$1000 blown away in 4 days

Austin had a nasty fall on Halloween ...turns out that blood has begun to sickle out of his ear as a result....scary! We got him seen by a doctor today, only for him to tell me that I had to go immediately to the Hospital to get him a CT scan for a possible fractured skull. The doctor's visit was $95 dollars for the "sick visit." I was thinking to myself, what kind of co-payment is that??? Hefty bill if you ask me!

I had just come from my YMCA class, so you can imagine how lovely I was looking in my workout clothing and matted hair. I was not anticipating a day FULL of doctor's and hospitals, at least I would've liked to have had on a bit of make up!

I arrived at what is the "block" of hospitals here in Centro El Paso. There are 4-5 different hospitals, doctor offices, ENT's, plastic surgeons, etc all within the same radius of 4 blocks...no exaggeration. So, trying to find where the doctor was, was quite the challenge. Did I mention that the day earlier our transmission went out on our new Tahoe? What the heck? So, instead of being able to use my familiar GPS system (which I rely on so much being new to this state and city), I was an official Mormon Mama in a Minivan and lost as could be.

Eventually I found the spot, of course parking in the wrong lot and having to haul Austin around across parking lots to get to the right location. I arrived at the CT scan place after following the signs, only for them to ask me, "do you have your paperwork?" My what? Oh yes, you have to register as an outpatient before doing any of this. This is obviously all very new to me.

Not only did we get to register, but that included waiting for about an hour in the waiting room amidst a billion other patients...and this was all on an empty stomach for Austin since they told me they would be sedating him...he was begging for food and water this entire time (pobrecito, it was already 1pm and you can imagine how he was feeling!).

To make a long story short, we eventually got him back to the CT scan room on an empty belly, where they DID not sedate him, but just wrapped him up in what looked like a little coffin and straight jacket to keep him still. I held down his face as he bawled through all of this and begged to get out. We sang songs (more like I sang them to him as tears streamed), and what seemed like an eternity passed before he was able to get down. This cost me $700 out of pocket.

The next day we went to the ENT to determine that his fall had NOTHING to do with his blood coming out of his ear!!!! I could've saved myself that $700 bill (although we did find a cist in the x-ray, more to come about that later as find out). The doctor was too quick with all she was doing, didn't explain anything about his infections and seemd anxious to just go to lunch. Slow down sister! She took out his bloody tube out of his right ear, keeping the left ear tube. I can only imagine that he will be getting tubes put back in before long since the blood came from an infection. This trip cost me $150 out of pocket.

Later on that day I was able to spend ONE HOUR at Wal-greens picking up his ear drop perscription. Lucky for me, they lost the order and I had to wait the hour there as they re-qualified it all and made it up, unfortunately Jared and the boys were waiting for me in the car. i couldn't have been more frustrated at the lack of service there. The drops cost me $90.

Overall, grateful that Austin is doing better. What's a $1000 when it is someone that you love?