Free at Last - Free at Last

I’ve been paying off medical bills for 5 ½ years – each and every month.

It all started with my unscheduled flight on the relatively unknown carrier, Plywood Airlines, on November 28, 2003.

The ambulance ride, the x-rays, the surgery that night, the hospital stay, the second surgery in December and the 3^rd surgery in February ’04, plus all the miscellaneous add-ons (physical therapies, braces, and all the charges inherent to surgical procedures) came to over $25,000.

Admittedly, the hospital did write off a good portion of their charges after my shitty insurance company had paid their pittance. I also explained to them that since my company had laid me off due to the injury, I had absolutely NO income. I guess they felt sorry for me.

So, everybody got what I could pay them every month. The payments were small, but I never missed a month.

Then in April of ’06 I had another short flight, this one on the regional carrier, Ladder Airlines. It was only about 10 feet or so, but it did manage to break my cheekbone and my wrist, plus it shattered the sinus on the right side of my face. This is what I looked like the following day.

More fucking medical bills, but not nearly as much. Only about $1100 that time, but it still felt like I was taking one step forward and two steps back.

But as of today, August 12th in the year of our Lord, 2009, it’s all fucking over. By writing a check for $67, I have freed myself from the medical community (at least for now). All bills paid ~ thank God they didn’t charge me interest.

Later,

obi