Fiddler on the roof

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here. The reason? I’ve been feeling crappy. I’m not sure whether I caught Jude’s stomach flu or whether Chemo II (the revenge) wrought some revenge for the ease of Chemo I but it’s been a couple of days of nausea, knackeredness and the weak sipping of yoghurt based beverages.

Still all now seems fine as I sail I into the coldest weekend of the year bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready for the Barney’s Warehouse sale. Of course I still have clothes from 2 years ago that are still too tight for me – trousers that create the dreaded ‘muffin top’ effect around my hips but I’m telling myself that I’ve lost SOME weight and that new clothes and good health are conceptual bedfellows.

My ability to spend of course has been hampered somewhat by the medical bills that come in daily – another $700 demanded for some random treatment yesterday – and the fear of what my co-pay per chemo session will be (I still haven’t seen a bill). I’m reckoning that I have to be close to my deductibles (the amount I have to pay before insurance kicks in) but that’s complicated by treatments that started in December. You see deductibles run the calendar year – so I have $2000 for 2005 and $2000 for 2006. What this means is that I end up paying $4000 for treatment rather than the $2k it would have cost had I gotten sick in say Feb and had all of the hospital care in a single calendar year.

Handy hint – get sick at the start of the year

Mind I find that I’m spending less on treatment than I used to on lunch. I’d easily go through $25 dollars a day when I was at work each day – on lunch, the Starbuck’s run and then a supposedly healthful smoothie; and when I needed company for lunch you could double that. So I’m saving about $200 a week on food and coffee alone.

Enough though about the US medical system, things here are good.

I’m not coughing, the stairs are no problems anymore, the dog is looking better exercised, I have a fresh perspective on work, a clear perspective on what needs to be done there and I’ve discovered that our friends here are very cool people. What more can you need?