On Monday, Rob had to go see the VA doctors in Winston-Salem about his
VA disability claim.  Right now his 100% disability is temporary, the VA
is in the process of determining if, and if so...how much, Rob is still
disabled.  It's a PITA, but has to be done.

Wednesday, we had to see a shrink to decide if Rob is mentally competent
for his Social Security Disability claim.  Basically, these guys don't
like anyone being on SSDI.  Rob's oncologist says that he has some
patients with stage IV cancer (as high as it goes) who are not
considered disabled by Social Security.  The shrink says that Rob's
problem is organic and not mental.  Gee thanks, I thought that Rob put
those scars on the side of his head as an art form.

Thursday, Rob woke up and threw up.  He knew he couldn't function on his
own, so he called EMS.  He was taken to Womack Army MC where they
thought he had carbon monoxide poisoning at first.  After the tests came
back, they found the CO levels were in the normal range.  Finally, they
started looking at alternate sources for Rob's problem.  Confirmed by a
talk to Rob's Oncologist, they now think that the calcium crystals that
have formed around the tumor sites on the right side of Rob's brain have
broken off and floated.  Unfortunately, the place they have landed
(there might be more, we have to have an MRI done) include the place on
the brain that monitors balance, vertigo, and so forth.  Rob has
crystals on his brain.  Rob was given Valium and sent home.

Today, we had one of our periodic (every three months or so) check up
with Rob's oncologist, Dr Williams.  Now Dr Williams is one of the good
guys.  He tries to act tough, but actually cares, and hides it by one of
the most wicked senses of humor I've ever gone up against.  It turns out
that he's good buddies with the ER doctor that took care of Rob
yesterday.  The two of them talked about Rob last night, after work.

Basically, Rob is on valium, an anti-nausea medicine, and a form of
movement/exercise that is supposed to keep those calcium crystals moving
and from settling down into one spot, which is what is causing part of
Rob's vertigo problem.

Rob is disgusted.  He rode in helicopters and on planes for almost 20
years with out so much as one case of flight sickness, and now that he's
grounded he gets sick by turning his head.

Now to the non medical part of my rant.

As you may or may not know, we re-financed our house in November.  The
final papers were signed on Nov. 23 and filed on Nov. 29th.  Our
mortgage with Chase Manhattan was bought out by Wells Fargo.  One of the
provisions of the buy out is that Well Fargo pays this year's taxes on
our house.  I showed the lawyer the paper we got in the mail where Chase
has pulled the money for the taxes out of our escrow account and into
their tax account on November 3.  This is right at the beginning of the
negotiations for the re-finance, probably within 48 hours after Wells
Fargo indicated their interest in buying our loan.

Wells Fargo investigates, Chase has not paid the taxes.  Wells Fargo
pays them, by check.  We contact Chase Manhattan who claims for two
weeks that they paid the taxes, not Wells Fargo.  They finally agree
that Wells Fargo paid the taxes, but will not refund our escrow money.
They say that Wells Fargo might renege on the loan and then Chase has to
have that money to cover the taxes and escrow.  To Chase this isn't a
lot of money, to us it is, as it is over $1500 dollars and would pay for
our yule gifts, feast, and maybe even pay a lot of bills.

I got SO p*ss*d that I called Chase Manhattan and sang a song to them.
I was connected to the customer service supervisor within a few minutes.
 My voice is bad and I don't think they want me publishing the lyrics.

After I tell them my sad story, including that my hubby has brain cancer
etc., the supervisor gets as p*ss*d with me as I am with her.  I can
hear the pounding of her fingers on her computer keyboard, as she stamps
out information into or out of our account.  Finally she says this...

"As for the $498 that was left in your escrow account, we will have our
research department check into it on the 21th, if Wells Fargo is still
taking over your mortgage, we'll have a check cut for you on the 22th
and send it to you.

"As for the $1,077 in property taxes...we haven't heard anything back
from the tax company that we use.  There is a note in your account that
you called last Thursday and complained, and as of Monday, we have 4-6
weeks to pay that back to you."  I called them on Tuesday.  I went off.
 I was so mad that Mandy and Rob just watched me, rather than trying to
calm me down.  I was crying, and yelling into an already loud cell phone.

Finally, after some more furious key pounding, she says the following:
"if you can have Wells Fargo send a quit-claim letter, we can cut and
send out a check within 24 hours of receiving their information and
having our research people check it out.  If Wells Fargo sends us a fax
with the photocopy of both the front and back of the canceled check, we
can bypass the tax department and cut you a check for that as well."

I know it is being said just to calm me down, she knows I know this, and
I know that Wells Fargo isn't going to put this on their high priority
list.  I am so Frustrated that I'm about willing to post the mailing
address of Chase Manhattan so that you can all SEND litter box offerings
and birdie poop to these creeps.

Sorry about the rant, vent, and hissyfit, but I really want a lot of
sympathy on this one.

Pam S. probably blowing up over nothing, but it feels like something to me.