After their daughter's climbing fall left a $75,000 medical bill, health insurance covered only part of it. An emergency savings account prevented financial ruin, but the family's anger at the system pushed them to advocate for fair treatment. The daughter's recovery was brutal: an opioid allergy meant almost no pain relief, and the caregiver burned out trying to manage her needs while working remotely.
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During one of our conversations, this is how I remember saying to you, I said, if they're not going to cover this, we've got the money because mom and I have an emergency account that could cover a $75,000 bill. Do you remember that and how that make you. How did that make you feel?
I very much remember that. It was like a sigh of relief of, like, I'm going to be okay and this will be fine. But it also was like such a moment of anger where it was like, I've always been angry about this type of stuff. Like, this isn't the first time I've been angry.
Yeah. Now it's happening to you, it's happening.
To me, and it's happening to my family. And I was like, my parents shouldn't have to be worri about this. They shouldn't have to be paying for this. This isn't something that, like, I'm an adult now. Like, I have my own job. Like, it shouldn't even be a question if, like, they need to pay for this. So, like, it was a relief. But I also felt very angry that you had to say that at all.
Did you notice, though? I noticed a change in both of us once we said that the anger then was channeled on the outcome and you really got to work. I called some colleagues in the industry. You were working with the hospital. I don't know. To me, the fact that we knew we had the finances covered even in the worst case scenario, brought us out of desperation to cover Bill into channeled anger to fight for what was right.
Yeah, I mean, it really was. And I do have to say I did struggle with, like, a lot of burnout during that time. Like, harder to do anything. Like, I was really injured. I'm allergic to most opioids, so I was barely on any pain meds. So, like, as mom can tell you, I was just, like, crying constantly and then having to go through the stress of this and I couldn't provide for myself. My bathroom was down in the basement. I had to go down a flight of stairs to get to it. My. My rabbit lived in the basement area. Like, he had this huge space in the basement, but I couldn't easily get to him. Like, I always had to have a friend or like my parent or someone at the house.
Like, yeah, yeah, moving, you're shifting you around.
It was terrible. And I was going through all of that then I also, like, I'm lucky that I have a remote job, but I also had to be working, too. And so I struggled with so much burnout from that.
