First the bad. Jason went back to the surgeon this morning for a re-check. They took off the cast and did a new x-ray. Based on that and how his thumb looks, the dr said that it's not healing properly so he's going to have surgery on Monday morning. He'll put 2 pins in. So, that sucks big time. Any positive thoughts for a speedy recovery would be much appreciated!
The good news... we've been trying to get Owen an evaluation at the Weisskopf center for a long time. Last month they told me another 6-8 months. I told his pediatrician that and he gave them a nice little call ;) (Owen's ped rocks by the way!). I got a call yesterday asking if we could be there Tuesday morning!!! So, his eval is Tuesday morning. Woo!!!! Bad news on that one is it's about 1 1/2 hours away and we have to be there at 8am. Yikes! But, we'll do it :)
The hopeful news.... Owen's school is, well, not doing as well as I originally thought they would. I am not too happy with their progress on the evals so we hired an advocate for him. I just signed the paperwork this morning and right now that advocate is sitting down having a meeting with the head of the special education department for our county. After that he's going to see the principal at Owen's school and demand an alarm is put on that door (the one that I put the alarm on but was promised a permanent alarm would be put up "soon".... 7 weeks ago). So.... we'll see how it goes! I'm very hopeful that he'll be able to help us.
The other bad news... the advocate isn't cheap. I did get him to lower his cost and spread out the cost over the next 3 months. Add onto that though the cost of Jason's thumb. Thumbs apparently aren't cheap ;) I don't know what the ER visit is going to cost us yet, we're guessing a couple hundred. Each surgeon appointment costs $20 (he's had 2 so far, will be having many more in the following weeks). The surgery, not including the cost of the anesthesia person, will be about $850. He's also going to need some physical therapy after all is said and done to regain the use of his thumb. I believe that's a $20 co-pay each time too. So, after all is said and done, we're looking at probably $2000-2500ish out of pocket. Yikes! To compound that fun little fact- Jason can't work his weekend job until he's completely healed. Now, the weekend job we don't NEED to survive. We use that for play money, mostly. But losing that job for a couple months and having about $3000 in unexpected bills (Jason's thumb and Owen's advocate) isn't cool. But, we'll survive. I talked to Jason a little about me getting a second job but he doesn't think it's possible because he's not going to be able to do anything with that hand for weeks so he wants me home to help him.
But, we have a roof over our heads, food in our fridge... we'll be fine. And THIS is a huge reason why I've been playing my little couponing game. We can survive for at least a month without buying anything other than fresh fruits, milk, eggs and some meat. We have plenty of frozen veggies, some frozen and canned fruit, pastas, tons of cereal and breakfast bars, nuts, peanut butter, crackers, etc etc. We have plenty of TP and PT for awhile. And I've been working on Christmas gifts for Owen (working sales and coupons) so even if we don't have the money to buy anything else for him, he'll have a good Christmas.
Breathe in.... breathe out..... we'll be fine :)
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A little update... yesterday Jason talked to the owner of the indoor soccer place where he broke his thumb. Apparently they have some insurance that we can use! This insurance will pay part, if not all, of our uncovered expenses!!!! Wow. We did not expect that at all. HUGE relief!!
Well that was a whole lot of bad news! Sorry he's going to need surgery. But that is awesome the soccer place will cover some costs!!! Do you guys not have health insurance?? I would've thought Jason had some at one of his jobs...
Thats awesome you got the appointment for Owen!
Jason does have insurance. That's the kinda sucky part. He has insurance through his work (Lexmark). Just with this surgery it cost $850ish. Our cost after insurance pays is $598. Yeah, insurance covers like $250 and that's it. The ER visit we'll have to pay 50% of, but we don't have that bill yet. $20 co-pay for each surgeon appointment (2 already, looking at another 3-4). $20 co-pay for each physical therapy appointment.
Surgery is done. Funny story to follow when I have the time, but gotta run. It went well. 2 pins are in. In 2 weeks he goes back.
I'm glad he made it through surgery ok. Now hopefully you have a few months of no extra drama happening--you certainly could use a breather!
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