I've sat here for quite some time trying to sort out what to say.. or how to say.. something.
2010 has not been a good year for the Adams family.. I recently revealed the whole gruesome story to a friend whilst stumbling over myself in apology for being an even bigger butthole than I usually am and he, being a true friend, has apparently been doing some networking as is evidenced by todays mail.
To the senders of the "anonymous" donations.. thank you from the bottom of our hearts.. but please don't. For the time being we'll put it into our savings account (nothing else in there so it seems a good place) until I sort out what to do with it. My head is going so many ways right now I really just don't know.
If anyone wants to help, just buy something.. we've got stuff.. cars.. guitars .. bike parts and the like that we could sell to help get us over this hurdle.
There was a time when I was a people person.. knew lots of folks, socialized.. trusted and believed in people. That is till some people that I called friends (not a word I use lightly) changed that over the course of just a couple of years and that altered my whole outlook on life.
This site had a lot to do with restoring some of my faith in people and through the rallies, rides and get togethers I've met some really good people.. I found brothers.. sisters.. people I look forward to seeing and feel comfortable around once again, people you feel you could count on.
Unfortunately sometimes life beats you down a bit and after awhile it can get the best of you.. your perspectives change a bit and next thing you know it feels like you against the world.. anger, frustration and a feeling of hopelessness is just not good company.
My rant...
Our daughter was diagnosed with Crohns (sp) disease several years ago but she has managed to keep it mostly under control until earlier this year when she had a flare up. Although she was working 2 jobs at the time to make ends meet, she was uninsured and was shuffled from here to there.. to there again in her quest for some assistance. The meds for the disease are quite expensive and specialists just don't like patients with no money so she went basically untreated and her health began to deteriorate.
Then she lost her second job and her ability to work the hours needed to compensate dwindled till she could no longer make her bills.
Due to some poor career choices on my part, we simply didn't have the means to help her so after months of trying to get her some kind of assistance, she and Di managed an appointment with a specialist. Of course he put her off for 30 days as she was uninsured and broke as all caring physicians do so 27 days later she called us one Sunday and said she thought she needed to go to the hospital.
Now 100 pounds of pale skin and bones her legs swollen from dehydration, we help her to the car and drive her down... 4 hours we sat there waiting... the child could hardly hold her head up. After finally being processed in and examined we were told by her doc that she wouldn't have made it to her appointment.. her protein count was zero.. her iron count dangerously low.. they gave her 4 units of blood over the course of a couple of days to bring her back.
End result, she lost her home she'd fought so hard to keep and is now living with us.. she is much better but still unable to work more than a couple of days a week. Social Security? nope... we're told she has to be out of work for at least a year.
Meanwhile, my job takes a dive. Business slowed down dramatically and as I work on commision , so did the inflow of money.. my 40 to 45 hour weeks evolved into 30to 35 hour weeks. Already on a shoestring.. nothing in savings, Di has some health issues..
Uninsured, (through my work it would cost $175 per week) she develops a growth on her sinuses. After a visit to a specialist it is decided that she will need to get it removed for a biopsy... how much is the procedure? $5000. They tell us it needs to be done soon but won't even schedule an appointment until we come up with 2500. I never would have thought that at 53 years old I couldn't come up with 2500 dollars.. but we couldn't.. just wasn't there.
We applied for assistance but were summarily turned down stating we made too much money...yeah.. I still wonder where they get their #'s from.
So here we are for the last 2 months of basically sleepless nights trying to come up with some kind of plan when Di checks in with the folks confirming the pricing and now it has magically increased to $7600. Seems she made and error when she looked up the code. 7 thousand 600 dollars for outpatient surgery... unfrigginbelievable.
That combined with the property taxes rolling up in the next few months pushes our needed total to somewhere around $9000 by the first of next year. It ain't looking real good when I'm bringing home 500 bucks a week.
Am I mad? oooooh yeah.. I saw a man stand up and say he was going to fix healthcare.. when? I'm drowning in bureaucratic bs here. Our daughter stayed in the hospital for 7 days.. no intensive care.. just a room. Her bill (for the hospital) was upward of 50,000 dollars.. not including some incidentals. That was more than she owed on the home she lost.
I'm sorry ! was that a political rant?.. bad Chy!
Bottom line... send your thoughts, love and support to Di.. she needs it now. Keep your bucks cause unless you just hit the lottery, we're sure you have your own problems to deal with.
Faith semi-restored...
