When it rains it pours

This has been a crazy month. It was open season at work for insurance. We switched back to ConAgra insurance. Last year we thought we made a good choice by switching over to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield that the hospital offering. Yeah, whatever. We've still been having hospital bills for Steve's surgeries and doctor appointments, and I kept thinking we should be about done with out out of pocket expenses. Then I had to have an MRI about a month ago, which I thought definitely should be paid for at 100%, but when I went up to the hospital to do my paperwork for insurance again this year I found out that out OOP expenses are $13,000 a year. I about fell over. With Conagra it's only $2,000 a year. Usually we're done paying the out of pocket stuff by July, with my prescriptions and doctor visits, so that was a nasty shock. Suffice to say we changed back to Conagra's insurance this year. That was an expensive mistake.

Steve didn't bring home any deer... how sad. (lol) I hate deer in any way shape or form and yes, that includes whatever "wonderful" recipe it is you have for deer jerky or deer summer sausage. I'm not going to eat it. Period. The dogs were happy to have him back home. And I was happy to have him back home because the dogs were driving me crazy!

Speaking of dogs, my sister Mel had to send one of her furkids to the Bridge the other day. I felt terrible about it, poor Cubby. I'm going to put him on the dachshund memorial garden page this weekend when I get a chance to sit down and write something nice for him. He had a Toby attitude, but I know that doesn't matter when you lose one of your furkids. So, RIP Cubby.

Our Sophie has bronchitis. Went to the vet on Saturday last week and got 2 prescriptions, but she's still not eating very much. Her cough is better, but she keeps getting shaking chills, so I think on Friday it's back to the vet we go. I have to get another pair of nail clippers too, since I loaned my last set to Missy and they're gone for good. Cheaper to buy another pair then take 7 dogs to have their nails done at 10 bucks a pop.

Meg is home for Thanksgiving, which will be at my SIL's house again this year. It was going to be our year for Thanksgiving, but they're all going out to Tennessee to visit Mike and Amy for Christmas and won't be home in time to get ready to have Christmas at their house, so we just switched. Amy's due in late December or early January, so they're not traveling back for the holidays. I can understand that - I can understand any excuse to stay away from family gatherings!

I went back to the rheumatologist the other day and she switched some prescriptions around. They decided after checking my cortisols my adrenal glands are still working, so we're going to try to wean off prednisone, but since she figured out this is inflammatory arthritis we have to try something else to keep the inflammation down before stopping the steroids. She wanted to give me an injection in my shoulder, but being the chicken that I am I opted to try another method, so I'm going to be doing physical therapy for my shoulder, aquatherapy for my back, and trying an anti-inflammatory in the form of minocycline, which is an antibiotic, but used to treat inflammatory arthritis. Because of the risk of yeast infections with a full time antibiotic regimen, I also take acidophalous. I think I should rattle around like a bottle of pills when I walk. I'm not sure yet, these are doing the trick, but I'm hopeful. My eyes have really been bothering me too lately, I wasn't sure what that was about, but have some eyedrops for THAT. I feel a heck of a lot older than 52 right now, believe me.

No snow yet! I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It's still been cold and we've had rain, and the damp cold is the worst. At least with snow, the air feels dry and I'm not quite so achy. The woodstove has already had a workout this winter! I'm glad we have it, it sure helps with the heating bills!

I think we might try to trek out to the Trail Center tomorrow for the Gingerbread Parade. We had gotten into the habit of going every year after Thanksgiving dinner, but for the past couple of years we haven't made it. I'll push extra hard to go tomorrow, the things that people create are just amazing to look at - and the smell through the whole Trail Center is just yummy! I'll post pics if I take any.

Okay, that's about all that's going on around here. I'll just be glad when the holidays are over. The older I get the more holidays are just something to be endured - although I am thankful for the things we have and the relative good health we have to enjoy them with. I know I complain, but I also know there are people out there with a lot of problems worse than mine, so I am grateful things aren't worse.