Finances and Health

So, I am very blessed. Because of Obamacare, I actually get to have insurance for only the second time in my life, and because I earn so little, I get it automatically. I don't really use it much, but I have it. In fact, I have used it three times in the entire time I have had it since it first came out.

Before that, I was still poor, by typical standards, and have been my whole life. I had a job as a custodian for a while fresh out of school that had insurance, which I used twice, ever. Otherwise, I have never had it, at any job.

The time between when I went to the dentist was from age 17, the last year I was covered by being my parents' kid, and 30.

When I went, and only because I had the insurance now to do it, at 30 years old, and told them how long it had been, they were expecting a mouth like a pirate's. Instead, I had a single small cavity, it took them two searches to notice, and some tartar build up. I also had a problem that the dentist said was not my fault, but the fault of a dentist who did a (quote) "Hack Job" on my teeth. The inside of the tooth was rotting because the dentist who filled a cavity when I was 12 really messed up my tooth.

They kept telling me how impressed they were with my mouth. My enamel was good. My gums were good. They couldn't believe it.

The reason being, is that the only thing I did to protect my teeth in the entire time was to chew gum. Orbit, bubblemint. A few years before I went I did start brushing my teeth once a day, but the majority of the time, I didn't even brush. I would just chew my gum after I ate, even snacks. Of course I started that habit because of wanting to avoid bad breath, but it worked out in my favor.

The other thing, that made a HUGE difference, is that I do not drink soda pop, except maybe 2 to 4 times in a year. I do not drink coffee, and I do not smoke. I also don't eat a lot of sugar, or buy candy or ice cream very often at all.

I feel like the combination of these things is why I had such a lovely mouth. They said my tartar was about what would take an 'average' person 2 or 3 years to get. My one and only cavity was tiny. The other tooth, which is why I even went to the dentist, because it hurt, they said should have fallen out of my head. But it didn't, because it couldn't rot as quickly as they usually would anticipate. I still have the tooth, because it wasn't as bad as they thought, and they just hollowed out the middle of it, and then refilled it with white stuff.

The point is, I had ZERO dentist bills for over 10 years, and it didn't hurt my health. I know not everyone automatically falls under the Obamacare, and maybe you don't want to end up with a ton of co pays and bills. This is how you avoid the dentist- Chew a sugarless gum that increases your spit output to help destroy food particles in your mouth after each time you eat, and don't drink sugary drinks or smoke.

Some people will throw their hands up. Most people will chew gum, but I know almost no people who will give up soda pop or coffee either one. Well, I have found, the more you do, the better, but anything helps. Soda pop and coffee, but still chewing, still brushing, and not smoking, is better than nothing.

I do brush still once a day, sometimes two, if I actually remember, and I do still chew my gum after every meal. So I didn't need to go to the dentist yet since that visit. Shrug.

Now, my eyes, thankfully, are prefect in vision, just sensitive to light. I test them myself sometimes at the eye places in Walmart or other such places. I stand twice as far away as they tell you to, and twice as close, and then read the letters on the board for testing your eyesight. I have never had a problem reading any of the rows, ever. I am very blessed.

Physically, it has been the hardest. I last was able to go to the doctor's when I was 21, and could not again until 30. In all that time, I did get sick, but thankfully only once or twice a year. I also had emergencies, but I managed by myself, which I DO NOT recommend.

For instance, I was making Mac and Cheese, and I spilled the boiling water over my hand, and a little tiny bit on my foot. My skin became red and blistered, with a couple of them splitting open. It hurt like crazy. I cried, but I also shoved my hand into the freezer. I stood there, for almost 4 hours, until my hand was completely numb from the cold. Then I took some night cold medicine, to make me fall asleep, and put some Aveeno lotion in a glove for wintertime, and shoved it on my numbed hand, and then crawled into bed and slept before it started hurting again.

I still have the hand, but after doing this to myself for days, instead of getting help, for what I later found out could have been a third degree burn, I literally have killed most of the sensory in my hand. I can feel on a few places on the top of it, but most of the top is just dead feeling. I also have a rough spot on my foot that is the same, from the burn there, which was much less severe, and thankfully very small.

The point is that I didn't even think about going to a doctor because I knew I had no money. Don't do that. It is always a stupid idea. I did the same thing when I got food poisoning. I was laid out on the floor unable to move I was so sick, my dad suggesting the emergency room, and me just begging him to give me something that would make me sleep. Stupid. I don't know how I convinced him.

One time I got a bad infection from falling in a kiddie pool area chasing my nephew, and it leaving a large scrape. It got so infected it became a hole, and I cut out the infection with a knife. I have a scar, and my foot still, but that could have gone bad so quickly. Stupid.

The point of these stories, is being poor makes everything feel super expensive. I never once considered what other people would have immediately run to- namely a doctor.

Now, in my defense, my stupidity is also driven by Iatrophobia, which is the terror of doctors. I actually cry and get petrified around them. But, in my mind, I do know, despite that fear, that they can help me. I just think they also want to torture me, no matter how nice of one I may meet. I have always feared doctors, and probably always will, but rationally, I still can see that a doctor could help me with a burn better than shoving my arm in a freezer.

I didn't use the freezer because I was scared of the doctors. I did it because I would never be able to afford them, at that point in time. I did it because my health didn't come first. Sure I try to eat my vegetables, but everyone needs help sometimes. You get a virus or infection and you can't just magically make everything ok because you can't afford it.

Would I rather have had to pay off probably over 3k in medical expense even if just a quick in and out at the hospital for having feeling in the top of my hand now? Probably. I became so adverse to debt, to the concept of it, that I couldn't consider it as a valid option over my own well being.

I am proud of my dental history. I am proud of having that long period of time with no detriment and money saved, but I also can see why it was stupid. I am not proud of my medical history, even though it meant years without a single doctor bill. My body hates me on the daily because I didn't get certain things treated early on, and now they are a real problem. I am 31 years old, and have complications that people 30 years older than me are supposed to have, because I didn't do anything to help myself when I was 20.

I totally believe in avoiding debt. I absolutely feel like living 'poor' doesn't mean living unhappy. I stay within my means rigidly. But, I am so grateful to have medical coverage, and if I didn't, if for some reason someone took it away or I won a sweepstakes or something random like that, and was wealthy enough not to be qualified anymore, I would get it.

My best friend is Chinese. She said there, they have a list of priorities for life, and they go, HEALTH, at the top of the list, then family and so on so forth. Health first, because if you are not here, you can't value anything else.

Do eat your vegetables. Maybe you will be like me and almost never get sick. Do clean your teeth, and maybe you will be like me and almost never need a dentist. You can decrease how often you go to the doctor's. You can avoid the gas money of driving there, even if your bill would be completely covered, the way I do. But when you are sick, and not just sniffle-nosed, but really hurt, or really sick, do go. Don't be like me, so wrapped up in a budget, you forget that Health is the top priority. Budget tries to be, when you have to live within it. Budget can feel like your world. But really, Budget is only there to protect you. So stick with it, absolutely, but only as long as it doesn't threaten your Health, because you are your world. Without you, none of the rest of your priorities can matter.