Thursday, September 13, 2012

Thank You Angels and Cheer Leaders


I need to thank all my angels for your wonderful love, ideas, support, subscriptions, gifts, book sales, donations, gambling and best of all being my lucky cheer leaders!
a heap of thanks from Dear Miss mermaid copyright http://dearmissmermaid.com

Thanks to you, I am alive and talking about it!  

It's been 3 years since I started on the long rocky road to recovery, I am still head over heals in debt on medical bills, but managing to live a super efficient lifestyle in my little old wheel estate without incurring any additional debt. One small feat.

I pay a flat amount to the banks on all  the old medical bills each month.  They don't like this and my phone rings endlessly with pleas and requests for monthly payments totaling three to five times my current erratic monthly income.  How they think that kind of math will work, is beyond me.

I keep telling them to force me into bankruptcy. Anything to stop the phone calls.  I've sold everything, emptying out my home 3 years ago, and eventually forced into selling sentimental items that were near and dear to me. My savings account has 3 cents. Well it did, they sent me a check for the 3 cents and closed out my account. Bankers just have no heart.

What's left?  Do they really want to fight over an 18 year old camper and put me under a bridge to live?  Selling my camper would pay off about 2-3% of the total medical debt. So a monthly check I send them each month and they say it's just not enough, that at this rate it will take me 388 years to pay them off. Well what about all those people that send them zero each month? At least I send them something! It makes me feel good to do this, I am sorry they don't approve.

I've spent a lifetime paying my bills promptly.  I had excellent credit. Then one day... my life interrupted. I've hung my head in shame for over 2 years, felt like a total failure that I ran up all this medical mess and didn't bounce right back to pay it off promptly. The bank acts like I am the only person in the whole wide world that ever had a hiccup in their financial life. I must be their only bad customer ever.

When my income goes up, my payments will go up, so I don't think it will really take me 388 years to pay them off. They're just being silly. But every month they hit me with late fees, an increase in interest plus ongoing interest, so they add on more than I pay each month. Matter of fact, they have managed to double my debt in under three years with their extra late charges for their perceived underpayments.

Due to the spiraling costs of current western medical trends. I stopped all medical treatments well over 2 years ago, opting for cheap alternative methods.  I quit filling all my prescriptions, save for one, I can't figure out how to live without. Holistic and alternatives  has probably kept me alive far longer anyhow.  I am still on a roller coaster ride, but each day I wake up, is a fabulous start to my future.

I don't have a car.  I shop out of second hand stores. I don't eat out (well friends have dragged me out to eat because they were tired of my cooking!) I use old refurbished outdated technology.  My worldly goods from a lifetime are severely abbreviated and summed up in a mini-motorhome.

In spite of losing the recent electrical nightmare battle, I have managed to learn many repairs and most of the ongoing maintenance on my camper.

I am working on more books, more stories, another cookbook in hopes of getting back on my feet and tail fin.  Since not having a car is a huge handicap towards possible part-time employment, I've managed to barter myself many months into workamping in exchange for rent and utilities.

My biggest luxury in my current life?  My companion dog.  Six and a half pounds of pure trouble. But even he is on a frugal budget. His toys come from the $1 bin and angels. He doesn't go to the groomers.

Hey, if I have to wash, brush, comb and cut my own hair, he can learn to do the same...

He has an angel that sends him Organic Dog Food so he is a healthy companion. But without him, I wouldn't be out and about walking. So I consider him a critical "alternative" treatment.  He makes me want to exercise. When I am sick and scared, he keeps me from feeling all alone.

Three years ago, I couldn't walk fifty feet without becoming dizzy and so exhausted I had to rest. One day I felt strong.  I went into K-Mart to buy some underwear. (You can't buy undies at the second hand store.)   I was so weak, I found a dinette set on sale, so I could sit down and pretend to be studying every square inch of the table top for the next forty minutes.

So here I am!  Almost three years back in America.  And alive to talk about it too.  Yippie!  Life is GOOD!  Sure it shook me up, spit me out, but somewhere deep inside I must be a little teflon tough, to try to keep bouncing back.

When life give you a pile of shit, you can lay around complaining about the stench or you can work it into fertilizer and grow some.

I can only sum this up by saying I owe many many many Angels numerous  big THANK YOU'S from the bottom of my heart to the top of my soul.  You have gone out of your way to lend me a helping hand.  I am eternally grateful.

Thank you. 
Thank you.
THANK YOU.
And Bless you too!

5 comments:

  1. It's just incredible you can have a positive outlook like you do. I hate like hell to think a time could come where I am in the financial difficulties you are in, but if I do I would file bankruptcy myself. They can't take your home, so all you would do is let the banks eat back their usurious charges. Imagine, someone trying to pay off a debt and them running up the amount you owe, and for what! My hat is off to you for the effort you are making when the system is so stacked against you.

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  2. Please file for bankruptcy ........no shame when the judge sees your medical bill you will be granted.

    Keep your credit card good for emergency use. They can't touch what you have.

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  3. Good advice from Gypsy and Andrea ... that just pisses me off that the debt increases ... Gotta be a solution

    My hat's off to you for your positive attitude and that little ol Harley dawg is just the cat's meow

    Don't know how you do it

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  4. go ahead and file for bankruptcy. The banks are screwing you with late fees and bumping up interest so screw them back and have them eat the debt they (and the healthcare industry) has created for people who can not make enough to ever satisfy them...it's a losing battle our country has created for a lot of folks-
    kitty kiss

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  5. Hey, I remember reading that blog about you having to sit down at the table while in the store shopping. You sat down and tried not to be noticed as feeling ill. You have come a long way in the health department, and on top of that, you are living a life that many are envious of.

    Keep your chin up, you'll make it through this. Your little dog loves you.

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Life is goof!