still kind of scaring the shit out of being in the neighborhood of where I thought I was, but nowhere near as heavy as I thought I was. So that was really good, promising and encouraging news. And with that, it has given me kind of that spark that I need to try to start over again. And I know exactly what I need to do. Before I was going for a walk daily, I was using CBD lotion to maintain the pain management. I was taking Ibuprofen 400 on top of that and drinking a gallon of water a day with Apple cider vinegar mixed into it and taking herbal supplements and all this other stuff. So that's just what I got to do. I got to get back into that regimen, got to get back out there and walking. The only issue that I've had so far right now is just trying to actually show up and be present for the walking aspect of it. But a lot of that has been dependent on the weather that we've been having lately. And the shoes that I'm wearing, my Hoka Oni Oni shoes that I got for Christmas, they have mesh netting on them. So like, walking in the rain or whatever is like, you're ending up with sloshy shoes and wet socks and wet feet and everything else. And we've been having some like, really violent rainstorms and wind and everything else. I just don't want to be out there walking around and all that while getting wet and everything else and then possibly contracting a cold because the flu and common cold don't exist anymore. Everything's fucking coveted or what have you. And I just don't want to get sick and have to deal with all that crap. But I do have it on the books to legitimately start trying to do all of this again more sooner than later, just because it's getting ridiculous how limited my mobility has become, to the point where just a few minutes ago before starting this podcast, I was trying to straighten up the house a little bit and start a little laundry. And by the time I got my laundry put into the washing machine, my back, my lower back and my legs hurt so bad and my legs felt like they were going to give out from me walking. And that's just not good. And I don't want to end up on one of those talk show TV or talk show TV show things where the person's like £650 plus and talking about I wash myself with a rag on a stick like, no, I don't want that and so I just got to get back to portion control, eating and doing intermittent fasting and just getting back to getting back and it's difficult but anyways I am going to stop blabbing now. If you want to leave a voice message to be included in any of the podcasts you can do so by going to anchor FM hellocupcake it's me you can leave a voicemail on there and I can have that included

Participant #1:
in the next episode or what have you and as always thank you for listening. Make sure you follow me on all the different social medias and I will talk to you soon. Bye guys thank you so much for tuning in you have been listening to hello cupcake it's me a podcast with your host Michael Peterson. Please make sure to check back often as new episodes are released by weekly. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to send a message to hellocupcakeitsme@gmail.com and until next time stay happy, safe and keep doing the best you can with what you have been given.