Money and Cancer

When I started my health journey January 3rd this year one of the things I wondered was the financial costs I would encounter.  I had been working on my finances and organization really intentionally since 2020 and wanted guidance on this next phase of life.  However, I couldn't find much support for how to spend my medical leave of absence as a productive person or what costs to expect as I ultimately was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at 34.  So I'm going to blog my perspective as a Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) with cancer so others can hopefully learn from it. 

While I knew I had health insurance from my job as a high school special education teacher, I wasn't sure what it included beyond doctor appointments.  I had never needed to go to the ER or hospital for myself (just for my foster teens who had their own insurance).  As I rode in the ambulance early in the morning on the 4th to a higher quality hospital, I wondered how much the ride would cost.  Answer came a few weeks later after I got a ride 2x to hospital 50 miles away... I was responsible for $50 of the $2,000 cost.  If I had know that I wouldn't have needed to ask a friend to drive me after each day I returned to work that January.  That first ER trip with pain in my abdomen ended with a 2 night stay at the hospital, 4 ultrasounds, CT scan, and countless blood tests.  I knew I had to pay $50 to go to the ER, but not that it was covered if I was admitted.  That took digging around with my coworkers help.  Turns out my insurance is pretty good quality which is a HUGE blessing.  

While I acknowledge the many privileges I have in this journey such as parents who while they live 400 miles away are either not working or working remotely so can come stay when I can't cook, clean, or move on my own.  My support network is larger than usual as I had to build it while fostering teenagers.  I've followed Dave Ramsey's baby steps for multiple years and am 4 and 6.  So I could just enter storm mode and stop contributing extra on my 4 bedroom house that I'm currently in alone, but have space for my parents and/or my 18 year old to stay in when needed.  I have a car, as do almost all of my support network.  I also live less than a mile from my school, church, Primary doctor/Counselor and local hospital although 50 miles from my doctors and the hospitals that would handle my car.  Even already having counseling set up for this life change is helpful so I have someone to process this outloud with 2-4 times a month.  I'm thankful not to be living paycheck to paycheck as I had to give up my extra hours which was over 1/3 of my income... but I'm still able to be paid my normal salary this school year.  

One of the best questions a fellow teacher asked after sharing a cash donation from my department was " Are you able to pay electric etc? No reason to get flowers and gift baskets if you really just need money for bills."  Thankfully I can cover my frugal lifestyle, but she picked up my after school hours and knows how much it pays.  

I hope to list out some of the smaller costs that add up as well as tips for you to walk through your own health journey if needed.  Besides the financial aspects, the changes in how I spend my time have been huge.  I'll share some of the rhythms I made during recovery from surgery and now walking through chemo

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