Monday, November 1, 2010

A frustrating weekend

At least it needs no petrol...

We weren't going to be home this weekend.

One of the numerous nephews was having a birthday party this weekend to celebrate his third birthday and as it was being held over the other side of the state (across the bay) we decided to make a weekend of it.  By breaking up the travel to make it less impacting on my back, we had plans to visit Husband's mum on the Friday and stay there the night.

Then, leaving in the morning we planned to head over to the Mornington Peninsula to party with the little peoples, eat yummy food and fill up on birthday cake (and it was a rippa of a dinosaur cake too) then catch up with a few friends over on the Mornington side, staying the night with friends.  Today the plan was to see another long-time friend before heading over to my Dad and check out all the reno's he's done to his factory...

But in doing the 'right thing' and getting the car serviced proved to be our un-doing. Sure, running on three cylinders is not going to be good for the car especially over such a distance and not being able to locate a reco-engine to suit the car meant the whole weekend's plans were cancelled.

And they made seed-men heads *sobs*  That would have been SO much fun! An assortment of nieces, nephews, aunties, uncles and grandparents all stuffing their stockings and making funny faced 'things' to grow seed-hair on.  My sister is one of the better frugals ~ making the most of only a little.  I love the way she has been able to travel the world, live in numerous countries across the planet and still be able to enjoy the life and sights of each place she visits!

This week is a mix of doctors', therapy and assessments to make sure the spinal fusion is holding in well and not causing any issue. There has been some weakness down the right side and, all going well, this is not due to nerves being compressed or damaged causing some paralysis or loss of functioning.

We made it very clear to the doctor we were not in a position to pay for additional therapy so tomorrow we are setting up a care-plan that should enable the pain clinic to be covered under a rehabilitation programme and the new therapy appointments to be bulk billed with no gap payments required.  If we were required to pay even the minimum fees ($90) weekly for the first six weeks (as required), we would have to cancel and not be able to attend.

Sure, the pension card does provide a significant discount to many of the appointments but so many consulting therapists feel the need to charge on top of the charges set by Medicare and this is the cost which puts health care out of reach of low income earners.  My physio sessions are covered to $90 per visit, yet we are expected to pay an additional $30 at each appointment ~ $120 for a 30min session.  That really does seem unreasonable at times.  Surely $180 an hour is enough at the best of times ~ why more?

Yes, a little bit of financial panic because all the mortgage/line of credit sweep payments are scheduled tonight and there is absolutely nothing there to 'swipe'.  We've transferred enough to cover the mortgage, but the LOC is really starting to become a worry ~ interest hold or not.  Maybe the panic is unwarranted, we don't know if that means nothing actually moves out/over to the account for the next few months and we must get $500 in there before the end of November so fingers crossed eBay picks up some good sales and this gets covered!

Keeping positive, staying semi-calm and if worse comes to worse, we can sell the motorbike (the Suzuki, not the Guzzi) and hope for $500 for that.  Maybe...

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