The Best Happiness Money Can Buy

1. Having my house cleaned. Hands down #1 best money I've ever spent.
2. Loving my Dr.
   

So, I promise not to over-burden you with excessive medical info because, really, I totally obsess on pregnancy details & I can go way past TMI. But there were several reasons I went into my first Dr's appointment (new Dr.) a little leery of what I would get for my money. See, when I had Neena we were fortunate enough to be on the "good insurance" with the board of edu. We paid $20 for the entire pregnancy & delivery. This time, however, we have a private insurance in form of an HDHP: High Deductible Health Plan. There are lots of good things about it. But the bad is that we have to meet a $5200 deductible before our insurance covers anything. Per. Calendar. Year. And...I'm due in Feb-ru-ary. That translates as $10,400 to have this baby. Up to, anyways.

So, you think about what you're paying for a little differently when you are directly paying the bills. Like, for my yearly check-up before we tried to get pregnant & the nurses/financial people at the gyno's office assured me that my wellness visit would be covered 100% & then we get a bill for what the insurance didn't cover:
Handling Fee $15
Blood Screen $12
Ultrasound $436
...blah...blah....Total................$492
"WHAT???? You people said it wasn't going to cost me anything!!"

Hence the poor frazzled nurse to whom I protested the pee test today. "Well, Honey, I won't charge you for it...but we have to have it for our records." Oops. Looking like a total cheap, swollen-faced, no make-up psycho? That would be me. But they won't pull an unnecessary ultrasound over on me, I can guarantee that.

But my Dr had all the right answers to our questions; here's a brief summary of our conversation since I've been so long already. Us in red; his response in blue.

Rash/allergy?
You can try Claritin.
Homeopathic treatment?
Sure.
No ultrasound up front.
Okay. Let's go ahead & wait for your other tests for a month, too.
CF risks...
I'll be praying for you.
Natural Delivery.
No reason not to!
High Deductible...
Shouldn't meet it this year. We'll watch any extra expenses.
I know you from church. I teach your kids.
You do a great job. We're proud of your work.

I am so blessed! I left with utmost confidence & excitement! Was sooo not expecting those kinds of emotions from my Dr.'s appointment. And the other great thing--he's just a couple miles down the road from our house & even closer to Chad's work, which means Chad can sneak away to my appointments easily!!

I am excited that I will be happy to pay for them to care for me & the babe. And I did the math while we were in the waiting room. If we didn't have this health plan, we would STILL be paying as much OR MORE in monthly premiums plus a deductible. This way, though, they cover 100% after we meet the deductible AND hopefully we won't always meet the deductible every year. Woo Hoo!

PS: Thanks for my clean house, Brittany =) You totally rock.