Praise the Lord for INCOME and BENEFITS

Updated: See note at the bottom!


William started work on Monday and while he was bored to tears, I was excited about the prospects of income and benefits! I have paid over $1600 in medical insurance payments for my Cobra since November... And William has been completely uncovered (my BIGGEST pet peeve). I have come to know that medical insurance is something that I not only value... but I use! And I use it well! With several chronic and every changing medical conditions, I see specialists as my "regular" doctors and frequently require strange and out of the ordinary procedures and medicines just to get by on a day to day basis.  Let's take a look back at the past year of medicine in Peyton's life. I feel it's needed to understand why I would put myself through the misery of paying nearly $1700 for 4 months of medical insurance.

• Rheumatoid Arthritis: doctor's visit once every 3 months plus RX medication costing me a $150 copay every month! Not to mention all the xrays, steriods, and bloodwork needed just to keep me moving!
• Last March-ish... I got a double ear infection that was so bad that I required multiple office visits and anitbiotics. Oh and my eardrum burst. 
• Fast forward to June... I was diagnosed with a pilonidal cysts that became incredibly infected which required:  1 failed trip to the ER, 1 visit with my general practitioner, 1 speedy referral and visit to a colorectal surgeon (seriously most of you didn't know one of those existed), 1 in-office surgery that same day, lots of narcotics, and several follow up visits.  (Let's not even talk about how I really need to take 6 weeks out of my life for major surgery to get this thing removed or it will come back.)
• Several bouts with typical sickness that comes with working with kids.
• Swine flu in October... fun stuff
• Diagnosis with beta 2 glycoprotein 1 antibodies - also known as Hughes Syndrome - which could require some serious medicinal therapies in the future. 
• A darn good ob-gyn with lots of "consultative visits" to discuss all of the previously mentioned problems and how they affect my reproductive system. 

Yea so there you go folks! That's worth $1700 dollars to me... but honestly no one person should have to pay that much (If only we could get the freaking federal government to agree). So here's the good news!

Today William and I enrolled in our first big kid insurance plan! It's ours. And the best part is... it feels like it's free. It's a mere $890/year! Good grief... that's a drop in the bucket from before. I am SO thankful for my amazing husband and his perseverance in his job search. He could have been discouraged so many times, but he (and his friends and family --thanks Stephen and Dad) didn't give up and he landed the MOST WONDERFUL job ever! People were extra supportive gave him crap about graduating a semester later than expected... but all I can say is that sometimes good things are worth waiting for. He never reads this... but I couldn't be more proud of him. And I know he's very upset about basking in the glory of being able to provide for me for a few months before I graduate... and I am so excited to let him do that. 


Another round of patience is well learned... maybe I'll post a picture of our shiny insurance cards when we get them in our hands!


Update: Just wanted to say that my dad reminded me that good insurance practices were bred into me. Thanks to my amazing parents, I have a nearly bionic eye. And I actually do not consider it a medical issue anymore. And if you know me, you know that it is one of the most weird striking things about me physically (well if you pay any attention to my face).