Numbers Game

I have a November Wrap Up blog all ready to go, but when I went to upload my photos I was told that I have to pay for more storage space since my Picasa space has been used up. Thanks for the heads up Google. So now I have to pay monthly for more storage space which really bothers me, but there seems to be no getting around it. I plan on setting up my monthly payments today although I'm not happy about it. 

So this morning I was filing paper work in my nifty filing system and decided I wanted to add up the total of our "Medical File". I've never sat down and totaled up what our medical bills are each year and thought it would be interesting to find out. 

So here goes...

Our medical bills for the year without insurance (and without our latest clinic) total: $9651.34. I'm pretty positive I missed filing several bills because we have stuff mailed to us continually. Again this does not include our latest clinic. 

Bryce's enzymes for the year so far without insurance total $4568.73. For anyone reading this that does not know about enzymes: Bryce HAS to have enzymes before he eats food since his pancreas does not produce the necessary enzymes to break down his food. He swallows about 10 enzymes pills per day. He will take enzymes for the rest of his life.

Add those total's together and you get $14220.16. I am sure I will have another enzyme order before the year is out and bills for our November clinic will start rolling in towards the end of the month and into the New Year. 

Now - we thankfully have insurance and pretty good insurance at that. 

With insurance Bryce's enzymes so far cost us $307.50; however, he is enrolled in a program that pays our copay for us so we have not paid any money out of pocket for Bryce's enzymes. How long he can be part of this program I don't know, but for now I am sooo thankful for it! He also gets a case of free shakes and a bottle of vitamins on this program with every enzyme order so it's definitely been a huge help.

Our out of pocket expenses this year so far are $3017.00. That amount would equal one fantastic vacation for us! It's not all that fun having to budget in a chunk of change for medical expenses, but we somehow have made it work on our tiny budget.

This out of pocket expense does not include Bryce's daily Prevacid ($25.00) per 45 pills. This does not include his nasal rinse supplies (currently doing them at least once daily, but sometimes twice). This also does not include the high fat shakes we buy for him...he has at least 1 per day (between $7 and $10.00 per 6 shakes depending on where I buy them). This does not include the once a week Culterelle pill he takes.

Keep in mind these are numbers for one HEALTHY CF child with pretty decent insurance. I can't say it enough...we are so thankful for Bryce's health and so thankful for our insurance. 

We are blessed with family and friends that continually pray for our boy's health. 

Keep those prayers coming!