Tuesday, February 01, 2005
"Rising from the Dead"
Seriously, I feel that way!
Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been two months since my last blog entry.
Well, some of you may recall that while I am happy being a full time mommy right now, one of my concerns was losing my benefits coverage. Sure enough, once my benefits expired we have run into random health problems.
In January, during a warm spell (we were going work outside a lot), I got a tick bite. This is not any big event ordinarily, but I had a bad reaction, severe pain, swelling and infection from my knee down. It was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced, so I made the dreaded "uninsured" trip to the doctor. He put me on a course of antibiotics to head off Lyme's disease from developing, and because of that I have not gotten any of the symptoms. Evidently, the real problems come in when you don't know you've had a bite and then later get symptoms, but in my case, there was no missing the initial bite so they could treat me right away. I swear, the antibiotics made me so sick twice a day I felt like I had morning sickness. (But I didn't!!) I still have a huge hole in my leg which I am hoping will heal before summer!
Last week, Sierra spiked a really high fever and then a sore throat, but the sore throat wasn't too painful, so I wasn't sure if I should suspect strep or not. After a day of fever, she woke up with a red rash all over her body. So I jumped online before the doctors were awake to make a potential diagnosis of Scarlet Fever, which the doctor later confirmed. Who gets Scarlet Fever in 2005, you ask? The daughter of an uninsured ex-software engineer, that's who. Actually, scarlet fever is a strep infection that manifests in a rash in addition to the sore throat and according to the doctor, it is much different than the strain that plagued people in the 1800s. After the rash goes away her skin could peel off for as long as 4-6 weeks!! The good thing is it's easily treatable with antibiotics. The bad thing is that I have to get Sierra to take the antibiotics every day for 6 more days!!! Each day gets a little faster, I think we are down to a 15-20 minute mission now. At least she is not totally refusing to drink the disgusting pink amoxicillin, but it's still a trying ordeal each day, albeit a little cute to see what her new and improved excuses will be each day.
In retrospect, we have still come out ahead over paying Haywood's overpriced company insurance, and hopefully this is not going to be a normal month. I am not advocating that living without health insurance is a good thing, and honestly I don't like living with the stress of worrying about if something more serious were to happen, but for now we'll make it work.
I hope to get back to blogging more regularly at some point this year, but I can't make any promises just yet!
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Seriously, I feel that way!
Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been two months since my last blog entry.
Well, some of you may recall that while I am happy being a full time mommy right now, one of my concerns was losing my benefits coverage. Sure enough, once my benefits expired we have run into random health problems.
In January, during a warm spell (we were going work outside a lot), I got a tick bite. This is not any big event ordinarily, but I had a bad reaction, severe pain, swelling and infection from my knee down. It was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced, so I made the dreaded "uninsured" trip to the doctor. He put me on a course of antibiotics to head off Lyme's disease from developing, and because of that I have not gotten any of the symptoms. Evidently, the real problems come in when you don't know you've had a bite and then later get symptoms, but in my case, there was no missing the initial bite so they could treat me right away. I swear, the antibiotics made me so sick twice a day I felt like I had morning sickness. (But I didn't!!) I still have a huge hole in my leg which I am hoping will heal before summer!
Last week, Sierra spiked a really high fever and then a sore throat, but the sore throat wasn't too painful, so I wasn't sure if I should suspect strep or not. After a day of fever, she woke up with a red rash all over her body. So I jumped online before the doctors were awake to make a potential diagnosis of Scarlet Fever, which the doctor later confirmed. Who gets Scarlet Fever in 2005, you ask? The daughter of an uninsured ex-software engineer, that's who. Actually, scarlet fever is a strep infection that manifests in a rash in addition to the sore throat and according to the doctor, it is much different than the strain that plagued people in the 1800s. After the rash goes away her skin could peel off for as long as 4-6 weeks!! The good thing is it's easily treatable with antibiotics. The bad thing is that I have to get Sierra to take the antibiotics every day for 6 more days!!! Each day gets a little faster, I think we are down to a 15-20 minute mission now. At least she is not totally refusing to drink the disgusting pink amoxicillin, but it's still a trying ordeal each day, albeit a little cute to see what her new and improved excuses will be each day.
In retrospect, we have still come out ahead over paying Haywood's overpriced company insurance, and hopefully this is not going to be a normal month. I am not advocating that living without health insurance is a good thing, and honestly I don't like living with the stress of worrying about if something more serious were to happen, but for now we'll make it work.
I hope to get back to blogging more regularly at some point this year, but I can't make any promises just yet!
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