A very overdue update...

As you can imagine, life around here is CRAZY! Hence the fact that it has been exactly one month since I posted on here. So for the sake of my sanity, I am going to update the best I can in one post.

Tom's second surgery went well. He ended up staying in the hospital two more days. It did the trick though. He came home on three courses of antibiotics and it seems to have kicked the staph right out. WHEW.

So while we were rejoicing the wonderful news that he was doing better, the bills start coming in. Apparently our great insurance? Not so great. When it is all said and done, we are looking at about $50,000 in bills from this little adventure. We thought we would have to pay $20. Yeah. After 7 calls to our ins company prior to surgery and never getting a straight answer, we figured the worst estimate ($1500) would have to do. Ofcourse that was only one surgery. Apparently we maxed out and had almost no coverage for the second. We are not very happy to say the least.

Then we find out that Tom's estimate of being out of work for a week was jsut "slightly" off. (me rolling eyes) He is out of work completely until the 22nd of December when he goes to see his doc again. There isn't even a guaruntee that he can go back then. So we are looking at at least 2 months of no work for him. Nice.

So there has to be a silver lining, right? Well, it turns out that because our income was $0 when we applied, Tom qualifies for Medicaid for a short period of time. Now all you who believe that anyone who uses "the system" should burn in hell, please keep your mouth shut. It will literally save our butts. Not only will he have proper medical care for the next few months to make sure that things are healed properly, but they will cover 3 months worth of past due medical bills. Yep, the $50k? Gone. PRAISE GOD.

So, just as Tom is getting better, everyone else falls under the bus. Ben got sick first with a terrible cough. After a week and a half, Izzy gets it. Only hers is REALLY bad. She sounds terrible and her chest is retracting every time she breathes. We opted to take her to the ER. We just couldn't tell if she was getting enough air. Now if you know me, you will know how big of a deal it was. I took Zach to the ER one time and it was a nightmare. I have never taken a child since. The only reason I really agreed so quickly was because they just opened a new Children's Hospital. That is a big deal for me. I want someone who knows how to handle a sick kid without tramatizing them and won't over react (Zach had a low grade fever from teething and they sd it was menengitis). So Tom took her in and they were fabulous! She had a chest x-ray to rule out pnuemonia. They were so gentle and loving. Turns out it was just croup. They gave her steriods. We only did three doses before deciding that the psychotic child was better without them. We switched back to homeopathy and she is doing fabulously. I hate steriods. Those things are insane. So Zach now is running a fever of 103 and feeling terribly. After some debate, we decide to treat him and Ben with the same remedies we used last year when they had whooping cough. It did the trick! As of today, everyone was doing pretty good.

Except me. Yesterday I started having stomach cramps that were pretty awful. I was up ALL NIGHT with them. Every 15-20 minutes I would be writhing in agony. Nothing helped. They continued today, although our homepath gave me a remedy this morning that made a huge difference. They were far les painful, spaced out farther and shorter in duration. I am hoping by tomorrow they are gone. It sucked. So I guess Dunk is next. We'll see if he avoids it all!

What else... Well I have been working like crazy. Still not quite as busy as I would like to be, but I have had a steady two sessions a week for a bit now. It brings in a little $$ that certainly helps. Most of my evenings are spent editing 100's of pictures. But overall, I LOVE it. I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I do. So that is a huge blessing. I am hoping I can stay busy. It is easy with Christmas coming. Everyone wants pictures! we'll see what happens after that.

Tom also started working for a company called ACN (www.pier3.acnrep.com) It is full commisions, but he is loving it and hoping it can fill in some of the gaps. He is an authorize dealer for telecommunications companies (direct TV, att, verizon, t-mobil, sprint, viop, etc) He has been busy doing that and is really making some good headway! We are excited about the potential it has for us.

Dunkan is doing great. We got word from BSA head quarters that his eagle was accepted!!!! His eagle court of honor is the night of December 18th and he is super excited. It should be fabulous. I am sooooo proud of him. Tom's sister Karla is coming down for it and it will be great to see her as well.

Oh I just realized that Ben was blessed November 2nd and Tom's best friend from NY and Ben's Namesake got to come down and stand in the circle for the blessing. That was awesome.

What else.... I can't really think of anything at the moment. I am going to try and do better at keeping up, but no promises!