Good Riddance 2009
One totaled vehicle by a pregnant wife, $47,500.One premature little baby girl via emergency C-section with a collapsed lung in the NICU, $62,000+.
One open heart surgery on a 2 ½ year old, $70,000+ and counting.
Being a husband and father, priceless.
I for one am glad 2009 is over and by the sounds of it I’m not alone. I’m not really the type that puts much emphasis on dates or years but this calendar year has been one catastrophe after another; I’m glad to see it go.
We started the year off with Andrea totaling our car while she was 8 months pregnant. Four days thereafter Sophia was born. She ended up in the NICU because she was premature. So premature that one of her lungs collapsed from being underdeveloped and overworked. Needless to say that was a very difficult period.
And finally to send the year out with a bang, I start having chest pains, of which of course I told no one about. When I called for an appointment to see my cardiologist they tell me he’s booked until February. I explain my situation and they manage to squeeze me in for a stress echo on Dec. 29th. I wanted to keep this my little secret because I didn’t want Andrea anymore stressed out that she has already been. If it wasn’t for McKay Dee calling the house to preregister me, then no one would ever have known about it. Thanks McKay Dee for that one; you added a little more stress to Andrea’s holidays that I was trying to avoid. Then, on Christmas Eve while playing hockey early in the morning, as we do each year, I separate my shoulder. It was a good one too; the ER feared I needed surgery to repair a possible torn rotator cuff. The 29th rolls around and I have to go run on a treadmill for my stress echo. Needless to say that didn’t happen. I did get a regular echo done and everything appears to be ok for now. So my heart condition remains “moderate-severe” and I’m good for another year. The following day I went to see the orthopedic surgeon to see about my shoulder. Fortunately it seems I have a normal grade 2 shoulder separation that will only require time to heal.
It seems like we may be starting off 2010 the way we ended 2009. Gavin now has walking pneumonia and is pretty sick. It just seems like everyone is always sick and all our finances go towards outrageous doctors bills. I got a $1600 ER visit for my shoulder. I spent a grand total of maybe 20 minutes with either a tech, RN, or Dr. Most of that time was spent taking a few x-rays. The rest of the time I was just sitting there wasting time. It basically cost $1600 bucks for an arm sling and some x-rays. Ya that sounds about right. Now Merrick has been complaining that his back hurts. We just found out that it appears to be a staph infection in his kidneys. He will go in for an ultrasound of his kidneys in a week or so (I forget the date).
Our luck had better change or I’m going to go insane. Oh yes, I almost forgot (again) that in the mist of all this turmoil Gavin had his first basketball practice, and his idiot of a father couldn’t even remember to take a picture. I think I’m losing my mind. Thanks again everyone for all your support, without it we would be lost.
