Friday, December 26, 2008
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
| By Lynn Forgy As I said in my post yesterday, I have had a lot of drama in the past several weeks. Maybe a more accurate word would be setbacks. I like to make lists, so here goes... 1) The root canal ($2000 including the crown) that I had last year continued to get worse - I went to the oral surgeon who told me that I could either have an apicoectomy ($1000) that might work, or I could extract it ($250) and go with an implant ($3500 including the crown). (BTW - did you know that those lovely little crowns they put on your teeth, you know, the ones that cost about $1000, are actually not worth anything! It may seem stupid, but as frugal as I am I asked the oral surgeon if the existing crown could be "recycled" and placed on my implant. In case you have ever wondered the same thing, the answer is NO!) My thoughts were, with the way my luck was going and the problems I have with my teeth (genetic maybe, one dentist told me it looked like I never had fluoride when I was younger, who knows) I would spend the money for the apicoectomy and then have it fail. Not only would I be out the root canal money, but the second surgery, and then the additional money for the extraction and implant. So I elected to have it taken out. Now I have to wait 2 to 6 months for the implant. That's good, though - it allows me time to save up the money. 2) My daughter had a tooth issue as well the same week. She is too young, according to the periodontist, to have an implant so they would not pull it (it was one of her back molars). Instead, they said the only thing to do was a root canal. Guess how much that was - $1200! She does have insurance, but the endodontist would not bill the insurance until after I had paid the money up front. Just a side note - $1200 is more than 3/4 what I bring home each month. After much prayer and pleading with God, he answered my prayer and the money to pay up front for the root canal was given to me. 3) Another tooth issue for me - I won't go into too much detail, but it seems another of my teeth (or possibly 2 teeth) need a root canal. I hesitate to throw more money away on these as I have had 2 that both failed. We'll see in another month or two after I have saved up enough to go back to the dentist. 4) My health insurance premium is set to go up in another month (9 months before they said it would!). Needless to say, I've been shopping around for a new provider. 5) Our dryer is on its last leg - literally. We can only dry clothes for about 15 minutes. I then hang them up to air dry. I had been so excited to pay off my student loan at the end of the year, a mere 5 days away - I could see the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, my path has been blocked and I can't move forward and feel like I have instead moved backward. The funny thing is that I'm not really worried anymore. I probably should be, but I'm not. I have my baby emergency fund in place, I've saved enough of my 1099 income for taxes, my car is paid for, and my other bills are current. I don't know if these situations have been tests, or trials, or whatever - maybe they have happened so that when (not if) I finally get out of debt I will be able to truly appreciate it. Your comments, thoughts, and stories are welcome. |
posted by Krista at 9:20 AM
