Health Insurance is important

Some days are easier on the psyche than others, today was not one of the easier days. 

Courtney has been having migraines and they were so bad that she was getting visual artifacts. She was worried and made an appointment with her normal Doctor. A wise choice as they had come on suddenly, and as the actual headache pain seemed to consistently be on the left side she assumed that she had a sinus infection.

The only issue is that due to a difficult insurance company she is between policies at the moment. Her previous policy just ended (they cancelled it) and her new one doesn't start until February. This in itself isn't too big of a deal, the visit should only be $60 and and the antibiotics shouldn't be expensive either. Very affordable even if annoying to the monthly budget.

But assuming things will go as you expect them to can be dangerous. In this case, Courtney's doctor was more concerned with her elevated blood pressure once she determined that Courtney didn't have a sinus infection. The doctor is fairly sure the blood pressure and therefor the migraines are stress related, but to be sure she had a full set of blood work done and told Courtney to schedule an MRI just to be sure. Add blood pressure medication and migraine medication and suddenly that cheap doctors visit just broke the bank.

We don't know the cost of the blood work yet (we did get the results already, they came back clean) but an MRI costs an average of $3,200 at Beaumont. Hopefully a few relaxation techniques and a reduction in what she needs to worry about will help her make it until the insurance kicks in. 

It pains me to know that part of her stress is me. I shared the audio files that my Father gave me to help reduce anxiety, and she seemed open to using them to try to relax some. I have been pushing her to talk a lot, and I need to hold back some as I know that it is adding to her stress level. School isn't an insignificant factor either, but I think she has that covered. I'll be doing what I can to help her out at this point, a reminder that I can't just focus on me.