The Litter Box

~ Sunday, February 20, 2005

I have been sick as a DOG since Monday. I went to the doctor and she said I have bronchitis again. Ugh. So after $15 to her, and an albuterol nebulizer treatment, I was too shaky to drive home, so I had to call Steve to some get me. He was sick too. Went to the Pharmacy and got 4 prescriptions, to the tune of $160. Then I went back to work on Wednesday and my 17 year old's school called... my boss said if I bring back a note from the kids's doctor he'll count all three days as 1 occurence.

Since he's 17 my doctor wouldn't see him, but she recommended a peds clinic down the street from me. We went down there and the receptionist, after ignoring me for a full 3 minutes (not even a gesture to indicate she'd be right with me or anything) she asked if she could help me. I told her my son is sick, that he'd be a new patient, that we didn't have an appointment, and asked if she took my insurance. She said yes, they did, but the doctor was out to lunch til 1:30, and to come back then. OK.

We went home and he laid down. When it was time to go, I grabbed my embroidery and we went back down there. Different girl was up front, she asked if I had an appointment. I told her no, we were told to come back at 1:30 for a walk in appt. She said they were short a doctor, triple booked, and couldn't see him but since we were told to come back, she'd see what she can do. After 5 more minutes the office manager came up and apologized and told me it was going to take a long while.

I told her I didn't care how long it took, I had to get a doctor's note today, so if I had to wait until 6pm when they closed, that was ok.

We got seen at about 3pm. Turns out he has confirmed influenza and they wanted me to bring the other two in for something called tamiflu. It's like a flu pill, as opposed to a flu shot. The problem is that Piglet isn't covered by my insurance, and they don't take military insurance, so that's out.

Came time to check out, and for the nebulizer they gave him + the flu test + office visit was $248. When I got my heart restarted I paid $150 and had them bill me. The medication for him was another $90.

So $500 later, and most of my NC tax refund is gone. We're saving up money to move out of the Krappy Trailer [tm] and into a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment. We'll need deposit + 1st month and enough to pay movers. I will NOT move myself again. We'll move our own computers and movers are doing the rest. We're also trying to save up enough for 3 or 4 computer desks. (We don't know if Justin is going to stay with us or go with Dave and Piglet in June.) So far we have $500 saved up. We need about $2000 more in 6 months. Yeah, right.

March 4 we get to order the new computer. Husband has been using Hawkwind's old one until we can get the new one.

March 11 is creeping up on us, that's the court date. I wonder how much they will tell us to pay every month. We're hoping it's less than $400 a month.

posted by Nikki B at 3:41:00 PM