Alkaline Drink & an MRI

Walking out of the hospital where I got the MRI today, saw a veg juice stand and one of the juices was called "Alkaline". It was $8 for a small one - made of various greens, ginger, celery, lemon...I can't remember what else - and I sprung for it. It tastes disgusting, but not nearly as bad as some of the Chinese medicine I had for a while.

When I checked in at the hospital they told me that the bill was $1,000. This happened once before, where they said I owe them money, and it turned out that I didn't. Hopefully that will happen again this time.*

Rather than a donut (CT scan), the MRI is a tube, and while inside it I immediately understood why they ask beforehand if you're claustrophobic. And there are a lot of rapid banging sounds in varying pitches. (They gave me earplugs.) After around half an hour they took me out, shot me up with some dye of some kind, then put me back in for about 15 minutes. It was kind of hot inside that machine, was wearing too many layers, but I felt very relaxed by the end. Then I got slightly lost trying to get out of there, a bright red EXIT sign gracing every corridor. Even tried to take the stairs but I could see that after the down stairs, they just went right back up again. A kind man told me how to get out of there...and eventually, ah, outside.

*Note from Tong: Member Services confirmed you have zero co pays. Please don't waste your time if they say you have a co pay. I'll take it up with Member Services until they are sick of me. The technical name (not kidding) for the plan is a Cadillac plan...The $1,000 is the cost Kaiser charges to Fee-for-Service users...You didn't owe them a dime and it is stress which makes patients worse. I'm sorry about that.