Feeling so worried...

[reallynervous]

I posted earlier about my dh ending up in the hospital right after we filed our BK. Thankfully he is doing better and is recuperating at home now. The infection in his leg is in control but the resulting leg wounds are very serious and we are not out of the woods that they may require surgery.

I have been trying to manage everything - back and forth to the hospital, taking care of our two children, getting his paperwork taken care of at work, etc, taking him on all his appts, etc.. and I am exhausted and feeling really down.

Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for his recovery because for a few days it was doubtful he would pull thru. I am just really weary from all of this. Filing the BK was supposed to be our fresh start. I was feeling really hopeful for the first time in many months. Now this. It feels like I am drowning and every time I pop my head above water someone shoves me back down.

Dh is getting very down because of all the medical costs we are incurring due to our co-pays - close to $500 paid in the past 2 weeks already. There went out meager emergency stash. I am glad we had it though. His disability benefit at work will be about $800 less a month than he brings home now. If he needs to be off work for more than 2 months we are going to be sunk as out stimulus check will need to cover all our co-pays. Our health insurance only cover 20 PT visits to the Wound Clinic per calendar year. I don't know what we will do if he needs to go longer than that.

I am praying he will be well enough to attend the 341 meeting. Thankfully, it looks like it will be the end of June now rather than the end of this month.

Any prayers or advise you can offer would be really appreciated. I generally function much better when I have a plan I can follow and in this case everything is still so unknown. They can't give us any real idea how long the leg might take to heal. If you can think of anything I should be looking into which might help us, please let me know. I don't believe he would qualify for any type of unemployment as his work is available, he just can't do it right now as he needs to keep the leg above his heart.

And please, if you or anyone you know ever gets a red mark on their skin that rapidly worsens and develops blisters, get to an ER ASAP. It is truly unbelievable how these infections can develop and worsen as his did. Within a two hour timeframe his whole leg was covered in huge blisters, etc and the toxins were spreading thru his body. Thankfully we caught it in time.

Thanks for listening,
ReallyNervous

[lrprn]

So glad to hear that your husband is doing better! I too ended up hospitalized 12 days after we filed Ch 13 - it's a horrible feeling. All the joy for finally getting control of your debt flies right out the window.

If you filed with a lawyer, please let him/her know immediately what's happened. Ask if you can contact the hospital now to let them know you are in an active bankruptcy case and start working on a payment plan you can live with. Many hospitals and doctors are used to this nowadays and have companies they work with that set up payment plans that can stretch out over many months so you can afford to pay off the debt.

We ended up with a payment plan that allowed us to pay off my medical bills after insurance over 18 months. Hopefully you'll be able to work out something you can live with with the hospital and doctors too.

I'm praying for you and your husband every day - hang in there. You can survive this setback if you stick together.

[reallynervous]

Thank you for your reply and encouragement. I really appreciate it. I did contact our attorney last week. He told me not to worry - that nothing we are currently experiencing would affect our filing with the exception of his ability to attend the 341. He said they are merciless on that issue - you are allowed one re-schedule and if you miss that your case is dismissed. Hopefully it won't be an issue and he will be well enough to attend.

We are in strange position where it is the co-pays that are required to be paid at the time of service that are hitting us hard. Our major medical should cover everything else as we had already met out out of pocket deductible for the year, but that out of pocket max doesn't cover the co-pays. Hopefully he won't need to see all the specialists every week after the next week or so. Those and his therapy sessions are a $30 co-pay each time we go so they are draining us, but we have to pay those up front.

I should soon get a bill from the hospital so I will know better then and will contact the attorney to see what he thinks. Thanks for letting me know how you handled the situation. That must've been really hard being in a CH 13. Did they let you amend your expenses to incorporate that payment?

I know that we will get thru this. I think I am just really weary and need to get myself built back up.

Thanks again,
ReallyNervous

[Flamingo]

Does your primary care doctor and your hubby's specialists know of your financial situation? If your hubby is doing well, do those visits have to be every week or can they be two weeks? Your primary care physician can review the entire situation and you may be able to save on some co-pays for specialist visits that may be unnecessary and may just follow a pattern the specialist may use even if your hubby is doing well. There are some things your primary care physician can also take care of/handle, and your copayment is much lower. I can understand ensuring you get to physical therapy which is definately needed but you may want to advise your specialists/primary care of the hardship in paying all the copayments for visits that may not actually be necessary. We've all gone to follow-up appointments that we have felt were totally unnecessary and had to make that co-payment and all we did was talk to the doctor, which could have been done over the phone. And he gets $300 for the visit/follow-up apt.