My Music Playlist

A friend pointed out how the songs starting on my blog made him jump, he wasn't expecting it. lol. As another music lover I think he should have been prepared.... :-D I'm finding you're easy to tease....good thing you go along with it.

I had been meaning to adjust it for months but I have forgotten my username and password for the playlist. I gave up trying to figure it out when they sent me a temporary one and I never got it. So I deleted it from this blog.

If I add another I'll set it up so it doesn't automatically play, it would need to be clicked to start. I hope that makes reading my blog more enjoyable.

My health insurance frustration, outrageous costs.

I've made no secret about my dissatisfaction with health insurance and the problems we've had with the bills this year. Today, I paid $1731.00 to pay off this years medical expenses. During a call today, I learned we could have used a medical payment program that would have combined half our medical expenses into a single affordable monthly bill.

I am beyond frustrated. I have talked to many people all year and I am only now learning of this program, after paying nearly $20,000 (in cash, out of pocket, non-reimbursed) for medical bills this year. We've had a tough time paying these bills and our credit score took a hit. Most months we paid more than our mortgage in medical bills alone, sometimes twice the mortgage because of prescriptions. We narrowly avoided filing for bankruptcy due to medical bills. We also avoided getting care because we could not afford another medical bill. And I became very sick when I tried switching to a different medication to lower the cost. It would have been a blessing had we known we could combine some of the bills. We could not lower the bills but this program would have stopped the calls from clinics that wanted a higher payment and did not care if we wouldn't be able to pay other bills and provide food for the family. Some clinics insisted they get $350 a month, others were okay if we paid $20, there was no uniformity.

I've shared our story with family and friends for the sole reason of keeping health care insurance reform in people minds. If you haven't experienced the hardship of the bills, you are very lucky and I sincerely hope it remains that way. If you are like us and have felt the impact of outrageous health care costs, please consider sharing your story. I am getting involved in groups that are advocating for change, the more people who share, the more we'll be heard.

It's easy to think these medical bills were a result of having a child with extra needs and it can't happen to the average person. We have supplemental insurance for Joseph that covers what our insurance doesn't pay. These medical bills came from the rest of the family. This could happen to anyone who doesn't have good health insurance.

If you saw the front page of the Star Tribune on Sunday, there was a story about a family who had a high deductible plan and how those plans are causing financial turmoil. That is what we experienced when Greg lost his job last year and why we got hit so hard this year. Thankfully 2009 looks better because Greg found an employer with good insurance.

http://www.startribune.com/business/36786564.html?page=1&c=y This link is for the article in Sundays paper for 12/28/2008. It may only work for 14 days.

Thanks for reading this and if you want, you have my permission to share this story.

I need another day

I can't believe how busy this week has been for me. I was planning to sit down the other night and do some scrapping. I wanted to get the notebook done and finish layouts I want to hang in my dining room. I didn't start anything!

I still have gifts to buy.

I still need to get groceries.

I still need to finish cleaning my house.

I still need to wrap ALL gifts.

I still need to bake.

I did get my tree up and decorated.

I did get the house decorated.

I did get my Christmas cards finished and mailed.

I did start baking Christmas cookies with the kids.

How can I get a few more days to get this all done on time. Greg's family is coming over on Wednesday to celebrate the holiday. I might have to go without sleep!

The before.....

I'm making an altered notebook for a friend as part of a Christmas gift. I'm going to make the notebook into a prayer journal. I have a few ideas but I won't know until I start piecing it together how I'll design it. When I'm done I'll post The After picture.

This project will give me a chance to use the Cricut Expression for the first time! I've had it for 2 weeks but haven't had time to try it out. I'm so excited to use it! Isn't it really a bit silly the things us scrappers get excited about? LOL.

Here's the before picture of what I'm using, it's a little larger than 5x7.

Acupuncture.......

Today a friend suggested trying acupuncture for my migraines. I'm in so much pain from them returning, again, I think I'll give it a try.

About a month ago my doctor switched my medications and they are helping but to a small degree. I am tired of taking more pills, tried of them not working. He keeps saying he'll send me to a neurologist but he keeps changing his mind. I'm hoping to see him early next week and get that moving. But I seriously think I am going to try acupuncture. Pills can't be the answer to everything!

Migraines and Headaches

For so many years I have suffered with headaches. The first time was the last year of high school and my first few years of college. Most of them were stress related or as a result from a car accident. After moving out most of them subsided. Over the years I'll have bouts of times with severe headaches.

Starting last fall I have been suffering like never before. The migraines last so long. When they do subside, I get a tension headache from being so stressed about the headaches and that triggers another migraine. The cycle would repeat for weeks. It interfered with the classes I was taking for work. It kept me from going to some of my classes for work. Last past tax season I missed many days of work. Because of the lousy health insurance we had I couldn't go to the doctor. Our insurance had such a high deductible it didn't cover anything. So I put off seeing a doctor.

I have learned that some foods seem to trigger migraines. Bakery breads and other carbs seem to be very bad for me. I try to watch what I eat but maybe I need to cut out the carbs. But is it the wheat, the yeast or something else? It'd be nice to know what is the actual cause.

Finally this fall I got in to see my doctor. He put me on Valporic Acid but I have to take it every 8 hours, everyday. With my schedule that is so hard to remember! He also gave me Maxalt to take when I get a migraine. For the first few weeks I was doing great. I hardly had a headache, I felt like I had more energy, I so happy that maybe I had found something that helped with little effort. Fast forward to the beginning of November and my headaches have returned. This time they almost seem worse but I know it's only because I had that little break.

When you have headaches all day and all night, you go to bed with them, wake up with them. It drains you of all energy. I am even to the point they prevent me from falling asleep and they wake me up at night. I am miserable. I can't do anything, I can't work out. I don't want to go out. I can't tolerate headlights so I can't drive at night.

Now I'm waiting to get in to see my doctor for a followup. I'm hoping he'll refer me to a neurologist so that I can get some real help. I need to get beyond these headaches, I need to get my life back!

Layouts of older photos

I've been looking over my layouts I've done this year, it's hard to pick what ones to post! I decided to go with layouts of a few older pictures.

This first one is of my brother and me back in about 1975. I am guessing at the year, there was nothing written on the back of the photo. Mom put us in matching outfits, one of the only times she did that to us!

The saying is Siblings ~ Like branches on a tree we grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.




The second layout is of my friend Maija and me from 1990. We were dressed to go out to a concert. I am on the left. It's one of the layouts I did to help me cope with Maija's death.