Here comes the sun

Not literally. I don't think, anyway.

All last week I was sick as a dog. It started with a little mini-cough which very quickly turned into something horrendous. After about 36 hours I was achy, had the chills, and was coughing up a lung. Turns out, I had the flu. At on point my fever was so high Tylenol and Advil did nothing to help. I thought I was going to have to go to the Emergency room. Thankfully, I came to my senses and took a shower. This brought my fever down to something more manageable. I didn't move from my bed for two days. Hubby did everything for the kids (except, of course, feed the Chipmunk). I got sick on Sunday.

Unfortunately, Hubby left to go back to the UK on Wednesday. It wasn't for a long trip, but it was long enough - he got home very late this past Sunday night. The days that I was still very sick but he wasn't here were not fun. The misery was going to be added to this past Friday when the boys had their check-up (Monkey for his annual, Chipmunk for his nine-month). I could have sworn one or both of them were due for shots. The last time the Monkey got shots he couldn't walk for days due to some adverse reaction. Every time the Chipmunk gets shots he's miserable and doesn't eat for days. This is why we try to schedule their appointments for Fridays. It's better for them to have the weekend to recover instead of us needing to miss work. Unfortunately, since Hubby was gone, I was going to have to deal with the recovery on my own while I was still feeling miserable myself. Thankfully, I was wrong about either of them needing shots and we were all able to survive the weekend - for the most part.

It seems I always fear the worst, but never hope for the best.

A while ago I wrote about the panic attack I had while I was still pregnant. My worries then were mainly about money - mainly not having enough after the baby was born to meet our current commitments, let alone any added expenses that resulted from a having a new baby around. As a re-cap:

• I was going to be taking 12 weeks off of work, 3 of which were going to be unpaid. A loss of about $2000.
• Taking that much time unpaid was going to result in me needing to pay for the company's portion of health insurance, about an additional $800 for the time I would need to pay.
• I was probably going to fail miserably at breastfeeding, which meant we would need to spend money on formula, at least an additional $200 a month.
• The mortgage on our rental unit was set to go up by $400 last July.
• We would need to find a new daycare, since the old one was not going to be able to take the baby.
• Let's not forget the already known about costs of diapers and daycare for the baby.

As it turned out, I didn't need to worry as much as I did.

• I only took 9 days off unpaid. My maternity leave wasn't as long as I had hoped for, but it's what was best for our family financially. I think the total loss was about $1500, but I was able to stagger the unpaid time off so it didn't hurt as bad.
• I didn't have to pay anything for the company's portion of my health insurance, this was incorrect information that was given to me.
• I did fail miserably at breastfeeding, but we decided to go with generic formula this time around - saving us about $30 a can. A bonus of using the generic stuff is the fact that daycare will provide the baby any formula he uses while he is in her care. Now formula only costs about $40 a month.
• I was entirely wrong about the mortgage. I think I must have been hallucinating when we originally closed on the note.
• We found a new daycare. It took a while to find someone who would be able to accept both children and was able to take the Monkey to and from school. Considering the baby was a few months away from being born, and then wouldn't need care for another 12 weeks, we were really lucky we found someone when we did. We were also lucky she didn't want us to pay for the Chipmunk when we started using her just to keep his slot open for the 5 months she wouldn't be taking care of him - most daycares I was calling was making this a requirement.
• A few weeks before I was scheduled to return to work, I got promoted. The change in my pay covered the new daycare cost - yay!

Unfortunately, we did end up having a few extra costs that were not anticipated in my original freak-out.

• The Chipmunk stayed in the NICU for 6 days - $600
• The Chipmunk needed supplemental oxygen for 11 weeks - I thik we ended up paying about $50 for this.
• Because of the need for supplemental oxygen, he had more doctors' appointments than anticipated - this resulted in about $60 of additional co-pays.
• The Chipmunk developed torticolis. This is still being treated by the chiropractor, but he is much better. An additional cost so far of about $250.

This is way better than I had initially anticipated. I wish I could have the mentality that it will all work out, saving me a ton of stress, but unfortunately that does not appear to be who I am.

Remember the blood tests I had a few weeks ago? I just go the results. Ever since the blood was drawn I was anticipating horrible news. I was certain something terrible was going to be revealed as the reason for my sudden increase in blood pressure. Something was found, though I'm not sure yet if it explains the blood pressure issue.

I'm Vitamin D deficient.

What that means yet, I have no idea. At first I thought, hey that's great! Nothing is really wrong. At least nothing a little more time out in the sun won't fix. Unfortunately, after doing a little research, it's not looking that simple.

I know Vitamin D is used to aid in the absorption of Calcium, so I'm at risk of brittle bones. Whether there are other problems associated with this deficiency has not been explained to me yet. I have an appointment in a little over a month to find out. Hopefully I can learn from the past year and try and have the mentality that everything is going to work out just fine. Wish me luck.