Health Care!

We finally got all our bills in the mail for my lovely "little" surgical procedure a month and a half ago. Whew! I had no idea. The grand total for everything, including anethesiologist, doctor, and hospital services came to almost $25,000. How can the medical profession sleep at night?!

This included $40 charges for 9 different drugs. Are they serious? First of all, I only remember taking ONE pill, so anything else should have fallen under the anethesiologist, right? And $40 a pop! I wonder if they would have let me bring my own Tylenol in. The worst was over $16,000 for supplies. I guess that included my spiffy heated hospital gown and purple slippers. At least I got to bring the slippers home, and the plastic bag they came in. At $16,000, though, I may never wear them again--maybe they'd better be served in a frame on my wall.

Having been relatively healthy my entire life, I had no idea how ridiculous health care is! And I don't think Mr. Obama's plan is going to make it any better. (BTW, have you heard that Canada--which we based our new health care plan on--is revisiting their health care system because it's going bankrupt. Great! So glad we've got that to look forward to!) It just irritates me to no end that they can charge so much for stupid little things...and there's no one to complain to! I would have preferred a bill that listed rental costs for the hospital for 4 hours, and the wages of each nurse that served me for 4 hours, and the rental cost of the beds and chairs I sat in over the course of the 4 hours, the cost of electricity they used on me, etc...and then a buck for the Ibuprofen, $5 for the slippers, etc...That would have been at least a little more palatable.

But what can I do?

Shut up and pay my $6,000 deductible. The crazy thing is the $6,000 now seems like I got a good deal (compared to $25,000!)...which is disturbing on a whole new level. Since when am I okay with a $6,000 bill?!?! Fortunately, God has provided in some unexpected ways, so with a little budget-adjusting, we'll be able to pay it off before I get my final paycheck at the end of this month. But it still makes me mad!

Especially since the procedure didn't do me any good.

Our 8th Anniversary!

It's hard to believe, but 8 years have flown by since Jim and I said "I do!" What a wonderful, adventure-packed journey we have enjoyed since then. As I've described before, when Jim proposed after disembarking from the Ghostrider wooden roller coaster at Knotts Berry Farm, he concluded it with the promise that every night after pouring our lives into teenagers we'd be able to hit the pillow, look into each others' eyes, and sigh, "What a ride!" Boy, has he stayed true to that promise! And I wouldn't have it any other way.



Since Tuesdays are our busiest day, we celebrated yesterday, going out for dinner at Claim Jumper (site of our first official date), and then we went to a movie. Jim voted for Robin Hood, but I won with Letters to Juliet. One of my former students was the ticket seller, and he gave us free tickets. Cool! Then, when we came home, Jim surprised me with my gift. Here it is: