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Hidden away, nobody noticed, was a law change in the 2023 Texas Legislative session. Just found out about it today, thanks to a lawyer who writes a column for the Sunday senior page in the local big-city newspaper. Heard zero about it before. Effective 9/1/23, the exemption choice from Jury...

Oral administration of phenylephrine as an oral decongestant. FDA report is here (big report, maybe start at page 31 for those really interested): https://www.fda.gov/media/171915/download My conclusion - The studies provided years ago that showed the efficacy of phenylephrine were poorly done...

I don't get it. Our 1500 watt decades-old hair dryer (some call them a "blow dryer") gave it up. Its motor speed became position-dependent. Performed a post-mortem on it. The brushes in its DC motor wore away. Had a diode bridge feeding it, to use a cheap DC motor on AC. So buying a new hair...

This is a cyst that forms on the Conjuctiva, the coating on the white part of the eye. There is also another type, that forms on the other Conjunctiva, the lining on the inside of the eyelid - I'm not discussing that type in this thread. Only the eyeball type. The first symptom was looking in a...

Saw this on the local news. JIF peanut butter of various types made by the JM Smucker co. in their Lexington KY plant. The last 3 digits of the lot code, if 425, signify that it was made in the Lexington plant. If so, then look at the first 4 digits of the lot code. If they are in the range...

I suggest folks on Medicare read the whole short article: https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/10/becerra-medicare-aduhelm-reconsider-price/

In yesterday's mail I received a poorly-written letter from the SSA telling me that in effect, they will be holding onto ALL of my little spousal SS to pay for my 2022 IRMAA Tier 1-dinged $238.10 Part B. And that I owe them XX $. Four pages of stuff of little value. Took us hours to go over and...

I'm on Medicare. I was paying the Part B premium via Medicare's EasyPay service, they pulled it from a checking account of ours. Then DW started SS, and I could file for a spousal benefit on her account using Restricted Benefit (I'm old enough for that) while I wait till my age 70 to get the...

First-hand account, with a few things to watch out for. Nothing bad, just be informed so you are not surprised. I'll will mark those things with a "***". I will provide links to the Cologuard website at the end. Please, my purpose of this thread is to inform. The choice of doing this...

Thanks to one of our Admins, Alan, for mentioning "PCO" in a thread a while ago. I had never heard of it then. PCO is Posterior Capsular Opacification, something I didn't know was a relatively common after-effect of cataract surgery. It is the growth of original lens cells around the IOL, that...

It's been so long since I've done this, I don't remember. Just to be clear on what I am asking, here is a fictitious example: I click to start a reply quote on a post by Mr. A. I then add some text of my own. I also want to add a bit of quote from another post in the same thread, from Ms. B...

This may be a bit unusual... so I need to paint-in the background first: DW will be receiving an inheritance. It will be kept as "Separate Property" in our Shared-Property state. Which means that all Income, as defined by our state, must not be co-mingled, or else the Separate Property reverts...

For the last X years, we have been doing Roth conversions. Will have higher tax bracket in future, due to RMDs at 72 stacking onto taking SS at 70. Doing conversions up to the top of the 12% bracket, expecting 22% bracket at 72. A no-brainer. But I did feel like I was just chipping off little...

Just read about this in the newspaper. As some are aware of, Texas is 1 of only 5 states that do not have a ballot tracking system (though in true TX fashion, we can brag that MS is still no better than us... wait a minute, but LA is, oh the shame!).;D You have to live in TX to understand this...

For any unsolicited voice mail messages I get, I never "Press 9 to be taken off our list", as I figure that just shows me as a live person who is somewhat interactive, to have followed through with doing that. But what about text messages? So far, I have done the same, just ignored. Most, not...

I found this out when I went to look at the latest CDC recommendations for vaccinations for adults, here, scroll down to colored chart: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/adult.html It used to be that at 65, or later when you got around to it ;) , the first shot was PCV13 (commonly...

Actually, this morning, early. I thought of Paul McCartney. At 6:45 AM CDT, about 1/2 hour before local sunup, Venus was shining brightly straight East, about 40 degrees up from the horizon. Meanwhile, Mars, with it's reddish glow, was also shining brightly straight West about the same distance...

For those on Medicare, you probably get the email announcement from CMMS on this. For those approaching Medicare, the yearly handbook is a good source of relatively organized info that is quick to look through, even though it's 124 pages in standard-size English text format. After selecting...

On my list for 2021 is to try to get Shingrx shots accomplished. All my vaccinations in the past 10 years or so have been at pharmacies, works out no problems. But I have a PCP now, and could go there for shots. But Shingrix under Original Medicare isn't covered by Part B, but is covered under...

DW is still working, and approaching her FRA. When she retires (I was hoping it would have been two years ago!) she will receive a government pension. Her possible SS on her SS account is only few hundred $/mo., and then that will be WEP'd (Windfall Elimination Provision) down to very little. I...

For those of you who have had the Shingles, about what amount of time do you remember from the actual blisters first appearing (not just redness), to where the spreading stopped, no new areas/blisters appearing? Days, a week, weeks? I had the Zostavax shot years ago. Availability of the...

There isn't much detail on the Medicare website on this. An employee (DW) is covered by a High-Deductible work plan. Employee turned 65 last year, and continues coverage under the work plan. The work plan meets the Medicare minimum requirements, and has over 1,000 people in it. Did not file...

Having switched to AARP/UHC on Nov. 1st, I found that the myAARP.com website still wasn't acting right. In October, I thought it was due to my plan not being active yet, but by Friday night, it was still weird. I could log in fine, site would recognize me and had my plan member card# correct...

When using the Medicare 2020 Part D drug plan finder, and entering drugs, I have an issue. I do not take any prescription meds, but did want to see what the plans looked like if I put in the ShingRx vaccine, which is covered under Part D. I expected to be able to enter ShingRx 1 time every 6...

Well, I didn't expect this. Last year, I conducted an investigation to determine who to go with for Plan G. The prime possibility was AARP/UHC, but I wanted to learn more, see what else was out there, etc., as I documented in this thread...