When It Rains... It Pours....

Or in our case...  it floods.

I had had a stiff neck off and on for a couple of weeks.  A week ago Wednesday I awoke with excruciating pain.  Having no insurance I got in a hot shower thinking it would loosen it up and I would take a muscle relaxer also.  By the time I was out of the shower it was WORSE... shooting down my left arm... with my mom's history of heart disease that scared me.

Hubby took me to the ER.  They came back with a diagnosis of a compressed disc in my neck pinching a nerve AND two bone spurs PRESSING on my spinal cord... I need to see a neurosurgeon asap for surgery however since I am uninsured they wouldn't refer me to one as it would be several thousand dollars up front.  It is so great to live in the "greatest country in the world".  They sent me home with pain meds (even though morphine in the ER did NOTHING), a round of steroids, muscle relaxers and three days off from work.   I didn't need to miss work.   We live last pay to to last pay day... you know... you are never quite caught up.  You rob Peter to pay Paul and next month Paul to pay Peter and both of them are seriously upset with your methods.

So, I did some research a few days later and decided to see a chiropractor.  Surprised at the response I got from some people and surprised when I asked to have my films sent over to the chiropractor I was told because it wasn't a medical doctor I would have to pay $25 to get them!!!  THAT is a whole other crappy issue.

So, chiropractor confirmed I have issues.  Could use some decompression therapy ($500 up front for the year... let me get that out of my pocket) however, I will more than likely have to have surgery at some point because the spurs are not going to disappear.  I am having a few adjustments, two more this coming week and one the week after to see if I find any relief in my numb and painful left arm/hand.  If not then I will have to see about getting to a surgeon soon to avoid permanent nerve damage per the chiropractor. 

So... when I go back to work... I am laid off.   They will not fight my unemployment but that hit hard.  My income was the main income for our family.  We barely make it on both our incomes and how we are going to get by on way less.... well  prayer after prayer is going up.  

I am trying to stay positive.  I am taking steps to help my health and our situation.  I started doing T-Tapp.  I will do an entire post on this exercise program soon.  BUT let me say that I have done the exercises three days this week and twice I started them in pain and felt BETTER when I finished.  It is only a 15 minute workout but very effective.  

Another positive step I am taking is getting back into couponing.  Yesterday I realized we were low on toilet paper and laundry soap.  I got  text from Dollar General about a $5 off $25 in cleaning/paper products yesterday only.  So, I pulled up their ad, found out what products were on sale, did a bit of digging on the company websites and coupon blogs to find match up coupons, printed my $5 coupon and when hubby got home from work we ran to Dollar General.

I got:

2 - 6 packs of Sparkle papertowels.  ON SALE $4. ( i printed 2 coupons for $1 each from Clipping 2 Save Making them $3/6 pack or .50/roll.

1 - 15 pack of Scott toilet paper.  ON SALE for $10 (signed up for emails at the Scott site for a $1 printable coupon) making it $9

1 - Bonus size Extra Detergent $5. (had a .75 cent coupon) Making it 4.25

1 - Snuggle Fabric Softner $3

So my pre-tax total was $26.
Minus my $5 Q= $21
Minus my $3.75 = $17.25

My total savings including the sale price: $ 10.75  and I am set on tp, papertowel and laundry soap for probably 2 months or more which saves last minute trips to the super expensive little store a mile from the house.

My next step is to get back to menu planning/couponing for groceries.  That is at the top of my to-do for Monday.