So things aren’t quite as up in the air as they were before. We have decided to go ahead and continue our current insurance using COBRA for November. I have asked Ben to contact his former employer to see if they might be able to pay their portion of the premium for November, since Belinda has this surgery. He also has enough days of Paid Time Off that if they would agree to use that up for the rest of October and make his final day be in November, it could carry into the next month that way. I don’t know if they will be I think it would be worth it to at least try.

We also had several people from our church and circle of friends donate money to help us out. It’s not quite enough to cover the COBRA payment, but I think it is enough that we will be able to take care of the rest of it ourselves. Hopefully Ben will have a new job by that time, and if not, we’ll figure out something for December.

In other health news, we were getting ready for church on Sunday when Mom had some kind of episode. I’d never seen anything like it before, and it was very concerning. She lost her breath and had to sit down immediately, and she said her chest felt strange. It was also alarming because she had been out in her bedroom when it started, because she came directly into the dining room and sat, and she did not close either of the doors between her rooms and the dining room. She always, always, always makes sure those are closed because she doesn’t want the cats out there. But this time she left them both open. That was as telling as the symptoms that something was very wrong.
Karlene and Bennett and I took her to the emergency room in Norman. They did some cardiac tests on her but everything seemed fine. They gave us a referral to a cardiologist and sent her home. So we still don’t know what it was. I also wonder if she’s had these episodes before out in her rooms, and forgets about it by the time I see her next. It’s extremely possible. She didn’t remember going to the emergency room the next morning, when she was startled to find one of the leftover EKG sensors still stuck to her. So that’s just one more thing that’s got my attention right now.

Next focus – I am supposed to call a group I found online called the Patient Advocate Foundation. I sent them a query about whether they could help us financially with the COBRA payment, and they emailed me back that they could possibly do that but needed to talk to me on the phone and get more information. Unfortunately, I felt too busy on Monday to get that call in, and I tried just a few minutes ago, only to find out they had closed one minute before, at 5 p.m. eastern. So that’s my one of my goals tomorrow. Call PAF, early vote in Chickasha, and figure out what I’m going to write about for the Tuttle Times next week. That needs to be done early since I’ll be traveling to DC on Monday, my normal deadline.

I’ll be working at the theater on Thursday night, showing movies, but other than that, I don’t have anything big on my schedule for the rest of the week, which is good. Gives me time to pack and prepare for the trip.

Belinda at her first day back at homeschool co-op last week.

Mom in the emergency room. She was super cold and the nurses gave her many blankets. <3