I met Yolanda today on a phone call to settle some insurance disputes. She calmed my mood, and brightened my day. In my quest to be more positive and grateful, I feel that my experience with Yolanda was set before me as an example of someone I really want to be like.
We have been through a lot this past summer with my son Levi, who was involved in a bicycle accident while vacationing at Flaming Gorge Resevoir. While lazily riding along in our campground, he hit a bulge from a tree trunk in the pavement which threw him over the handlebars and slid down the payment on his elbow, which snapped his upper arm. An ambulance was called, his arm was set with a splint, and to try to save money, we put him in the back of our truck and drove and hour to the nearest hospital in Rock Springs.
After being seen by doctors in Rock Spring, we were told that he would have to be flown to the Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City. We were put in an ambulance to go to their airport, then loaded into an air med airplane, flown to Salt Lake City, put into another ambulance and taken to Primary Children's hospital. It was incredibly hard night with a son that was in horrific pain; any tiny movement was more than he could take. He was seen by many doctors, because they didn't know if he had head, neck or back trauma. He was finally sedated while they reset his arm into a splint, and then went through surgery the following day to screw everything back together.
So, we lived through this traumatic event. He wore a cast for 5 weeks, up to his shoulder. When they took off his cast, they discovered that some extra bone had grown around the break and around his elbow, which drilled a hole through his elbow skin and caused an infection to start. Immediately, he was put back into surgery to see if the infection had gone to his bone. We were happy to find that it had not traveled, but was just centered around the elbow. So, he was cleaned up, stitched up, and then Levi went about trying to keep his wound sterile and clean as it continued to drain.
After a period of several weeks, and many emails and visits to the doctor, it was determined that Levi needed another surgery to remove all hardware, replace a nerve in it's proper place and clean out more infection. Now, Levi continues to watch and care for the wound which is still trying to heal up. In the meantime, he attends physical therapy trying to gain back his range of motion, then to develop some muscle back in his arm. Needless to say, this has been a frustrating, expensive event in our life. Now we are dealing with the insurance company to pay all the medical bills of hospitals, doctors, ambulances, etc.
Today, I had reached my boiling point where I was ready to explode. Our insurance is still denying claims that should have been paid months ago. After calling them stupid, idiotic, and what is their unintelligent problem, my husband forced me to settle into a conference call with our insurance. This is where we met Yolanda. She is a very pleasant women from Georgia. I presume she may be black, by the way she talked. She never got defensive, never raised her voice. She remained calm and pleasant the entire time we were on the phone. Our phone conversation lasted over an hour. She patiently conferenced to some of our billers, she went through every claim and told us the status, dates paid, what was happening to each claim. I have never met anyone so patient, kind, & willing to serve to make life better for others, especially angry others.
By the time we were finished with our conversation, I had such a desire to express my appreciation, a desire to meet this women personally, a desire to recommend her for woman of the year, and a desire for me to be just like Yolanda.
In the past month or so, I have been on a journey to become more positive, wanting to develop this Christlike trait. My journey has been an incredible one. I have found that there is an energy that comes with being positive and grateful. It is almost like a magnet. Good things come to those who are positive. People want to be around those that are happy and positive. With Yolanda, because of her positive kind attitude, I wanted to do something to make her life better; recommend her for a raise or send her a gift or a thank you. She was such a positive influence on my day. Just in this instance her attitude created good things to come to her. Positive attracts positive, and negative attracts negative. The more I am in a positive state of mind, the more I see, feel and recognize the blessings, the attractions, and the joy that come from being positive. Everyone wins in a situation where there is positivity. I am determined to develop the gift of being positive. I know it will truly change my life and the life of so many others.
Thank you Yolanda and others out there that make this world a better place to be. It is people like you that truly spread sunshine and joy in this world.
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