no...not mastercard, but we might need one.

heads up-- you might want to pause the playlist for this post, you might need your sound for something else...

so i'm borrowing some slogan-age here....and i'm honestly not a fan of credit cards, or debt in general-- in fact, i am a fan of dave ramsey-- but i think the mastercard ads fully fit this post....

one bag of octreotide (these are changed every 24 hours people)...$500*
a month's supply of Ridge's oral medications AFTER insurance has paid...$226.30
cardiac and apnea monitors AFTER insurance has paid (per month)...$60
pulse-ox monitor rental per month....$150**-- this is a REDUCED rate (which we are grateful for!)
hemoglobin monitor....$600**
hemoglobin monitor test strips/microcuvettes....$159 for 100, so about $600 per year**

*insurance will cover some of this
**insurance will cover none of this

being home for the first time in five months...as a family of four....priceless!

I have no idea how we will pay for pretty much any of that stuff.  I have no idea why it costs so much.  I think it's all pretty stupid.  As if it's not trying enough to have a sick child, let's make sure all of your necessities cost a bajillion dollars.  Obviously I'm a worrier.  Obviously I know God will somehow provide bc he always has and always does and always will.  But seriously?  Some of those prices, if not all of them, are seriously jacked up.

One of Ridge's meds, before insurance, was going to cost $800 per month!  I just think all of that is so....tragic.

This morning as we hooked Ridge up to his new Octreotide setup, I was in love.  In love with being able to tote my baby around w/o an IV pole.  As the other monitors arrived, I was not in love.  Not in love with him being on monitors....not in love with not being able to see his exact heart rate.  Not in love with feeling tied down.  As I found out some of the costs, I was even more not in love.  It would honestly be CHEAPER to live at the hospital.  i am so so so excited to go home.  But some of that joy is kinda gone because of the stupid cost and the stupid monitors.  And the not knowing if he even really needs to be ON all the meds he's on.  And of course leaving is bittersweet bc we have so many new friends here and I really will miss our nurses.  I know we will see them again, soon, and probably often.  But I will miss seeing them every day.  Because in a weird way this hospital has become normal and they have become friends/family.  What the heck am I gonna do all day? :)

Money just makes me sick at my stomach sometimes. ick-o.

We will go home, on my birthday.  I keep forgetting it's my bday, bc really I just think it is so grand we are going home.  Yes folks, amidst crazy insane medical bills, right around Christmastime, in what seems only like a dream, the Carys are going home.  pause that playlist i've got at the bottom of the screen, bc i've got something to say:




WE'RE GOING HOME!