More Surprises

My life is just full of them.

Usually I don't like them.....but sometimes they can be unexpectedly sweet.

I've had my fair share of un-sweet ones today and more than one made me cry slightly but the last one made me tear up with tears of joy it was so sweet.

I've covered in my previous post most of the unexpected not-so-nice surprises but there's one more that really frosted my cookies today.

Other than taking mom for a very short and sweet flower shopping trip the only other errand that we managed to squeeze into my day off was going to the pharmacy to pick up her box of prescriptions.

Your read that right. Box. Cardboard. Size - Large. I really wonder some days if I don't need some sort of license to carry that much pharmasuticals but hopefully I don't......I'd forget to renew it for sure.

Now prior to heading to her place I did stop by the post office and pick up her mail which she opened before we headed out on our errands. One of the letters in the mail informed her of how much her annual PharmaCare deductible was ($500 give or take) so she had a pretty good idea how much money she'd have to pay out when we went to the pharmacy to pick up her meds.....and for the record, she's hit her deductible limit already in one day so the rest of the year is covered by provincial health......right? Wrong!

Seems that she's also as of today reached her maximum allowable number for one of her inhailers --- as in the medication that makes it so she can breath. Apparently, according to the pharmasist the provincial medical plan covers 14 of these inhailers annually. There are 25 doses per inhailer so she's covered for one puff per day. Wonderful - except that last fall when she was having so much trouble breathing her dose was increased to 2 puffs, up to twice a day. Now my numbers aren't always the best but that means she's taking up to 4 puffs of this inhailer per day so an inhailer last her between 5 and10 days depending on how she's feeling. That's roughly 3-5 inhailers per month.....and 5 months into the year she's used up her annual amount. I guess breathing is optional the other 7 months of the year! If she 'wants to continue using this medication' she'll need to dish out $115.66 per inhailer. Multiply that by 3-5 per month and that equals way too much math and some serious cash.

So who do I talk to about this because this sucks. My goal here is to keep this lady as healthy as possible to give her some decent quality of life and now she's been denied coverage for one of her meds that allows her to breath. Last I checked that whole breathing thing.....kind of important.

Of course this is also the same health care system that has a friend of mine paying out $800 every two weeks for supplies for her son's insulin pump....a pump she had to pay for with the help of many family, friends, fundraisers and local charities, out of her own pocket since the government refuses to pay for pumps for insulin dependant diabetic children even though a number of other provinces do. ooooop...climbed up on that soap box there for a minute didn't I. Well.....that's because it sucks!

That pretty much coveres the unpleasant surprises for the day although I will say that while I was not happily surprised with not having a nice quiet evening at home, I did enjoy the band concert -which I knew I would - I just didn't feel like going especially because I knew we wouldn't get home till late and that makes getting the kids to bed extra hard.

Once I did get them to bed though, I ignored the dinner dishes and sat down to catch up on some blogs and while doing that I read a comment on my post from earlier in the week. That's when I came across one surprise of the day that made me cry because it was so sweet and kind.

I'd been so worried about making the deposit for a trip my son really wants to take to Normandy next spring and my sis leaves a comment that the cheque is in the mail. Just like that. No questions asked. Talk about a sweet, unexpected surprise......and an unnecessary one since Ty does get a paycheque this week that should be enough to cover his deposit. Now I just have to read the really really fine print of this trip and have the courage to fill it in. Paris, Normandy, Amsterdam....very very far away and in the grand scheme of things the total price tag of this trip is going to be more in the neighbourhood of $4000 by the time we add in passport costs, insurance and spending money and at least one additonal tour that is not included....because there is no way they can go all the way there and not go to Vimy.

Now I have 4 days to decided if it's financially possible to committ to being able to pull together that amount of money.....which is extremely scarey considering I was concerned with just coming up with the dang deposit....but we do have 9months yet so is it do-able?

4 days to sign on the dotted line and committ to letting my son go half way around the world for 10days.

4 days to come to terms with the fact that my son is old enough to take a trip like this.

I guess that's easier to come to terms with than the question I had to answer for my van's insurance regarding if there was anyone other than myself and Al as it's primary users at which point I realized that at this time next year the answer to that question will quite probably be yes....that my son is also a regular user of the vehicle.

I guess that's one more surprise for the day. My kids are growing up.....way too fast. I think that's considered a sweet surprise.....although after listening to my sister-in-laws talk today about potty training Luke and cuddling baby Sarah for a few minutes it's a little bitter-sweet. I miss those days.

Besides - Pre-school field trip permission forms were so much easier to deal with.


~K


PS.... Sis, you didn't need to but thank you. Love you!