Brad has braces coming up in May. Both boys will have tooth sealant put on this summer, and Ben has one cavity to fill. Plus, we all had checkups last month. To top it all off, Ben had all four of his impacted wisdom teeth removed on Monday of this week. He’s in some pain but getting better by the minute. Looks like this year will be the Year of the Teeth for the Edwards family. I plopped the maximum $4000 into Flex Spending for this year but our dental bills will probably top out around $6500.
Then somehow on Monday of this week, I developed an eye infection that took me down pretty hard. By Monday night, my eye was almost completely swollen shut and I was miserable. It was almost like I had the worst allergy symptoms ever. I went out to Hauser-Ross Eye Institute first thing Tuesday morning. Turns out I have an eye infection. Man, I ought to be a doctor. Anyway, the doc gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. I was to put one drop in my eye every hour, but she would allow me two hours through the night. So last night, I woke up every two hours and put a drop in my eye.
I’m kind of outraged though because the medicine was in a little .25 oz. bottle, about as big as my thumbnail, and they charged me $50 for it. If I could complain to someone, I’d do it in a heartbeat. It’s completely ridiculous to charge that much for something that probably cost them $50 to make 100 gallons. But that’s the way it is for us little folk who wear footprints up and down our back.
The doctor told me that it was good that I came in because this type of infection could spread to my ear and if unchecked, to my brain. And if it got there, I’d end up being a blonde the rest of my life. (The doc was a tiny little girl about one quarter my age with blonde hair.)
Off to feed the Great American Healthcare Bear this morning for a follow-up appointment. It should be an in and out, five minutes for her to look at my eye and say, “Yep, yer doin’ well.” I wonder what it’s going to cost me?
Actually, Hauser-Ross is an in-network provider within my PPO so it should only cost me a $10 copay. But I bet there are loopholes…
I’m getting to realize how expensive healthcare can be too. I recently had a ski accident in germany at a ski race. My family (soon the insurance company) had to pay for a helicopter ride, MRI scans, CT scans X-rays, five days of hospital time and business class plane tickets home. Also the tickets we had purchased for me to go home on originally, which were non-refundable. The crazy thing about German hospitals is that you have to pay all of the bills in cash before you can leave… this was surprising and resulted in my mother making many trips to the cash machine.
Main Point of this story: hospitals suck and are expensive.
It’s unlikely you could give a detailed report for an Endoscopy. Once they give you the Versed Anesthesia, your pretty much not there.
The instructions the nurse gave were pretty funny though: “We’re going to give you a lot of air (to inflate the area for inspection), when we’re done and you wake up; you can give all that air back to us.”
That recovery room had quite a horn section.
Bruce, I feel your pain, both monetary and with eye problems. Andrea already had braces, definitely one, maybye two, more to go. I got pink eye at New-Years 2006, took three months to finally resolve everything. What a drag it is getting old.
Hang in there. These health care crises tend to come in huge lumps and then subside. You’ll get through it.
Now, I’m so tempted to get started on a rant about the health care system in this country, where all health care is decided by the (any guesses here?) … insurance companies. We have one of the highest standards of health care in the freakin’ world but, only if ya got the $$. Doctors pay huge sums in malpractice insurance, every year our personal health care policies see double digit increases, the insurance companies put caps on what they deem to be “usual and customary” charges for procedures, docs end up having to charge more to cover their premiums but then to be a “in-network” provider they have to accept the much-lower amount determined by the insurance company. The only ones making tons of money here are the insurance companies. My family doctor ended up leaving private practice because the above factors left him not being able to make a decent living. Hospitals are doing OK but that’s because they get away with double and triple charging for service (check your bills carefully, I’m not kidding). MUST…STOP…NOW…SEEING…RED…Aaaaarrrrrgghh.
I had a $1000 stomach-ache for a little while. After weeks of persistent indigestion I saw three doctors, had many expensive diagnostics and consultations, and finally was told it was all stress-related, and that my stomach is healthy otherwise.
Luckily my HMO paid for it all. Prolly cost me $100 out of pocket altogether.
The ol’ eyeball is fine. Matter of fact, I’m against doc’s orders right now. She told me not to wear my contact lens in the affected eye until she sees me in a week, which would be tomorrow morning. Last Sunday morning, I felt completely healed and went back to normal routine. I’m doing even better today so I cancelled my appointment. She wants me back to discuss all the little bitty issues that don’t concern me right now, and of course collect her fees. About the only thing I dislike more than doctor’s fees are insurance companies.
To add to the heap, I’m scheduled for some outpatient surgery now in May for an abdominal hernia.
I’m also considering a new eye procedure. I’m not a candidate for Lasik so there’s another procedure about an implantable contact lens that looks very promising. I think I’ll start another thread on it to get some specific input on the options.
Living with a Hernia
Weird Al Yankovic sing to the tune of James Brown’s “Living in America”
All I do is grunt and groan
Hurts me to walk anywhere
Went to see my physician, Dr. Jones
He took my trousers off, told me to cough
Doctor says there ain’t nothin’ to discuss
He tells me any day I might have to wear a truss
Living with a hernia, ow
All the time, such aggravation
Living with a hernia
Gonna be my ruination
Living with a hernia
Got to have an operation
Feel so old, ow
Too much bad pain
Good God, drives me insane
Can’t run, barely crawl
Got a bulge in my intestinal wall
Walk real funny, bless my soul
Can’t play tennis and it’s hard to bowl
You can’t even do the splits now
Say it
Better call it quits now
Now I’m sick of all this dancin’ anyhow
Living with a hernia
Hurts me bad in a tender location
Living with a hernia
Had enough humiliation
Living with a hernia, yow
Got to have an operation
Ow, I live with a hernia
Can’t get up, can’t bend over
Now I live with a hernia
My Jeep broke down and I had to get it repaired earlier this year. I had to pay $2200, so I borrowed it from my dad. I’ve paid him back $800 so far, but it’s hard to get money when you’re a starving college student. Luckily I can borrow money from my dad, but it puts a lot of my other projects on hold, mainly my unicycling ambitions.
