The Setback

Okay, so the beginning of this year I started my second job to pay more bills, but more importantly to save more money to get my bankroll started. A couple of weeks into January I started noticing chronic stomach cramps. I figured this was stress due to working working almost non-stop every week. February came and the stomach pains became worse. An ulcer was on top of my own personal diagnosis and appendicitis took second place. I was a bit worried but figured if I found a way to reduce my stress I would get better. Work at my new job slowed down so they let me go for a couple weeks until business picked up again. Well, the very first day I had off I went to go get checked out at the hospital. Since I was part time at the theater and a temp at the machine shop I didn't have any health insurance. I knew it was going to be expensive but I also knew I had to go. I figured they would just run a few tests, diagnose my condition and give me some meds and be out the same day. Not even close. They kept me there at the hospital for 6 days! They took x-rays, CAT scans, urine, blood, and stool tests. I also had an endoscopy and a colonoscopy done on me. What they found was some inflamation and bleeding in my intestines. The diagnosis the doctor gave me was Crohn's disease. Wonderful, I thought. I had some stupid ass disease for the rest of my life. After my sixth day inside, they finally sent me home. They gave me a prescription for prednisone, a dangerous steroid, Pentasa (mesalamine), and Iron for my Anemia, probably due to my bleeding.

By the time I was home I was feeling a lot better. Since I had a couple weeks off from both jobs I took it upon myself to do some research on Crohn's disease. To my surprise, I found out that Crohn's was not something I really had to live with my whole life! Basically what I had to do was change my way of living and eating habits. With working two jobs I had no time to prepare any decent meals. My diet consisted of sugar snacks, fast food, and Quizno's (it was next to the movie theater). I changed my diet full circle and I am now eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, and fish. I also started taking some supplements called Primal Defense HSO. After a few days I felt like a million bucks! Then I started declining and and everytime I ate I vomitted. I figured it could be my medication since I always took it with my meals. I stopped my prescription medication and the vomitting disappeared, though I continued taking the HSOs. Ever since then I haven't had any problems.

Now came my worst fear...the bill! $46,042 was my hospital bill. $1,867 to the GI doctor and $1,200 to some other doctor. Great. How am I going to pay this off?! I called the hospital to see what I could do about the bill so what they did was send me a packet of forms to fill out to see if I qualify to have the bill written off somehow. The write-off is only for the hospital bill and doesn't apply to the doctor fees. The doctor bills are not that much of a problem. I estimated that I could have those two bills paid off in about 6 months. Now if I have the big one written-off, my poker career can start sometime in the beginning of 2006. Hopefully my time away from the tables will not stunt my knowledge and experience growth that much. I will take the time I have the rest of this year while I pay off my bills to hit the books again and study with a more intense focus than ever before.