So Justin had found a job. We had started on the road to financial recovery and thought everything would be OK, even though we were still struggling with medical bills and expenses. Justin's Insulin and blood checking prescriptions were more each month than we had realized, so that was an added burden on our already tight budget. But we made do. Then, before our babies first birthday, I had sudden painful cramps. they got so bad that I couldn't even breathe. My husband and mother took me to the hospital and after some ultrasounds and other tests, I was recommended to a specialist so I could get a Colonoscopy to make sure what was going on. I'd had some issues with my intestines in high school, so the doctor wanted to make sure i was OK. This was just one more thing we had to pay for. So, a month later, and the day before my procedure, we got the liquid drink you have to take before you go in, and I had NEVER tasted anything so gross in my life... but it also made me very nauseated. Somehow though, I was able to keep it down, while drinking ginger-ale in between gulps of the nasty.
The next morning, I was still sick to my stomach. I hadn't eaten anything since the morning before, and since I was going under anesthesia I couldn't even drink anything now. As we were getting ready for the visit to the Dr. I finally realized the date... I had been almost a week late for my period and hadn't even noticed due to all the stress of the procedure. My husband insisted on taking a pregnancy test before we went to the hospital (luckily we had one on hand) and sure enough, I was pregnant. It took all of 10 seconds for the test to go positive.
We went to the Dr. anyway, but couldn't do the procedure now because the drugs could hurt the baby. I was relieved a bit because I hated the idea of having to go under, but upset at the same time that I hadn't realized sooner about being late and put myself through the ordeal the night before for nothing.
The second pregnancy was even worse than the first. I ended up having to go in for an IV twice because I got so dehydrated with being sick, and then when I went in the third time, they basically told me to go home, and said that they would set up a home IV system for me. I had an IV in my arm for more than 2 weeks. Again, building to our seemingly endless hospital bills. They would never stop!
Then, we caught a brake! I was about 6 months pregnant when we got a call from my father. He was in serious danger of loosing his house! After talking it through and a LOT of prayer, we decided to help him out. We took out a large loan to catch my dad up on all of his bills, and moved into his house.
He has a large house, the basement has one bedroom, a 3/4 bathroom and a full kitchen. The main floor has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a large kitchen. My dad moved downstairs and we moved in. We now had the space we needed for a second child. We were also able to pay less monthly on the loan than we were paying on rent. Though the difference wasn't a lot, it was enough that we could start making small monthly payments on all the medical bills that had accumulated in the last 18 months. It was a blessing for us! A few months later, we were able to finish paying all of our existing medical bills just in time for our baby girl to arrive, and add more medical bills. We immediately set up payment plans on those. But now, we had to feed and diaper 2 babies!
Making ends meet was now a week to week, paycheck to paycheck struggle, but we were determined to make it work. We knew it had to somehow. We got by, and provided. We got pregnant with our third child, again before our youngest had turned 1. But somehow we knew we would get by.
More in Part 4, coming soon...
We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 1We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 2We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 3We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 4We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Conclusion
