I just got the bill for the kids dental visit in December. Wow, dental visits sure cost a lot of money. Now, this wasn’t any special visit we went for. Instead, this was for their six month checkup (you know, X-rays, fluoride treatments, etc). We are talking several hundred dollars, and I was in and out with two kids in less than an hour. Don’t get me wrong — I love my kids pediatric dentist. Her office just happens to be expensive even if you have dental insurance.

I can definitely see how having a dental plan is important if your don’t have dental insurance. To be honest, I wouldn’t know how we would afford to take my kids to the dentist twice a year plus ourselves! DentalPlans.com offers over 30 discount dental plans to help you save when you or your kids go to the dentist. On their site, you can easily find plans and dentists that are in your area. I loved that a lot of their plans actually offered orthodontia (which a lot of places don’t). If you have kids, orthodontia is very very very important. I also love that they have individual and family plans. If you don’t know exactly what you need, they also have the Dental HyGenie who will walk you through your needs.

If you are looking at ways to save at the dentist this year, make sure that you check out DentalPlans.com.

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I had one of those weeks last week.  You know, one of those weeks where everything goes wrong.  Like if you sit in your Adirondack chairs and they break or it rains every time you have plans.  I’ve had bad days before, but it seemed like last week was against me.  It kicked me in the butt.

We spent that entire weekend looking for Madison’s retainer.  You know, those suckers are $500 and insurance doesn’t pay to replace if you lose them.  She’s been so good with it that it was amazing that we lost it.  We dug through garbage at our house and at my mother-in-laws house too.  We looked everywhere inside and outside, under outdoor wooden benches and even the kids beds!  We literally tore 2 houses apart.  Her orthodontist was on vacation last week, so we couldn’t get in to see him to see what we could do.  I knew heading in last week we were in trouble since the weekend sucked.

So that happened.  Then, my sites went down.  This was a 2 prong problem.  First, I had no access to my sites.  You may have seen some funkiness on my sites.  That’s why (it ended up having to do with a WordPress upgrade.  Hostgator ended up fixing it) I was a wreck on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Google+.  While digging through the backend stuff, I found out I was almost out of disk space.  Now, I currently pay $50 a month (yes, I know its a lot).  They told me I’d have to upgrade to the $80 month package (yes, I almost keeled over).  I had a great friend dig through my sites and found out that I had a rogue plugin that was backing up my site.  It wasn’t suppose to be saving to the server, but it was without my knowledge.  I had backups dating to 2007!!!!  Needless to say, we deleted 10 GB of backups!!!!!  (Crazy, isn’t it?).

Those two issues pretty much consumed my week.  However, this looked up by the end of the week.  First, Hostgator fixed the issue.  In talking with friends, I found a cheaper host for my blogs (which I’ll be moving to this week sometime if any funkiness happens).  I’ll get more space for less money!  I know somebody using this company already and they love them.  Best of all, I was doing laundry Friday morning, and guess what I found??!!??

Madison’s retainer.

My laundry room is also a junk room and also has a freezer and fridge in there (its all downstairs).  I was throwing in towels to the washer and her retainer was sitting in front of the fridge down there.  It looked great, and I ran it upstairs and brushed it.  The bad news is that she can’t get it into her mouth now.  However, we found it and it can be adjusted.  We have an appointment Thursday morning to do just that.

It’s amazing how your week can just turn better on a dime.  I now can sit outside on my Oakland Living outdoor furniture and relax.  How did your week go last week?

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When you go to have eye surgery done, don’t wear a shirt that you go at a blogging conference. I spend most of my surgery talking about blogging, but that’s cool. Yep, I was awake for the sty removal. It ended up being 5 (yes 5!) stys on my eyelid. However, the surprise was that even though it was actually looking better, it was not. Once he got in there, he ended up removing part of my lower eyelid. What looked like skin was actually a big puss ball. Yummy, I know. They ended up sending the gunk they got off to get tested. Of course, I forgot to ask what they were testing for (it’s not like you get sent to Preparatory School before surgery so you know what to ask).

Now, I know the overriding question is if I’ll need surgery to fix what they took out.  It depends how it heals.  There is a definite divet in my eyelid.  However, I don’t think it is all that noticeable.  I notice it because I know its there.  I’m not too sure if others do or not.  I’ve spent the better part of the last couple days not being able to drive or see.  Bill and Grandma did the honors of taking the kids to their respective independent schools).

At this point, it’s wait and see.  I’ve got a follow up appointment in 2 weeks and I’ll let you all know more then!  (However, I am leaning towards the not getting it fixed if insurance isn’t going to pay to fix it).

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I spent yesterday morning with a shy crabby kid and three therapists in my living room.  It was a tad nerve wracking on my part, since at first, all Will would do was throw their toys back at them.  It took about twenty minutes and at least he started to do what they wanted.  We got good and bad news.

Now, to qualify for Early Intervention, Will had to be 30% behind.  On both occupational and development skills I think he scored out at 21 months (he’s 25 months).  That isn’t enough to qualify for services.  However, like we all thought, he scored at 17 months for his speech which means he’s 32% behind.  He qualified!

Now, we have the fun part.  Since early intervention is a state funded service, I had to literally sign my life away.  Okay, maybe not my whole life but damn it was a lot of papers.  First, they have to send something to my health insurance which they will most likely deny.  This will take 2 weeks.  Then they have to verify Bill’s income to come up with what we will owe monthly (yeah, I wish it was free but it’s not).  Then they can finally set up a therapist.  I am thinking Madison might be in school before this all gets set up.  We’ll have to see.

Needless to say, I am happy.  I am hoping this will help him talk better and more and end a lot of the frustration in our house.

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I actually am feeling better, and I thank you all for your support, comments, emails, and everything else.  Now that most of the pain is gone, I’m left just left with my frustration with the whole situation.  Basically, I don’t have a ton of options.

Option #1 — Just keep flipping birth controls when it quits stopping my periods.  I’ve been through either 6 or 8 of them in two years already.

Option #2 — Get an ablation done.  That basically burns out the lining of your uterus.  It doesn’t work well on young women (per my OBGYN).  I would still have to use birth control or buy condoms, because I cannot take the chance of getting pregnant. The cost I think is in the $20,000 range. I would lose my fertility.

Option #3 — After reading about ablation, I started doing research on a partial hysterectomy.  My OBGYN did not suggest it but it would solve most of my problems (I think). I wouldn’t have to worry about having to buy condoms online or getting pregnant. But I’d be 32 and without a uterus. I am pretty sure we are done having kids. Plus, I don’t know if my OBGYN will even do it.

Option #4 — This last option was suggest to me from my chiropractor and that is to see a natural doctor. She gave me a name and her brochure. I am really wondering if I should look into this since one of the treatments she does is for natural female hormone balancing.  I am pretty sure my insurance won’t cover it, so this would be all out of pocket.  However, if it works, I would be one happy camper.

If any of you have done any of my option, I’d love to hear from you.  I’m obviously frustrated, and I don’t feel like there is a right answer.

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