Child Costs

90+_Irishman

Many if the vets have heard me **** for a few years about not having almost any disposable income and always poor. A big part of that is that living in CO along the Front Range is still one of the more expensive places to live in the US. Another part is that we are basically a one income family, I work full time from home for Apple and my wife is our autistic son’s full time care provider and gets paid a few hours a day through Medicaid and her company PASCO to provide the daily services he needs, so it’s not like we have a second income either. The single biggest reason though is medical costs for kiddo Cael. I have a number to share that absolutely STAGGERED me and I suspect will y’all as well is his medical costs alone for the year of 2017. Now in this case this is all pre-insurance, pre-program etc just the total cost for what his services and medical cost last year and is NOT what we had to pay out of pocket, we did have to pay ungodly amounts out of pocket but at least not the full value. His costs include all of his services and therapy, school costs and services there, medical procedures and medicine cost, doctor visits and his in home care etc. So all that explained last year just for our son alone we were billed just at 1.5 MILLION **** I N G DOLLARS!!!!!

So yeah, the reason you don’t see me posting in What Did You Get Today thread, or playing a bunch of trades and bombs is because I simply can’t afford too. Not lazy or cheap or anything and would love to be more involved, but until you live in this situation or have some of the details involved you simply can’t imagine what it takes to make it say to day or month to month. No complaining, not **** and sure as s h i t not looking for pity I am simply making a point. This stuff is damned expensive and bleeds you dry of anything you may have leftover. We are still recovering from the really bad accident we were in that totaled our only car on Valentine’s Day a few months back and what little we had saved up was taken by insurance for that. Parents had to loan us several thousand so we could put a down payment on a car and get wheels again, money we have to somehow find a way to pay back. F’ing hate insurance as we have top of the line coverage and even though none of it was our fault and no liability here we are still out several thousand dollars and were never made whole. 

But yeah, if you thought your kid was expensive every year just imagine 1.5 Million $ expensive every year instead

Brett

Trish

I applaud you both.  That's not an easy feat raising an autistic child and those that do often have the patience and heart of an angel.
Now the part of this story that does make me feel bad for you is to hear that you're an apple guy.... hehehehe.

90+_Irishman

Well I do happen to work for Apple and like their products but I am not in any way one of those Apple fanboys. That said the company does treat their employees like gold and protect and take care of you like no other company I know. 

Thanks for for the kind words, it’s worth it for sure. But every time I see a deal or new release or box I want I do miss having disposable income from pre-kid days lol. 

Trish

Ok here's the plan... black market organ trade. Go to the butcher get a couple pigs sell them on WISH or etsy (ebay got wise) 
What's the worst that can happen you might get a knee cap busted if someone catches on. Hey you have a spare and don't need the knees for smoking anyways. 

I'm a problem solver thinking outside of the box 

No.... bad idea....???  
 Hahaha 

90+_Irishman

Lol well there is at least one idea hahaha

Martel

I hear ya.  I have a lot of friends w/ special needs kids and encounter them frequently in ministry.  The divorce rate for parents of special needs kids is astronomical, too.  Take care of yourself.  @Stubble and @peter4jc should think about sending Brett's way, not mine (if you see my general discussion thread from earlier).  He's the real deserving one.  I just got older.

My wife does have a chronic illness.  I don't even bother tracking billed costs any more.  I just know we meet our deductible and total out of pocket every year.  Not only do the expenses stink, but so does the constant worry and time suck.  I know it's not the same, but I feel a little of what you've got to deal with.

You have my respect, Brett.  It's not easy.  Keep doing good.

90+_Irishman

Thanks Martel, kind of you to say and all of what you said is accurate. The divorce rate is a scary thing, Amanda, my wife, and I have talked about it numerous times and we’ve had some bad challenges we’ve had to overcome ourselves. We both desperately want another one, however we both agree that a second kid would lead to the death of our marriage and we just couldn’t do that to each other so we have to give that dream up. As for the ongoing illness trust me I get that too. I have three degenerative and auto immune diseases and live in a constant state of pain on a daily basis, have since I was diagnosed at 19 years old. Between always being sick all the time, weak and in pain I know what y’all are dealing with too. 

Lastly no no one needs to send anything nor do I want it, didn’t post this for bombs or sympathy or pity or anything. Just wanted to point out how stupid expensive this stuff is and how it’s highway robbery to get away with it like they do. Staggered and figured I would share something that seemed insane to me with y’all that’s all

Brett