When most college students are stressing over how to put themselves through school or (after the fact) pay off their college loans, I was dropping tens of thousands of dollars on medical bills. After three-and-a-half years of extensive medical testing, on top of about five trips to the ER per year (and a couple more years for good measure), I paid off the last of my medical debt. Most people upon such a feat have something to show for years of responsible budgeting like a diploma or a car. I got a diagnosis.
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome has no cure, so I’ll be spending the rest of my life managing the symptoms, managing my lifestyle to prevent the symptoms, and treating the affects the illness has on my body. Even after finally getting a diagnosis, it took me many more years to assemble a team of doctors capable of keeping up with what my body goes through on a daily basis. Now that they’re assembled I have to see them fairly regularly to keep my body functioning. Or at the very least, keep my body functioning from a pain free point of view. I keep myself functioning on my own pretty damn well, but it comes with daily aches and pains. If I want to live a life without those aches and pains, I have to stick to a strict regimen of weekly appointments with a Chiropractor and Acupuncturist. As well as monthly appointments with a Psychiatrist and regular check-ups with my GP (this does not include check-ups with my Gastroenterologist, trips to the Dentist or exams and contacts from my Ophthalmologist).
I have incredible health insurance coverage which is a major blessing. But even so, the regularity of my appointments coupled with the fact that some of these doctors aren’t covered by insurance is causing the medical costs to add up again. And this time rather rapidly. I’d finally gotten to a point in my life where I wasn’t spending every penny I owned on living and I was able to start saving again. But now. Now I’m having to dip into my savings to pay for an 85% pain free lifestyle and I’m wondering if it’s worth it. I’m running out of money and I’m stressed about my own personal finances again in a way I haven’t been since college. Stress is an aggravator of my illness. So here I am in this vicious cycle of, yeah, where I’ve been experiencing far less pain and discomfort than what I’ve been through in the last nine years, I’m also creating a constant stress that deeply impacts my body’s overall well being. So is it really worth it?
What would you do? Would you spend $520 and nine hours every month to live in a relatively pain free existence? Or would you rock out your management on your own as you’ve been doing for years and actually spare yourself a lot of stress and financial loss, albeit with the daily aches and pains? And if your answer happens to be in favor of the former, would you like to give me a job that makes me a shit-ton of money? Thatbegreatthanks.
