"I live here too!"

Here's part of the message I sent to Erin this morning (the parts in quotes are her comments). I think it's a good description of what's going on right now...

Enjoying a quiet Saturday morning here. Maybe later today Heather and I will go and restore a mural that someone defaced with some especially nasty graffiti. Heather noticed it and wanted to fix it. Cool, huh?

"Your medical bills seem to be generating lots of things for you. How are they going now that you're home?" My bills have slowly risen to about $28,000 now, but I'm more and more sure they will be completely cancelled. Two doctors have already said I don't have to pay (their bills were smaller ones, but they also don't have so many resources to draw on so I thought they might be more demanding). The hospital sent forms to demonstrate my financial situation/need. But they're asking for income tax returns, pay check stubs, bank account statements--none of which I have. The only thing I can send them is a simple form stating that Reba (or Julius) is providing room and board for me. So I think I will qualify for coverage of all my hospital costs (>$25,000).

One thing I learned from this is that in the future I want to make it very clear to everyone involved in advance that I cannot pay them. I'll tell every doctor that sees me. I've apologized for not doing that this time. Telling them that probably won't affect the care (especially if it's an emergency) but I think it's only fair to warn them in advance, and give them the freedom to choose how much time or resources they want to spend.

I think Heather (among others) is learning much from this too. I'm glad she's getting to see it. Because her future might look very similar if we end up staying together long term.

"I want to encourage you in your childlike trust" Thanks. There are plenty of people (including Christians, even people here at Reba) who seem pretty committed to discouraging such trust. When I said I didn't want to go to doctors that "had to" treat me (because they work in a county clinic) but wanted treatment from doctors that "wanted to" treat me (even though they knew I couldn't pay), someone here told me "then you'll die." Because "that's not how the world works."

I replied (a bit angrily), "Don't tell me how the world works--I live here too!"