The Pavlovich Family: A Good Chicken

I decided at the beginning of this year that 2012 would be dedicated to the medical profession. It all started on December 23rd when Alex and I took a trip to the ER because Alex had a significant amount of blood in his urine. $183 and an hour or so later we were on our way home. Alex had a new catheter to care for and our Christmas Day party was effectively cancelled. A few hours after that we were back in the ER when the catheter stopped working. 15 minutes later and another $183 and we were heading home again. I have pictures of Alex's humiliation but for the sake our retaining a healthy marriage I won't be posting them. Sorry.

Oh... did I mention that we don't have a single ounce of health insurance.

The good news I quickly discovered was the joys of "uninsured discounts". Because we were uninsured, the hospital decreased our bill from a little over $6000 down to $2400 and allowed us to make payment arrangements that were reasonable. So did the Urologists that he had to see in the following days.

Shortly after our cruise in the Bahamas in May, I began to limp. As the months (yep plural) progressed my hobbling grew worse. I finally called an end to the ludicrous behavior on the day that it took me until 1 pm to be able to put any pressure at all on my left foot. The next day I was at the Podiatrist's office for a 5 minute examine that determined I had a bone spur in my heel. I was given a cortisone shot which "burned like hell" just like the doctor said it would and was sent on my merry way less in pain and $100 poorer.

I think that's when it dawned on me that not having insurance isn't all that bad. I've even made appointments for the two of us to have our teeth cleaned next month.

My theory of course was shot to hell just a few days ago. September 25 to be exact. That's the day I had my regular, yearly gynecologist visit (which by the way only costs $84 if you pay the same day in cash). For some bizarre reason the night before I decided I'd take a pregnancy test just for giggles.

This is where I go off on a tangent for just a moment. You see I've taken dozens of pregnancy tests over the last 12 years and not a single one has ever, ever, ever been positive. Not even close. This is because I was diagnosed with PCOS (Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome) back in 2003. For those who are not aware of what this is, it means that I make the eggs, I just never hatch them from my ovaries. I tell all in my typically disturbing fashion of uncomfortable humor that I'm not a good chicken. After we were married, Alex and I tried 3 rounds of fertility treatment with no success. As a matter of fact the ONLY time I ovulated (and I've probably taken more ovulation tests than pregnancy tests) was when Alex was in Detroit for 11 days opening the new MGM Grand. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor. About 4 years ago, we gave up believing that we would ever ever ever have a family. Even adoption seemed to be a stretch financially, mainly because you have to have health insurance.

So back to my story and you probably know where I'm going with this now. At 6 am, I woke up, took the dog out to pee, and decided to take one of the pregnancy tests. Only this time it was so very positive I had to read the box to figure out if my eyes were deceiving me. I walked into the bedroom, rudely turned on the light, and handed Alex the test. Not understanding what he was reading, I told him it was positive and began to cry. My tears were of fear. Raw fear.... because.... what IF it was lying? I was so overwhelmed with the possibility that I might hope again only to be let down. There are only a few handful of people out there that might be reading this that can truly understand the depths of my despair. So I took another one and got the same results. And then we laughed!

Off to the doctor's office we went. A bunch of questions, another pregnancy test, and an ultrasound later and we're officially 8 weeks pregnant! My doctor was kind enough to only bill us for the original appointment since it will cost $500 up front for the ultrasound alone! Then there's the blood work and the other appointments and other stuff that I can only speculate upon. So the moral of the story is we're getting insurance. And when we go back in 3 weeks, we'll have another ultrasound that will be "official" as every thing should be when it costs $500.