No, I’m not kidding. This string of bad luck has been very unusual for us…normally we see the ped only for well baby visits and regular check ups. My oldest has had more sick/emergency visits in the last month than his whole life combined. I truly don’t know what’s going on.

Yesterday it was a random fever that popped up out of nowhere with no other symptoms beyond being tired and not wanting to play outside. It was so similar to how the pneumonia appeared that I made the call to the ped at 3:50 and they had me come in for an appt at 4:15. I headed straight over there…luckily we were all dressed this time…and was told that it’s unlikely to be pneumonia again. (Still?) He’s been done with his abx for over a week and has been fine since a day or 2 after he was diagnosed and got his rocephin shots. So likely just a virus, but if he’s not better by tomorrow we’ll be heading back.

Are you keeping up with the running tally? That’s $120 in co-pays. I found out yesterday that the rocephin administration was applied to our deductible so that’s almost $200. Then of course I am still unsure how much the x-rays will be. I’m guessing $150+ each. Stitches will probably have to be paid for, to some extent at least. I don’t know many budgets that can withstand something like this in the course of a month…ours certainly can’t. And we have insurance. What about people who don’t? The system seems unbelievably broken but I don’t have a clue how to fix it. The concept of universal health care is appealing, but I think that in many cases the execution fails. So where’s the middle ground? How do we make sure everyone is treated fairly…health care providers and patients? I don’t have the answers, but I hope somebody out there does and that someday soon we have a better way to make sure everyone has the medical coverage they need and deserve.