Financial Challenges Support Group
This community is for people who are struggling to meet financial obligations of any kind. Financial challenges include everything from the day-to-day challenges of making ends meet to managing credit card debt to bankruptcy. Get support from others who are going through similar obstacles on the road back to financial stability.
Well, I've just experience one of the longest weeks of my life... a week of uncertainty and fear.
I have not been feeling the best for awhile and last week, everything started to break down. It was crazy my hands just seem to explode... full of fluid and extremely stiff and painful.
I tried for a week to doctor myself with no results. Finally, this Wednesday I broke down and went to the doctors. Right away, he said it wasn't arthritis.... so I kind of had a little physical and learned my kidney was swollen... blood work was ordered and I waited a day to get results...
Right off the top... I do not have renal failure... I do not have cirrhosis... 90% sure I don't have cancer.... blood work was really great for a 57 year old. Heck, I don't watch my diet and even my cholesterol was great.
So why are my hands so big and so stiff? I do have some fluid build up, so next week I will have a chest x-ray and an EKG/ECG.
I don't spend a lot of money now but until this gets settle... I will be spending even less. I do have my ducks in a row... if I need surgery, I do have disability insurance and I do have medical insurance. I do have enough emergency funds to meet the deductibles, but it will put me down to amounts I haven't seen in a couple of years.
So, by the end of this week, I will pay off one CC that I have been using for this month's bills and owe nothing on any of them. Until this is settle... credit is stopped.
My biggest fear, at first, was cancer... when that was nearly eliminated, all my anxiety left me and I slept for 12 hours yesterday. Doctor did give me a prescription for compression gloves, which helped so much. First night in a week that I slept without pain...
Anyway, first time in awhile where I will be watching every penny... if you believe in the power of prayer, please say a prayer for me... fear of the unknown has been playing tricks with my mind...
I have not been feeling the best for awhile and last week, everything started to break down. It was crazy my hands just seem to explode... full of fluid and extremely stiff and painful.
I tried for a week to doctor myself with no results. Finally, this Wednesday I broke down and went to the doctors. Right away, he said it wasn't arthritis.... so I kind of had a little physical and learned my kidney was swollen... blood work was ordered and I waited a day to get results...
Right off the top... I do not have renal failure... I do not have cirrhosis... 90% sure I don't have cancer.... blood work was really great for a 57 year old. Heck, I don't watch my diet and even my cholesterol was great.
So why are my hands so big and so stiff? I do have some fluid build up, so next week I will have a chest x-ray and an EKG/ECG.
I don't spend a lot of money now but until this gets settle... I will be spending even less. I do have my ducks in a row... if I need surgery, I do have disability insurance and I do have medical insurance. I do have enough emergency funds to meet the deductibles, but it will put me down to amounts I haven't seen in a couple of years.
So, by the end of this week, I will pay off one CC that I have been using for this month's bills and owe nothing on any of them. Until this is settle... credit is stopped.
My biggest fear, at first, was cancer... when that was nearly eliminated, all my anxiety left me and I slept for 12 hours yesterday. Doctor did give me a prescription for compression gloves, which helped so much. First night in a week that I slept without pain...
Anyway, first time in awhile where I will be watching every penny... if you believe in the power of prayer, please say a prayer for me... fear of the unknown has been playing tricks with my mind...
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I invited Bill to have dinner with me last Sunday. He wasn't willing to drive 7 hours to mid Michigan and teased me with his beautiful ribs!!! So, of course I ate alone and had cedar salmon
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check out that smoke ring. It tasted really good. I smothered it with Maulls BBQ sauce which is Local to St. Louis and one of the best I ever had.....
Financially, it is a blessing that you have gotten yourself in such a good situation. That is one of the reasons we do what we do to be in a healthy financial situations so that when we have these situations (that everyone has at one point or another in our lives) we have the means to handle them. God is great! Even if that means going back and picking up where we left off once we are able to do so..
I hope you feel well soon. Again my prayers are with you. Take Care! God bless you.
Toty
anyway...hugs and keep doing the right things....hugs
You are so right... in the past all I'd see with a deal like this is $$$... I still see them, but instead of wondering how I'll pay for it... now it is a view that I have saved the money for deals like this.
I do have a commitment I made for next week that I will keep, unless of course I end up in the hospital. It has been six years since I've seen my daughter and her family. It's a long story why it has been so long, but now that I've made the promise of being there I won't back out... that will be my last major expense until this is satisfied.
IF it is not my heart then it might be lymphedema....
Whatever it is, the best deal for me would be something that could be treated with meds...
And yes, I'm still working... I never miss work... in the last 20 years, I have missed work just three days due to illness... I just don't miss work... work drives the money train and gives me a purpose to get up every day...
I have faced my own health issue lately....and have been so grateful for a positive financial position, good insurance, good employment etc. You have well and truely earned the peace of mind that finacialresponsibility brings........all you need to focus on now, is your health....
I hope you had a good weekend. My husband and I have had you in our prayers. Please keep us posted, let us know what they find and how you are doing.
What do you do for a living? I hope you don't have to use your hands too much since they hurt.
God bless you. Take care.
Toty
Didn't even do the financial work I wanted to do, that I listed above... oh well... it's still there and will be when I'm ready.
My work? I work in a bakery... not some small corner donut shop, but rather a large wholesale place. I help in the mixing room because many of the products we produce I created. My main job, is being in charge of the Research & Development Department.
We make specialty dessert cakes, liquor cakes, and breakfast breads.... all of the breads and liquor cakes are my creations... some of the dessert cakes are mine as well, but a majority of them were here long before I started working here.
My big creation this year is a holiday cake... peppermint cake, to be served with a scoop of ice cream... we'll see if it sells.
Anyway, the company I work for roughly produces a million pounds of cake every year... we sell it to grocery stores, department stores, and catalog outfits.
The work I do is very much "hands on" so right now my hands and arms are in constant pain... though I am getting better at figuring out how to move things. I can now lift a 50 pound sack of flour with just my forearms and elbows... a new talent for me... LOL
Your peppermint cake sounds sooooo good. I'm sure it will sell.
Let us know what the doctors find. Our prayers will continue to be with you. Take care.
Toty
Went to the clinic and was told to get a CT Scan with dye... there is a blockage on the main vessel going back to the heart... so the one that pumps the blood is pumping more then is being returned and is creating a "balloon" on it... or a very scary word... an aneurism...
Had CT Scan this morning and now waiting on results... then what? A lot of possibilities... still hoping for a non-hospital non-surgical result...
I'm sorry you are going through this, but I think these times come to all of us sooner or later. I'm glad that you are getting all the diagnostic tests you need. That it in itself is a blessing.
I realize that you would prefer medication to surgery, it is understandable. Have you considered the positive sides of the surgery if indeed you require it? I don't know if a surgery would avoid you the expense and side effects of maintenance medications down the road. Has your doctor mentioned any of this to you?
I am a diabetic, with high blood pressure, plus all the little things that come with age (61). I take 5 prescription medications daily. My diet is super restricted. But, two of my medications cause me to feel like I'm going to almost faint for about an hour after taking them. I had to retire early because of this, and I do not schedule any appointments until after noon, because I can't seem to hold my head up (literally), until the effect passes. My doctor has tried different medications, and they all cause me the same side effect. It's the nature of the drug in my system. I have accepted this and only occasionally do I feel sorry for myself. Mostly when we travel, it is very limiting. I share this with you because, sometimes surgery is the best overall choice. If there was a surgery that would get rid of my high blood pressure, I would do it in an instant. Having said that, only you and your doctor know what choices you have for your condition. I just thought I would give you some food for thought.
We continue to pray for you, I know that its God will that will be done. Take care of yourself. God bless you.
Toty
I'm sorry you are going through what you have... my fantasy and yes I know it is a fantasy is a "quick fix." I know it's not going to happen... right now I'm just loaded with fear and insecurity...
Monday morning I meet with a cardiovascular surgeon, who has told my doctor that it needs to be "repaired." I'm just hoping repaired means a non-invasive major surgery through the groin and not a wide open chest surgery.
There is very little doubt that it will involve surgery, my fear is just how invasive that surgery will be.
For me, this weekend will be a busy one, getting all the paperwork lined up and bills paid. To find my policy for disability insurance, to get to work on a living will and to give all the "valuable" info about accounts to my girlfriend...
Besides the fear, I'm sure this weekend will also be filled with some tears...
You are doing all the right things, and that is all that we can do. I know sometimes it is difficult to surrender, but in reality the outcome, as you know is in the HP's hands.
Tears are healing, I'm sure your friends form the rooms will be with you not only with prayers but physically. And it is a blessing that your girlfriend is there as well.
Don't be too worried or fearful. My mother was 76 years old when she had both procedures done on her. She did so well. This was a long time ago and the medical community did not have the advanced technologies that they have now. I remember the doctor telling her that they had implanted timed released bubbles of anesthetic in her, when she had her open heart surgery. She never took anything else for pain not even a Tylenol. She kept saying it was a little sore, but not bad.
She had a valve replaced in her heart and a pacemaker inserted under her skin.
If she did it, I know you can too. You will do even better than she did, because you are stronger and much younger.
Before you realize it, you will be telling us that it was no big deal. In the meantime, we will continue to pray. God bless you.
Toty
What a wonderful story... you made my night...
One thing I firmly believe with all my heart and soul.
Women are tougher then men... their pain threshold is so much higher then a mans... not meaning to sound like a victim, just how much respect and how much awe I have for women when it comes to pain and its management...
I know you will be better as a result of this repair work however it unfolds for you....be prayerful for surgeons skilled hands....and trust the process....this is a major life event and your handling it totally awesome....
Doesn't your girlfriend live in UK? I think I heard that...got that impression anyway....but you take care of all affairs so no matter what the outcome is your butt is blessed....Hugs bill
Yup GF is in the UK....
Had a very productive day of getting all my insurance papers and cash in line to be ready for next week...