I said this upstream somewhere as well, but I highly recommend this:

I needed to buy some “dressy clothes” which I am terrible at. A thin friend kept bugging me and bugging me to let her take me shopping. I finally let her do it and it was embarrassing for me, and I think eye opening for her, to see how hard it is to find clothes for a woman my size (I’m a women’s 14/16).

I use this for chub rub. It’s like magic.

While I was reading this and commenting I got an email from a patient with his bill attached. The charges were disgusting. However he called the customer service center and magically $3500 became $350. Shady.

They also add the professional charge at a different time than the other charges, making it hard to sort out which are the professional charges. (This matters sometimes to the insurance companies.)

I would never go to the hospital I work for. Even though they have literally the world’s experts in a lot of areas of medicine, they are criminals for charging what they do.

I deal with medical billing A LOT and I can’t endorse this comment enough. Ask for an itemized bill and don’t be afraid to try to bargain.

I’d like to add that in my anecdotal experience working within a large medical institution it is the institution typically deciding to charge the exorbitant fees. The doctors have no control whatsoever over what the institution charges. (Believe me our doctors would be having the hospital charge next to nothing for…

I also paid $300 out of pocket for malarone. My pharmacist was pissed. HE drafted an appeal to my insurance company, arguing that the $300 would be cheaper than me getting malaria. They denied it.

I work for a major research hospital. We have more billing mistakes than you would believe. I have seen charges for $20-$500 FOR THE SAME THING. And all kinds of charges that are routed to the patient instead of being routed to the insurance company. It is extremely rare that I am able to track down the source of the…

I had one get so jammed up in there I had to go to my gyno to get it removed because neither of us could reach it. Humiliating, but she said it happens all the time (?!)

YES!! I literally felt your pain on that removal. I mean holy god. Mine hurt so much when it was in, but when they took it out? I was on Percocet and I still thought I might pass out.

It might have partially been Monsel’s solution, which they use in vaginal surgeries to stop bleeding. I had a whole shit ton of it come out after my D and C and I thought I was going to puke it was so gross.

Gah! Crawling around on your thighs and vag. <shudder>

I love my own story but this is a great contender too.

Oh I am totally going to win this one. I had my uterus removed last summer after 20 years of horrible agony and monthly illness.