Having cheese with my WHINE

Got some horrible new last night. My DH was laid off yesterday after 14 years with the company. Along with all the other things it does to throw the house into chaos, it pushes off my surgery. He has the insurance for us and we cannot afford the Cobra payments for to long. My insurance at work is HORRIBLE and the cost for the surgery will be out of my price range. I'm TRYING not to whine and be supportive, because its certainly not his fault, but..........I WANT THIS SURGERY!!!!!!!!

Christine, I am so sorry to hear of your misfortune!! 14 years is a long time!! I hope that he finds a new job soon and that you will not have to wait long before your surgery will be back on track! Carmen

I'm so sorry to hear your news. Our company is doing layoffs right now too -- it's not easy. You hate to think that 14 years doesn't buy you loyalty, but it's a tough world out there economically. I don't recall where you are in your process, but is it possible to move it up to a time while you can afford COBRA? He'd be home so it would be a good time to have it. Try really hard to keep the insurance going. It's so much more important than we ever know. I know how expensive it is -- I went through it recently -- so I understand, but I'll pray you guys will be able to pull this thing off. Good luck Kathy F.

That just sucks. I'm sorry. My only advice can be to TRY and find a way to continue your COBRA...beg borrow and steal if you have to...but keep your coverage. If you don't and you wind up lapsing your insurance, you run the risk of your condition being considered pre-existing by your next insurance company. Or, worse yet, perhaps the next employer wont cover surgery at all. If you currently have an ins plan that will cover this surgery...and you're in the process of getting a date...DON"T GIVE UP YOUR COBRA INSURANCE! Even if your hubby has to take a temporary PT job to keep up with the payments...or if you have to...it's WORTH is. We had to do some major belt tightening (including getting rid of my cell phone, my pay internet service at home and cable and ALL my magazine subscriptions -the Horror!- to keep up with our payments AND, I even charged a few payments. I was yay close to getting a 2nd job...and I would have in a second it it came down to it. It was all worth it. (I also learned there are a LOT of things I spend money on that I can live without, which I never thought of) Good luck to you. Lisa C

Hi Christine, Oh, I feel for you (my daughter just found out her company is closing on 11/30). I'm with everyone else - keep the COBRA until you are absolutely positive you have coverage for this procedure. In the meanwhile, can you do anything to speed up your process? I'd work on that as well. Let me know if I can be of any help. God Bless Kathy Bilodeau