Amy panicked a bit, she's still a little freaked out by driving in general...watching me change a tire on the shoulder of a busy freeway was not a calming experience by any means. I did manage to get the spare on and get us on our way without too much of a delay and Amy's composure was still salvageable.
Unfortunately, the tire was only the first thing that got deflated during the course of the afternoon. We quickly realized the acupuncturist, who mentioned repeatedly that she studied the ancient Chinese arts under the masters and not at some trade school, was not fluent in insurance.
The wisdom of Confucius was less present than the waves of confusion.
We both made phone calls to my insurance company, but we couldn't get it to translate into treatment at the price we were expecting.
The money wasn't really that big of an issue - I would have paid her price, but the longer we haggled with this master of the ancient healing arts, the more uncomfortable Amy and I became with her gruff demeanor.
When someone is about to stick needles into you their attitude becomes a fairly pointed issue.
I'm sure this woman was highly competent, but gentle is not a word that anyone would use to describe her.
Amy and I couldn't help but wonder if she might enjoy her work a bit too much.
Eventually Amy gave me a look which I knew meant, "let's scram," so that's what we did.
We'll still pursue the acupuncture option, but I think we'll spend more time making certain whomever we choose not only meets our insurance criteria but is also more familiar with shiatsu than sadism.
Oddly enough the insurance came through...on my tire. I had purchased "roadside protection" when I bought that tire two years ago at Sam's. On the way home we stopped to see if there was any chance that coverage still applied. Amazingly, it did...completely. The only thing we paid for was the cost of putting on a new tire - nine bucks.
No hassles, no phone calls, no confusion.
When I asked the lady at the Sam's customer service desk if they ever considered offering acupuncture, she gave me a puzzled look, but then she laughed. I suppose she thought I was needling her.
