Murphy And His Law

This is the first time in our married life that we have had to go without insurance. It's tough. Every.Little.Thing scares me to death thinking it may be a catastrophe.

Well. As soon as we moved here, Gretta came down with a wicked sinus infection. I knew that's what it was. But I thought she'd be fine after a couple of days of Tylenol. I was wrong. Sean ended up taking her to our old pediatrician, paying $40 upfront and expecting to pay the difference in a bill to follow, and getting a diagnosis of bronchitis and a sinus infection. Mother of the year, right here. The antibiotics were $8. Not too bad.

Then, a week later, Maggie says at breakfast that she's not hungry. This instantly means she's sick, because I'm here to tell you, that girl loves her breakfast. She loves to eat, period. So I knew something was up. After a day of staying home from school, I thought she'd be better. That evening I got a whiff of her breath, and I knew it was strep. Strep breath. A dead giveaway. Emma has had it 10 times; I would know that smell in my sleep. So off the a clinic recommended by Heidi. $50, regardless of insurance status, and we had our diagnosis. Strep it was. More antibiotics. $4 this time.

After a weekend of good times, playing with cousins and having a sleepover, Kelli calls to inform me that said cousin of sleepover has strep. This means Emma probably has it too. So I check her out of school yesterday, take her over to the same clinic (where the PA doesn't charge me, because either I looked really poor an pathetic, or she just totally got that when one kid gets strep the other ones usually do, too) and sure enough, strep for Emma. Another $4 for antibiotics.

So now here we are, all three kids on antibiotics, all on the mend, and hopefully our CHIP will come through just as they are all better.

Murphy, I know your law, and I don't like it. I don't like it one bit.