jenforsberg

As I sped down County 2 on my way to work from the hospital, my gut churned with anxiety. How much will this cost us? How close are we to our out of pocket max with our health insurance company? Then instantly, I felt the remorse of thinking of finances when I should have been concerned with my husband’s health. Will he recover from this infection? Will the original carpal tunnel surgery that caused all of this reduce his hand pain?

How can I comfort him when he is so disappointed that we missed the flight for our 25th wedding anniversary trip? A trip that he spent countless hours planning and preparing for. A cruise has been his dream vacation for quite some time now. My dream vacation was one that I didn’t have to plan. I didn’t care where we went, I was just burned out from stress and decision fatigue at work, and he made that a reality for me with this trip. The only thing I was responsible for was showing up.

Then everything changed. He had the stitches removed from his carpal tunnel surgery on Tuesday. He noticed a blister forming under the bandages so we sent photos to his doctor through the online chart. He had only been at work for a short time when the doctor’s office called and told him to come in for another surgery about 6 hours after eating breakfast. “Perfect, he thought, that’s about when my shift ends today.” Then 15 minutes later, the surgeon called and insisted that he show up at the emergency room immediately because the surgery was imminent and could not wait.

I learned of all this while I was at work and I didn’t feel I could leave because I was covering for nine other offices because their managers were out. A better wife may have left work anyway. I was a wreck. My staff and customers could see right through my façade. I don’t remember how many mistakes I made that day, but as soon as we closed for the day, I ran home to pick up supplies for Lee and then went to the hospital where he was admitted. I slept (if you can call it that) in the guest chair and kept track of the multiple antibiotics and pain meds he was given throughout the night.

He was in the hospital for three days. We left with instructions on daily wound care and nerves of steel even though I wasn’t convinced they should have released him yet. Fast forward a few days and we are attempting to submit claims for a refund on the flights and cruise. We still have not received the hospital bill yet, but I do know that we have an emergency fund to cover this expense. It has taken us years of scraping by to be at this point in our lives. My desire in sharing our stories is to inspire other people to know that it is possible to overcome every obstacle and obtain self-sufficiency, while striving toward building wealth.