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doctors, snow, & money
thursday, february 13, 2014



just when i thought things would settle in so i could update regularly, things got busy. but they got busy in a good way, mostly. there have been birthdays (well, one specifically), doctors, more snow/slush/hail/ice (but avoided this time), weight loss, and money that required some running around and helped with some of our larger concerns. but of coarse, the busyness took over web update day last week as well as several other days as we got things squared away with everything.

first, doctors. well, one doctor, but three appointments: hubs, me, and froggy. we initially went in for the free annual physical, but it turned into diagnostics for all of us with prescriptions being given, so now i owe them the office visit co-pays for all of us, which means the two week check up hubs and i were supposed to do next week is going to have to be delayed. just don't have $125 to cover what amounts to 5 appointment co-pays. i also have to hold off three of the specialist related stuff (i can do one or two of them, but the others have the risk of costing more than a co-pay, and until we pay out the full deductible, we'd be responsible for more than we can afford to cover right now (on the plus side, once that $1500 is paid out, a lot of things start getting covered 100%, and that pay out includes ALL pay outs, including the office co-pays). i'm not sure how i feel about the doctor—she was a bit more brusk than i'd like and seemed to be out of touch with the "no money, no insurance" reasons for not having dealt with a number of our issues earlier. however, she's also the closest to us in our network who is taking new patients, so i think we can just let it slide as long as we get good care.

for youngest, this was easy. she got her physical and the one thing she wanted to get started on. hers was probably the easiest appointment, as far as i know. she's not mentioned any concerns the doctor had, so i'm assuming all is well. she also had no extra appointments requested, so it's a good bet everything checked out the way it should. our concern for saxy was high cholesterol diagnosed over a decade ago, just before he lost his insurance with kaiser. we don't know about that yet, but he did come up with high blood pressure and has been put on bp meds. she also told us to get a sleep study approved for him, which is one of the appointments we can't afford. nothing else was mentioned on his paperwork, at least until we find out if he needs a cholesterol med. i don't know if anything was said about weight. if there was, he didn't mention it to me, but he's now cutting back on coke and other caffeine things. as for me, i'm back on my bp meds and now have an emergency inhaler for the asthma. she also gave me a round of stronger antibiotics for the shingles since i still had itching (which i still have, but it's better than it was, so i'm going to watch it before i call and see if i need yet another round of antibiotics yet again). i also had an irregularity in my heartbeat, so i need to see a cardiologist, and along with all the other stuff that goes for a woman's physical, a mammogram. the two appointments i can't afford for me is a gastroenterologist and a sleep study. i'm not sure how the sleep study would help me anyway: my sleep issues are related to my adhd and are more because my schedule is different from the rest of the world's. granted, i don't get 8 hours a night, but according to my fitbit, the 5-7 hours i do get are at a high efficiency, and i function well most of the time, so i'm not overly worried.

all prescriptions have been filled and we're all on said medications. and i've checked on hub's: he is taking them. he laughed at me about it and said i'd let him have it if he wasn't, to which i responded, you damn well better believe it. ;)

as for me, my meds included a diuretic, so i lost a lot of weight this past week, most of it in water weight. but i also lost inches all around. i'm hoping i'm finally entering a new period of steady loss. it's been a long time coming, and i am so ready for it.

doctor day was also tax return day, so there were other things that had to be taken care of. first, the car. i'd initially put aside $1000 to change the timing belt. turns out our car has a timing chain which doesn't need changing. there were other things that had to be taken care of, but they came to only half the amount we'd initially set aside. we have one more little thing we want to look at, but it can wait a bit, and we have some cheaper help with it than an auto shop. it will be a bit since even the surprise surplus got eaten up by a couple other things. heck, even new clothes for me got pushed aside for things, but we DID get hubs some new chef coats (his were so ding, and even with the replacements, he needs more, plus some new more sturdy than he currently has chef pants).

among the things that ate up the money was paying a bit more for a washer and dryer duo (used). the dryer had to be replaced since the one we had was an incredibly oversized door stop. we probably could have held off on the washer, but i was seeing signs of wear and tear, and if it died midyear, there would probably be no way to replace it, esp with the car payment eating up the buffer we had at one point (and then some). so we discussed it and decided to do a preemptive strike and just replace it as well. i am soooo glad we did. the new washer does a much better job than the old one. the washer we received in delivery ended up having a leak, but the place has a 3 month "warranty", so i called them about it. they came out and just swapped out the leaking one, and the new one is rockin' it. there is a small issue with the dryer and the timer that i'm watching to determine if i need to call in on it as well, but for the moment, it is soooo nice to have a dryer. and i'm sure taz is happy to not have to go to his sister's and lug baskets of clothes back and forth.

on of the unexpected things we had to take care of was logan, our remaining male cat. he's had a nasty, wet cough that had us concerned for about a week or so. he's now on antibiotics and is doing much better he's even running around a bit again, and he's got a lot more fight when it comes time for the medicine. lol

plus we knew this upcoming week's check was going to be short and a couple of our bills are higher (the weather killed our electric bill; hubs getting shorted some hours killed our checks), so i paid off the biggest one and spent about $350 at grocery stores to ease the pressure on the next check. we also bought or dragon con tickets for this year, i finally picked up zumba (and hubs got a movie or two), and we took care of a bunch of miscellaneous little things like gas and meds and co-pays and stuff (and as anyone knows, those little things may be little, but when you combine them, they add up like crazy). plus we ate out as a family for the first time in a long time. so most of the money is gone (i have about $50 to go towards groceries on this short check, and hubs has a little left to go towards gas/parking on this short check), but i think we generally did good with it: we took care of some very important expensive things and still managed a few extras/luxuries/treats for us.

on the downside of money: hubs is having a hard time at the fine dining place. his problems there have come and gone: he has a few good weeks followed by a few not so good weeks, but the not so good weeks are starting to be more common and more frustrating of late. when days started to get cut, he was pretty sure he was in trouble over there. a talk with the chef revealed that the chef had hired on someone he'd worked with before and was making room for the new hire by cutting others' hours, but it has put saxy in a bad place: he's now in a position he knows pretty well, but with more pressure being added with new tasks being piled on, and he's not learning anything new. heck, he's not even learning how to get better at some of the tasks he's not as good at because he's been taken off those tasks. there was another incident ending with the chef telling the sous chef something that makes no sense in terms of helping a new chef stronger in his craft. so, hub's checks are short because of cut hours, he's not happy with the higher end of fine dining anyway, and now he no longer has a chance to learn more and become a better chef. as a result, we've agreed that it's definitely time for him to move on, but that means looking for another position. he'll be stoging (working a shift for free) at alma cocina tomorrow. while still on the fine dining end of things, and while he may still end up only working two days a week if they decide to hire them, it would be a better fit. it's not as high up the fine dining ladder, and it's in the culinary wheelhouse he wants to focus on. i'm really hoping they take him. i hate seeing him unhappy in the career he's loved.

then this week we got dealt another blow to the NEXT paycheck (not tomorrow's, but the one in 2 weeks): winter storm shut downs. taz has been home for 3 days now and will be home tomorrow as well. hub's restaurants were all closed yesterday and half of today. froggy's job was closed yesterday. all this after the mess two weeks ago that kept people home around the time of my last post.

days like this, working from home is a good thing. too bad it doesn't hand me a paycheck yet. lol

seriously, though, i'm ready for winter to be over and done with. expecting the usual last light snow around mother's day, but right now? i need it to warm up enough so that trying to keep us remotely warm isn't killing our electric bill. and i need things to settle again so i can keep rebuilding my writing habits. and i need hub's job to sort out so he's happy and in a place where he can see himself getting better and having better opportunities.

but beyond that, we're just done with snow, happy with the money, and having the health stuff finally being taken care of by the doctors. at least the scale is finally tipping toward mostly good stuff for us. as for the snow, well, we'll deal. not like we have much of a choice. besides, there are others in georgia who are having it much worse. hoping they all make it through and eventually end up in a better place.

as for the birthday, grandbaby autumn turned 1! happy birthday, baby girl!


isn't she adorable? ;)


word of the moment: lamella

thin plate; a thin membrane that is one of the calcified layers that form bones; any of the radiating leaflike spore-producing structures on the underside of the cap of a mushroom or similar fungus
 
currently reading:
the bone palace

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