healthcare or grief?

I've thought often in the past few years about health care and the crisis it has become. Something about having married kids in college or adult kids having babies and raising babies or perhaps being so very familiar with the health care system as seen through the eyes of the mom of an adult kid with some major health issues--or perhaps it's just the almost 100% increase in premiums in the past five years?

But that will be a post for another day. Today I post about grief.

I've heard about the stages of grief--denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Apparently, in the early 1990s, those stages were dismissed as inaccurate and based on observation, not scientific research; however, recent research has identified more of an ebb and flow of processes that include shock and numbness, yearning and searching, disorganization and despair, and finally reorganization.

I am not sure which stage or process I am currently ebbing and flowing through because it varies--obviously I am ebbing and flowing. But I suppose that is to be expected when someone loses her identity.

For once, I'm not talking psychologically--I'm talking reality. Somebody has swiped my identity and is opening credit accounts all over the internet in my name. Sears. Best Buy. Goodyear Tires for hell's sake. All related to Citibank. I don't have any accounts with Citibank or any of these companies. Well, the real me doesn't have any accounts with them. But the stolen me is opening accounts everywhere. Turns out I'm quite a shopper. And I must be a guy because I'm getting ready to buy Craftsman Tools and a massive home theater and some of those skinny tires and shiny wheels with the rotating centers that make it look like the wheels are always turning.

Sears' fraud department (located on the second floor, between furniture and infants' clothing?) called to ask about my recent account activity last Friday. Jack and I put fraud alerts on our credit reports on Saturday. That's when I found out about my Goodyear account. Today I got a call from the Best Buy Citibank guy. That's when I filled out a report with the state's Attorney General office.

I have the feeling this is just the beginning of a long serious of stages and processes ebbing and flowing me from denial and shock to hopefully, eventually, reorganization.

Rotten bastards.