It’s My Imagination

Feeling Nostalgic

March 21, 2008 on 8:48 pm | In Some of This Some of That | No Comments

I’m not really sure why, but I’ve been feeling rather nostalgic lately. Perhaps it’s because my girlfriend sent me an email with the dates of our high school’s Homecoming in the Fall. It got me thinking back, way, way back.

I don’t like to think so much about my high school years, but college, that’s another story. I had quite a few good times in college. Some of my best memories are of going to concerts. Some of the performers I saw back then were just getting started, little did I know that almost 30 years later they’d still be around and on tour! I remember seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, I think they were in Houston. One of my favorite bands in college was The Police and later Sting on his own. Of course, now they’re touring again as The Police!

I think it would be cool to go to these concerts today, what a great walk down memory lane. While the bands may be older, one thing that hasn’t changed is the difficulty in getting good tickets to these events. If you’re looking for a ticket at a good price and from a company with great service, check out needaticket.ie and you’ll find not only concert tickets, but theater and sporting event tickets as well.

Tags: concert tickets, needaticket.ie

Orthodontics

March 21, 2008 on 6:54 am | In Family Health, My Imagination | No Comments

A month or so ago, I took my daughter for a consult appointment at an orthodontist who is listed under our insurance plan. He has a very good reputation, his office was very busy and the staff were all very nice. After a fairly thorough exam, we were given a treatment plan that was fairly basic, nothing out of the ordinary, and a time frame of 18 months from the time she actually gets the braces on to the time they’re removed.

All of the information I was given was expected, she was all ready under the care of an orthodontist in Illinois. She was to have had her braces put on last summer, but we moved. What surprised me on this day was the cost, $6,500 for the full treatment. This is about $1,500-2,000 more than we expected. Our insurance is paying a maximum of $1,500, so everything above that we have to pay.

I did take then take her to a second orthodontist. Unfortunately, this one we weren’t comfortable with, there were only one or two other patients and it was a very strange office layout. We could see one patient having work done while we were sitting in the lobby. The cost? $2,500. What a huge difference! I felt though that we would probably be hit with a lot of little add on charges as time went on with this one. He wanted to start her treatment right then and there! Of course, he had the time, no patients waiting. We declined and left.

I have since set up her first four appointments with the 1st orthodontist. However, after speaking with our new dentist yesterday, I have decided to take her to one more orthodontist for a third cost opinion. Our new dentist used to practice orthodontics and he too was very surprised at the high cost we had been given. He concurred that there was nothing out of the ordinary about my daughter’s teeth, they were just crooked. While he also agreed that the orthodontist we were planning on having do the treatment is very good, he felt the cost was too high and we should get another quote.

So, on Monday, I will be calling another dr., this one is Not in our insurance network, so I have to also see how that will work. I realize that it is not all about cost, but I just can’t help feeling that we are going to be paying more than normal and that’s just hard to live with.

Tags: orthodontics