Medical bills...

[azdesertrat]

Is there anyone else out there getting pissed off & depressed because of the cost of this damn disease?
After my last little 'wreck' the bills are mounting.
I think I just need to say 'I WAS BORN THIS WAY! I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS! I DON'T LIKE HAVING TO GO THROUGH ALL THE MEDICAL PROCEDURES & I DON'T LIKE THE BILLS THAT COME AFTERWARD!'
I know doctors, nusrses, CNA's etc. all need to be paid. I'm forever grateful for their help. Without them, I wouldn't be alive to bitch about this.
Given the choice though, I wouldn't even go through any of this crap!
I'm just tired of dealing with the whole mess of horse shit that goes along with cystic fibrosis.

 

[triples15]

AMEN Pat!!!

I couldn't have put it any better myself!! I get so darn sick of wading through the 8 million medical bills and making sure they are correct and my insurance paid what they should etc. I also resent the fact that people in the US should have to go broke because of the fact that we were born with a genetic disease that we did absolutely nothing to bring on ourselves!!

I will say tho, today there is more help than there has been in the past. Not necessarily with medical bills but with prescription copays. The assistance for Pulmozyme, Cayston, Pancreaze, Hypersal has really saved me a lot of money in copays that I can now put toward medical bills. Just a few years ago there were few/no assistance programs so there has been
progress!

Also, don't know if this would help you at all or not but at my hospital, if I have a big balance, if I call them and say I can pay it in full over the phone they will offer an incentive/discount which is 10% off. Every little bit helps! Maybe you could see if the hospital you were treated at offers anything like that?


Good luck and take care Pat!

Autumn

 

[azdesertrat]

Oh yea, don't get me wrong; there is way more help out there for 'us' then there used to be.
I've been dealing with this crap since I was 18 yrs. old. That's 30 freakin' years! I thank God daily for my doctors, the nurses who have made my life so much better, etc. And, I don't begrudge them a penny; they're worth their weight in gold!
I guess I just needed to bitch a little. I'm just sick of the whole damn thing. I've never been a bitcher or a whiner.
When I'm in the hospital, I've always had nurses fighting to get me on their schedule becasue I do my best to not be a problem.
Sometimes, it gets hard to be a 'Good Soldier'. I just neede to vent a little I guess.
I've always tried to make the best of a bad situation; I've done a pretty good job.
It's just that having CF has wrecked so much of what I've wanted to do with my life.
When I was in high school I wanted to follow in Dad's bootsteps & become a US Army helicopter pilot. I was sent home from my Army induction physical.
I was able to pass the DOT physical, by lying through my teeth for more than 20 years! That enabled me to at least get a decent job driving a truck for a living. I loved it.
Unfortunately, I was denied the privilege of making a deent living post-transplant. I developed diabetes due to anti-rejection drugs & was unable to pass my physical.
I just get more than a little pissed off because so much of what 'normal' people take for granted is denied us with a chronic disease.
You have to manipulate statistics so you can receive some help with the catostrophic costs involved & that sucks!
I've never been able to buy a house, or a new vehicle because of all my damn bills. It jus really gets old after awhile. I
guess I'll quit whining & go back to being a good 'Trooper'.
Hope y'all are well & you can get all you can in life.
Hey, you only go around once... I guess I'll continue making the best of it- I hope y'all will too.
May God bless & be with you.

 

[Beccamom]

I agree with you. I feel like such a burden to my family and worry about money now when I never worried about money before. We are not rich, but my husband and I both have master's degrees and hold 2 jobs each. We went into the military and serviced our tome to pay for college. i feel like we did all we could to be comfortable money wise, then I was diagnosed with CF and the medical bills are frightening.

 

[DebraHow]

You put it very well. I agree with Beccamom, too. I feel like a burden to my family. We never get to do anything fun, go out, on vacation, etc. and we are always in debt. Rec'd some money recently as a gift and used it to pay down some of our bills and it felt so good to eliminate a couple of them...for about a week until I was placed on home IV's, then ended up in ICU, back home on home IVs and now we're worse than we were before. I'm grateful for the gift we received or we'd be worse off, but it's bad enough what this disease does to our lives and then the financial aspect really wrecks it. I know my husband resents it. He didn't know about the CF when he married me.

I've applied for help, but we always come out that we make too much. I'm on disability and my husband is a truck driver and his income really fluctuates. They never look at the expenditures, just at the income, also. YES, I UNDERSTAND!

 

[Guest]

Burden my ass Lol, Im caring for my father he is 55 with existing lungs, the life lessons learned almost make me feel unworthy. It has changed how I look at everything since he took a turn for the worse in jan of this year. I value every minute of everyday, the burdens you carry are only in my eyes possible by angels. You are inspiring in so many ways.