Ramblings #19: Diapers, Teeth...and Go Vote!

Well...this is it.  Election Day.  I hope everyone out there gets a chance to vote (yes, even if it's for Romney.)  The more who vote, the better.  Christy and I already voted early.  I hope this is the last day I have to wake up to television ads and constant emails from the Obama campaign asking me to donate money.  For the record, I haven't donated anything to his campaign.  I've had too many unexpected bills over the last six months (including one that I'll mention a little later in this post.)

The big question this election year seems to be:  Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?  For some, possibly many people, that answer would be no.  But for me, the answer is...absolutely.

You know where I was 4 years ago?  All you have to do is go back and read my blog in 2008.  I was living in an Extended Stay Motel!  I was looking for work, not sure if we would have to pack up and move back to Taiwan or not.  We moved back here in May of 2008, when things were pretty much at their worst, economy wise.

In the last 4 years, both of us found jobs.  We bought a brand new car and a brand new house.  We both have 401k plans that have seen substantial gains.  We've done pretty well.  I see things improving, slowly but surely.  So...obviously I think we should stay on the path we're on.  We'll see what happens tonight.
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My kids are now finally diaper free as of this week.  Surprisingly, Kyle was the first one to stop wearing diapers about six months ago.  Now finally Sara has stopped...after 7 1/2 years!  She wasn't wearing diapers all day, but she did need to wear them overnight.

I tried to get her prepared for it.  When I opened the last bag of diapers, I would tell her, "Okay, this is it.  When this bag is gone, you're on your own.  If you need to go to the bathroom during the evening, just get up and go!"  Christy likes to remind her that when she was a kid in Taiwan, she actually had to leave her house and go outside in the cold if she wanted to use the bathroom.  Sara only has to walk a few feet.

So this is great news, since diapers are getting more and more expensive.  Even if she just used one diaper a day, we were still spending at least $20 a month on a bag of diapers.
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So I'm here at home all today on Election Day, and I'm heavily medicated on Vicodin.  Why?  Because for the past year, I have had no dental insurance.  When I switched to part time work at the hospital, I lost my benefits.  I bought my own health insurance policy through Aetna (which they recently raised by $20 a month....but...look on the bright side...I just saved $20 a month by not buying diapers anymore!)

I considered going on my wife's dental plan, but it was obscenely expensive.  We're talking over a hundred dollars a month here...just for freakin' dental!  I figured I could just go one year without dental coverage, and then buy my own policy later.  I take good care of my teeth, and never had any major problems before, so I thought I'd be okay for a year.  I was wrong.

In the course of that year, I had a cavity in one of my wisdom teeth (for you dental experts, that's tooth #17, the one at the very back left.)  Since I didn't realize I had a cavity due to the lack of my regular dental exam, the cavity turned into an infection of the tooth (an abscess).  One day I wake up and have intense pain coming from my tooth.  I waited about a week or so, thinking it might go away, but it didn't.  It got worse and worse.  So I made an appointment with my regular dentist for a "limited exam" ($62) just for her to tell me what I was already fairly sure of.  Luckily, it was a wisdom tooth, so it didn't require a root canal.  Even with insurance, root canals are expensive.  Imagine having to get one without insurance.

My dentist refers me to an oral surgeon, because apparently she doesn't like to do extractions (not sure why).  So now I have to wait an additional week to see the oral surgeon, all the while still suffering from this crazy pain.  It was so bad that even drinking a glass of water was torture.

I finally got the tooth pulled yesterday (at the bargain price of $365!).  So now I have gone from one type of pain to another.  The infection pain is gone, but now I have the pain of a tooth being ripped out from the root, thus the need for Vicodin (which is doing pretty well so far.)

So kiddies, here's your lesson for today:  go to your dental checkups twice a year!