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Monday, October 19, 2009

Rainy Days and Mondays

It has finally stopped raining here, and I can tend to the peanuts.

Turns out that those birds that Hooter brought us had a Coccidia infestation. They looked fine when he arrived with them, but when I found two of my adult birds dead, and then say the diarrhea of one of the surviving Hooter's, I knew what it was. Great! It is being taken care of with my one remaining bird. And the 6 adult birds that where given to us Saturday night by my B-I-L should be ok.

My three boys are indeed still in the public school system. I was going to homeschool, but it just didn't happen, for various reasons, as fast as I wanted it to. Small has a problem. He has had most of his vaccinations. I had waited until he was older to get them, rather getting them in those early early days. I don't have a problem with vaccines. I think they are handy, and I have indeed done all my research, and know all the pro's and cons. This was a personal decision for my family. I had thought he had received all the shots required for the Stat of Kansas for attending school, I was wrong. He is missing 3 shots. Ok, no problem I will get them. I headed over to the Health departments website to see how much they cost. 2 of the shots needed are $20 a piece (a little less actually). That's do-able. However the Chicken Pox vaccine which is now required, and 2 of them to boot, is almost $100. That I can't afford. So as of tomorrow, Small will be suspended from school because of his lack of one (and IMO, ridiculous) shot. I could spout religious reasons for not getting the vaccines, but that would be untrue, not to mention suspicious as he has all his other shots. I don't know yet if he will be allowed to go back to school this term after he gets the shot past the State's deadline. So I will be homeschooling just him. It is only Kindergarten after all. My mother called me and informed me that she found homeschooling books in my price range, a whole bunch cheaper than this one shot. Edit; I just spoke with the school nurse. I so LOVE small towns. She said that if I can't get the Health department to reduce the price, that she would find a way to come up with the money. I know this problem seems like nothing to many f you, but it is a big deal for me and mine.

Speaking of my mother, her husband (my stepfather) has just been diagnosed with something called Drift. (I think that's what she called it) It is super rare. You know those shin splints some people get? My stepfather is getting them, but on his spine. It is degenerative, and he will be in a wheel chair in the future. Don't know yet how soon, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Our propane dealer showed up the other day, and even though we have yet to pay off our bill from the beginning of the year, he went a head and gave us 250 gallons of the stuff. I thanked him and almost cried. We chatted a bit as the tank was filling. I told him that we are bringing in over $1,000 less per month than we were a year ago, and that's why we were having so many problems. For us, this amount of money loss is a huge deal. We have tried to make it up in different ways, but there has been some issues. It's been stressful. We spent our retirement money on the cattle, banking in them to replace some of the money, if not more or all. Now my husband has actually began talking about selling them. This is super hard on him. He has been yelling at me. He has never done that before. The stress of losing everything we have worked so hard for is catching up to him. And I am scared that our relationship won't make it through this. But I am trying. I realize that he is just venting at me, but it still hurts. And without me having an outside job, he finds it easier to jump on me. It isn't like I haven't tried to get an outside job. But they are not out there. Aircraft engineers are taking the fast food jobs, what chance have I with all the requirements a job must have for me to accept it. The biggest one is third shift. Blah! What am I doing? This wasn't what I was going to talk about. Apologise all around.

What I was going to say is, talk to me. Got something you ant to ask, need a recipe? Ask away.

8 comments:

SkippyMom said...

I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who reads your blog that thinks $100 for two shots for chicken pox vaccine is "no big deal". That is a lot of money. And we know it.

I find it hard to believe that your health department doens't cover the cost especially since you are in such dire financial straits. That is incredibly generous of the nurse, but really that is what the health department is there for - to innoculate families that are lacking funds. It is in the best interest of the whole school to do so.

I have never lived anywhere that didn't offer free or discounted innoculations. I hope you look into it.

Phelan said...

That price is for only 1 shot, not the two. And that is the discounted price. I am going to try and get in on a sliding scale fee, but not holding my breath for it. We have to go get a bunch of paper work before I head over there. ugh, sometimes it's difficult to be poor ;)

The free shots come with your enrollment with the State's Insurance.

The Thinker said...

It is SO a big deal. I think both of my kids probably got all of their shots paid for by the state. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gotten them. I had enough trouble paying for them to get well *after* they got sick. Much worse the things that were forced on us to prevent them getting sick in the first place.

I hope the saga doesn't drag out too long and Small will be in school with his big brothers soon.

Good luck to you.

Anonymous said...

$100 a shot is a big deal - I have insurance for myself and my two girls but wonder if I'd be better off 'uninsured' and go to the health department for the girls. They are out of the immunization phase now and dropping insurance would save $200/month! That's my grocery fund for this month.
*hugs*

HermitJim said...

Hope everything starts to level off pretty soon. It's hard to keep a positive outlook when it all seems to come down the pipe at once, I know!

Good luck with the shots, and the critters!

Kate said...

Nothing to ask today, Phelan. Just wanted to drop a line and let you know I'm still reading. I admire your grit and hope things will work out for you and yours.

Stephanie in AR said...

Wow! our health department is nowhere near that even at full price. If it helps any - it is possible to get an exeption for just one shot & the chicken pox shot is the best one. It's stem cell line is from aborted babies and is a religious/moral issue for a lot of people. We do delayed shots but totally skip the chicken pox - moral & ethical reasons are my statement. I don't like to claim religious reasons but moral/ethical covers a lot of the same ground. Good luck.

FancyHorse said...

$100 a shot is a lot! And a $1000 drop in income is huge! I'm so sorry you're having these troubles. I hope things get better for you and your family. (((Hugs))) to all, and to hubby under so much stress.

I'm sorry to hear about your stepfather.

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