Dollars & Sense
This isn’t your average money podcast. Dollars and Sense breaks down personal finance without the fluff. You’ll get honest talk, real stories, and practical advice to help you get ahead while still enjoying the things that make life fun. Powered by HAPO Community Credit Union.
Dollars & Sense
What Happens When a Medical Emergency Sends Life Off Script?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Watch the full-length episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DollarsAndSense.Podcast
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hapoccu/https://www.instagram.com/dollarsandsense.podcast/
A medical emergency can impact a lot more than your health. Unexpected medical bills, lost income, depleted emergency savings, insurance costs, and months away from work can completely change your financial life.
In this episode of Dollars & Sense, we hear two real-life stories of medical emergencies that sent life completely off script. Cana shares how an unexpected leukemia diagnosis led to a $98,000 Life Flight, months of cancer treatment, relocation to Seattle, and nearly a year away from work. Kenzie shares how a broken ankle shortly after buying a home resulted in surgery, thousands of dollars in medical debt, months of missed work, and difficult decisions about continued medical care.
We talk about the financial side of a health crisis, including emergency funds, medical bills, health insurance deductibles, out-of-pocket costs, FMLA, lost wages, financial assistance programs, medical debt consolidation, and what it takes to financially recover after the unexpected.
Their stories are a reminder that preparing for an emergency isn't just about having money for a surprise expense. Sometimes the bigger challenge is figuring out how to keep life moving when your income stops and the bills don't.
So if you broke your leg today, do you have what it takes to cover the cost of the surgery? What happens if you did that and you had to fly across state? Jet fuel's expensive. Today we're going to talk to a couple of people who had to deal with those exact situations. So let's get into it. Today we're talking about um what your emergency fund, your emergency savings might not be capable of covering. Uh in the studio with us today, we have Kana and Kenzie both uh here to share their stories about uh illness, injury, an event that happened that uh was a bit more than your standard sick time could uh could account for at a job. Ladies, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Hello, uh good morning.
SPEAKER_03So when we start getting into this, we're gonna be getting some personal stories. So again, be comfortable sharing what you're willing to share with everybody out there, but uh we want to talk about that impact, what happened, what was the impact, and how did you deal with it? Kennedy, would you like to tell us your story first?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, of course. So uh about three years ago, uh, you know, I was kind of living day-to-day life, you know, normal things. And I started feeling kind of sick, just out of breath all of a sudden. Okay. Blood rushing my ears, you know, uh, and it was like springtime, so I thought it was just like seasonal allergies and things like that.
SPEAKER_03Maybe fire season here in Washington where all of a sudden you can't breathe. Oh my gosh, all the time, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's like all the smoke and everything. So I was like, oh, you know, it's like not feeling great. But you know, after one night I was like, man, I have to go to doctor. So I was like, I'm just gonna go see what's going on, you know. My asthma growing up too as a kid, so I was like, might be something like that going on. Well, I went in and I got a blood draw and you know, normal kind of things. And my doctor was kind of like that's kind of weird symptoms because you know, out of breath and things like that, and just fatigued. And uh I got a call about a couple hours later. She called. Kind of just remember like pretty vividly she called us. Um like she's like, Hey, I hate you this over the phone, but we think you have leukemia.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that's a pretty big bomb to drop in a quick phone call.
SPEAKER_01Yes, so it was pretty big, and she, you know, I could tell like she didn't we loved to do a phone, but she's like, You have to go to the hospital like right now. Okay. So I went and found out I had um acute lymphobastic leukemia. All right. So pretty quickly, like overnight, you know, have to go to the ER and then, you know, have to be life flighted over to Seattle.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Yeah. And I'm guessing you probably didn't have the life flight, like um frequent flyer subscriber program that they've got.
SPEAKER_01Not immediately, no. I say, yeah, lovely, like, yeah, it's like beforehand, you know, something I never thought about because you know, I we're living life, I was three weeks, three weeks away from getting married, like we were planning a wedding, you know, I was just working and everything, and then it just all of a sudden, like, gotta stop, gotta stop and go over.
SPEAKER_03Slight refocus on life at that point.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay. So definitely like a big shift and move. Um, hopefully, like the nurses at the hospital I went to, they're like, hey, sign up for life flight. They're like, go right here. Cause I remember I was like strapped into the gurney and they're like handing me their laptop. They're like, sign up for it right now. Cause oh my gosh, yeah, once we got that like bill like for like what life flight covered, uh-huh. It was crazy because I got told, but um, because yeah, it's like $75 a year for like life flight plans, so great deal. Cause when we got the bill for the plane, like the flight over to Seattle, $98,000.
SPEAKER_03Oh that is that is uh more than an economy seat on uh Alaska for sure.
SPEAKER_01For sure.
SPEAKER_03But again, private flight.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was private flight, so you know had to lay down the whole time. But well, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So you you get life flighted over uh obviously big expense already out of the gate. And I'm guessing you had easily $100,000 just sitting around to to pay cash for this. Any any discounts for for cash payments?
SPEAKER_01Um I didn't even talk about that.
SPEAKER_03I was like, you know, the manicotta deal, but Okay, so one major expense just getting there. And this isn't even talking about the actual medical coverage and the rest of what comes along with it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so this wasn't even talk about like all the chemotherapies had to get and things like that, and you know, hospital stay, because when I was first over there, I was in the hospital for about two weeks, just like in house, you know, and uh having to get you know different chemotherapy started, uh, blood jaws. I had to get lots of blood transfusions and platelets and things like that. And you know, each one comes with a bill. Of course, you know, and at the time, like I had insurance through my work, but you know, it's still I think deductible is like three thousand out of pocket first, and then you know, they'll start covering it.
SPEAKER_03Hit that deductible, yeah. Yeah, that's covered for probably the rest of the year pretty easily on your first trip.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you know, kind of pretty fast with all the bills and everything.
SPEAKER_03So how long were you out of work uh for this? Because obviously you said two weeks in the hospital over there. How how long was it until you were able to get back to working?
SPEAKER_01To work. Um, I didn't know work probably for 11 months.
SPEAKER_03So almost an entire year off.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03And I'm assuming lots of back and forth to do so.
SPEAKER_01Because of um at the time I was actually living, like when I first diagnosed, I was living in Lewiston. I and so I'd fly over and uh kind of crazy because like because um at the time once you start getting chemotherapy, you're immunocompromised. So they're like, hey, we don't want you going out to do things, and also because of like the type I had and like how much I might need like transfusions like at any time, they're like they really want to limit travel like as much as possible. Okay. So I had to stay and live in Seattle for 10 months.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so now you're uprooted that you're finding an apartment or a house. Did they help provide housing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so they had a couple of different options for like housing, which was lovely, but it still is like you still have to pay rent, like and Seattle rents. So like they did try to help out, and like they have places specifically for like you know, cancer patients and their families to live at. Um, we stayed at majority of the time at the Pete Gross house, okay, um, is where we stayed, but it's still $2,000 a month for rent. And uh yeah, so and especially like if you are like, you know, if you used to work like a higher amount for things and you don't have all five for like the low like income things, like you're gonna have to pay that. It's like and for a couple first couple months we did pay that, and you know, me and my fiance at the time both weren't working because he had to meet my full-time caregiver also. Okay, because I had to go in for minutes every day.
SPEAKER_03Two incomes that have basically been paused at this point. Yes. Um did you maintain your employment through this time frame despite being on an extended medical leave?
SPEAKER_01For a little bit, yes. So my the company I'd worked for, um, they were very gracious and they're like, hey, we're gonna keep you on just so that I could keep my insurance.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So they were very kind, but I still had to pay $200 a month to keep the insurance before still better than than whatever the bill was going to be without it. Definitely, yeah, definitely better than any of those bills. It's like crazy. But um, yeah, so uh so I had to, you know, pay that and they cut me through, but in the December falling, so I got diagnosed in May 2023. And so December, they're like, hey, you know, we have to keep hiring people, like we can't keep you on payroll because you know, logistics, like they just can't anymore.
SPEAKER_03So seven of your 10 months, yeah, you were with insurance, you were covered. And at that point, uh, did you shift to a different type of health coverage?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So after that point when they're like, and even like a couple months before, because I was like kind of new, like I kept contact with them and kind of knew what was gonna be coming up. Um, I was able to get on to Medicaid.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So luckily, you know, because I wasn't working and at the time, since like I mean, we weren't married, me and my husband weren't married at the time. I was like, I'm a single income, you know, household still. So I was able to get on that, and you know, because I had only stopped working in May, like I had all this time of like no income whatsoever. So they're like, Yeah, you're approved. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So you're getting some assistance, yeah. You're racking up medical bills because not shocking, that's going to be coming along with all of these treatments. Yeah. Ten months of rent in Seattle. Um how much did you manage to gain in debt? Gain feels like the wrong word.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was saying I feel like um we actually didn't do too bad just because, you know, when I first got diagnosed, we started like a GoFundMe. Okay. And, you know, his um parents had given us some money for the wedding, so we were able to use that towards it. So and uh after the couple months of paying rent, we actually because of um like insurance medicade, like we signed up for it, they actually helped cover a lot of the rent. So it was like very good. I luckily had a lot of you know, um social workers around me. They're like, hey, you need to do this, or like, you know, we could also go through um Thread Hutch and get assistance for a lot of stuff too. They they really helped push for that. So I think in total, I mean probably like hey, we probably paid out of pocket. I mean just for like medical bills, like six, ten thousand dollars still. Okay. But we had that savings, so I was able to kind of do our best to stay out of debt for the most part, you know.
SPEAKER_03So there was there was a lot of time finding assistance, being out of work. How and and this is just mind-boggling. How did you handle the that initial bill from Life Flight?
SPEAKER_01I mean, the initial bill because like literally because we signed up minutes before my flight, they're like, hey, we still cover it.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So it was like they send they send you the invoice. I know. So that's great. They send you the invoice like, like, hey, look what we covered to give you a little heart attack. Because they're like, hey, guess what?
SPEAKER_03You could have paid $98,000 for the flight, not including the thank goodness for the for the ladies who uh were there handing you their laptop being like, you need to do this now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're like you before you leave, they're like, you can't leave before you do this.
SPEAKER_03I guess that so in the long run, uh how how long did it take to get life back to normal?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I feel like sometimes I still don't feel fully normal because it's still always something that's you know back in the mind. And I have to um sometimes have to go in for still like appointments like I just have to go for like have to go for like year check-ins and things like that. And that comes with more medical bills every time.
SPEAKER_03Of course.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But at this point, this this new normal back to working, back to doing kind of rebuilding. Uh also you've mentioned now husband, so the wedding eventually happened. Yeah. I'm assuming not within that 10 months, though.
SPEAKER_01No, definitely not.
SPEAKER_03The slight delay in life plans.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it was just this last June, actually, just a couple months ago, we finally Well, congratulations. Thank you. So it took a while, but all right.
SPEAKER_03Well, Kenzie, how about you? Tell us your story.
SPEAKER_00Um, it actually happened last year, and I want to say it happened in March because we had just bought a new house, and it was like three months after we bought a new house. Of course. I came home on my lunch break to let the dogs out, and my husband was off at the time, and he wanted to like show me something he was doing in the backyard, and I went to go walk down like our back patio steps, and I completely just fell. And I at that point I knew I snapped my ankle because I looked down and my ankle was completely like caught to the side.
SPEAKER_03Anyone out there that's watched sports uh has seen one of those replays where you're like, Nope, nope, don't want to look at the TV anymore.
SPEAKER_00I can't, I can't do that anymore. Like a broken bones are a no-go for me. If I like see it in like fighting or I see it in like a movie, like I look away. I like feel I like remember that pain and it like comes back to me and I it's I it hits too close to home. I can't watch it.
SPEAKER_03Okay. So what ended up being the the result of this for obviously the ankle is doing really well at this point.
SPEAKER_00Uh it's it's fine. Okay. It's fine. I feel like it's it's kind of a long story, so I feel like when I broke it, obviously I immediately went to the hospital.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then you they pretty much splint it for like a week, uh, because I can't immediately do surgery because I have to let like the swelling go down. Um and I feel like you don't really when something like that happens, you don't really pay attention to like all the stuff that goes into it. You're just like, okay, where's where's my surgery? Where's my appointment? Then what do I do?
SPEAKER_03Like you're looking forward.
SPEAKER_00You're just looking forward, you're not like paying attention to what's coming.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I go in for my surgery, and you know, that all went well for the most part, and I bit I was healing at that point for like a month and going in for checkup appointments and stuff like that. Then the bills started to come in for all this stuff. Yep. Um and again, I wasn't really too worried about it. I'd like filed for like financial aid. Like I got I requested paperwork from the hospital to like see if I could lower the overall like cost of like the surgery and all the stuff that went along with it. Um and then same with like my orthopedic clinic. I also requested paperwork to see if like I could negotiate the price on all that.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um I never really heard anything and it was pretty persistent. Like I had requested it like three times, and honestly, at this point, like I was I was like, it's fine, it's whatever, like I'm just gonna focus on healing. Um eventually I got a bill for it was over $25,000, and it was for like the main surgery.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00And on the paperwork it said cost covered by insurance, zero dollars. You owe $25,000.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00And I started to panic. I think that's when like it started to panic and it started to hit me that I was like, oh my gosh, like I need to I gotta address this. And like at the bottom it was like, if you want to dispute this, like here's the following steps to go through and dispute this. So I did that, and then I'm assuming it got covered because I I never I never got anything back. I'm assuming it got covered. Okay. Because obviously with the the bills even before the surgery, like I would probably hit my deductible. Like, you're telling me like you can't cover 25. So something was wrong. Um but at this point, like there was still like six to ten thousand dollars around that range, out of pocket costs for the orthopedic and all of the like side charges and stuff like that that I had to pay for. Um, and at this point, like we just bought a house. I don't have a nest egg anymore. Like, I all of our savings had gone into purchasing this house, which kind of ended up being more expensive than what we had planned for it to be, just with the closing. All of it just ended up being more expensive than what we thought. So, like our savings are depleted at this point. Like, I don't I'm just I'm just a girl. Like, I don't have that much money laying around right now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you're you're living the life of house poor, as people like to call it. You've just made a massive expenditure. You now own a home, which congratulations, that's awesome. But now you have to pay for said home. And yeah, you're not wrong. A lot of a lot of people, when they're planning, they're building up that savings account for that down payment, for those closing costs, everything that comes along with that. And you're looking at it, and inevitably, real estate agents are really good at showing you something that's just at your your limit of what you think you can afford, and then all of a sudden $30,000 extra later.
SPEAKER_00And then you're like halfway through it, right? And you've you've already thrown so much money at it, you're like, okay, like yeah, we're gonna go back to the house.
SPEAKER_03And when do you back out?
SPEAKER_00You know, like we're getting the house. So and it it was my dream house, so it was all worth it. But like, no, that's kind of what happened. And then, you know, I did have to file for like all the paperwork and stuff like that for um like FMLA, which was a whole process in and of itself, like it's a whole rabbit hole, but I did get approved for that. Okay, and it did allow me to like make my payments towards my mortgage, and like it covered like my bare minimum living expenses. Like, I maybe had $20 when everything was like said and done. So, like $20, I owe like thousands of dollars.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So how do we how do we continue to pay down this debt that we have accumulated because of a weird step on on the back patio? Yeah. How long uh were you out of work for the recovery?
SPEAKER_00I was out of work for about four to five months. Okay. I went back sooner than they'd wanted me to, because at that point I was in a walking boot and I just really wanted to get back to like I was going stir crazy at this point. Like I I wanted to get out of the house, I wanted to go back to work, like I I wanted to just like do normal things. And yeah, I don't like staying stagnant for too long. So I was I was kind of itching to get back to work.
SPEAKER_03I absolutely know that feeling. I worked uh out of my home as a self-employed individual for 11 years. And if I didn't go meet people for lunch, I would have lost my mind. Uh, but that that interaction with people and also like five months is almost half a year. If you're thinking out there about what your salary is, how much money you're making, cut that in half, and now that's what you get to live that year on. That's that's a as well as then obviously the the additional medical bills that are piling up.
SPEAKER_00Well, and here's the thing too, is like I I didn't even go to like do I didn't even finish my last appointment. Like I these bills were stacking up so big that I didn't want to go to my last appointment to get like everything situated. I didn't go and seek like physical therapy. So at this point, like I kind of am in like chronic pain. I would wake up and as soon as I stepped out of bed, like it felt like pins shooting up. Like I thought something was wrong, but at this point I've accumulated so much medical debt. Like I don't want to go back to see what's wrong or what's going on, or pay more money to go to physical therapy because I don't even know how I'm gonna cover the debt that I've already accumulated. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So at this point, like I'm just carrying on with life and I don't really care to go and so you're you're at the point of balancing your continued further health with the cost of what that may imply coming up. Because attempting to cover what's already been added to this pile is is a I mean, it's it's a difficult enough hill to climb without a plan, uh, or even with a plan that you have to stick to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um throughout this, uh, your husband was working still?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was still working. Um so that that was good. So that was good. Um, I remember, I mean, bless him. I remember one day he had to go to work and like I was like, wait a minute, I can't like I didn't have like a scooter or anything at the time. I hadn't graduated to the scooter. So I was like, do you mind like grabbing me some snacks before you go or something? And he like brings me this bowl and it's just got like carrots and tortillas, like bra tortillas in it, and like just like an assortment of weird things.
SPEAKER_03Good old carrot tacos.
SPEAKER_00Okay, have a good day. Okay, bye. It's like this sucks, dude. Eventually I did get a scooter and that was super handy. I like strapped a basket to it and like it made it a lot more like functional.
SPEAKER_03But get around the house, be able to function, get it like you were effectively like stuck in a couch on a chair most of the time prior to the scooter.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and like all like the bedroom and everything's like upstairs, like stairs. It was like a two-story house. So like, yeah, lots of stairs. Lots lots of stairs.
SPEAKER_03So as you guys were out, obviously both of you for a chunk of time, 10 months, five months, uh employed the entire time. You you kept your employment throughout this. Uh obviously, uh FMLA, some of the other items that you had, um were you able to basically cash in, or did you end up having to use all of your PTO, your sick leave uh to make it through those those first chunks of time, or did you have much of that banked already?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I definitely had to use a lot of it because I mean, you know, before I was like, I wasn't thinking about like if something drastic was gonna happen. I'm like, oh, you know, I'm just you know, I was living definitely on the edge. I was like, I don't need to save that much. I'm just gonna keep working, so I'm gonna keep making it back, you know? So I definitely used up, like, yeah, we'd used up PTO and my husband got the FMLA and everything like that, and we just kind of started off with that while we were waiting for other things to come in. So
SPEAKER_00Kind of the same boat. I drained all of it while I was like, because there's like a lapse period where they approve you for FMLA. And so at that point, I was using up whatever I'd banked up in the meantime until I got approved.
SPEAKER_03Which means coming back to work after that, you've got nothing. So having to then go to appointments if you're attempting to work at that point, like most clinics and whatnot aren't exactly friendly with typical office hours for somebody. Meaning you probably have to take that time off work unpaid in order to go hit those appointments, which once again is kind of cutting into that paycheck that's coming in. How do you navigate that at that point in time? Were there other options that you were able to reach out for? Obviously, there were some levels of assistance that was out there and available. Um how do you like adjust your budget and and lifestyle in a way that still helps you make it through that situation?
SPEAKER_00I think for me, there there was no amount of adjusting. Like I ended up having to come up with like plan C. Like it wasn't I wasn't gonna be able to pay all of that directly out of pocket. You know, everything was already so tight. We had just got a house, like I had cut back on appointments completely. So like I'm not even asking if I can go leave to go to these appointments. Like I just don't want to acquire anymore. So for me, I it didn't directly like I I realized even if I made all of the minimum payments on every single bill, like it I was gonna get nowhere. And I I didn't have that to work with at that time.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say, and the minimum payments help you go, but that's accumulating interest, potential late fees or whatever on this on this payoff, which is obviously going to make that debt go away much longer in the long term. Have you come up with a solution beyond that for it?
SPEAKER_00Eventually I decided to consolidate all of my medical debt, and I think it was the best decision I ever made. Okay, I consolidated it all into one affordable payment, and it felt like it took a long time for me to like come to that decision. I don't know why. Like I just was so like overwhelmed, like looking at it from different angles that like I wasn't I guess I wasn't putting myself in like my work head space, like what would work until it came out, and I'm like to just consolidate all of it, you know, make it one simple, easy payment. And that's what I did, and I felt so much better. Like, you know, coming from freshly breaking my ankle, like I'm already kind of I'm I'm feeling down, you know. I'm feeling down, and then like all those bills come in, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, dude, like what a mess. Like, I I feel really down, you know? Yeah, and so for a while, like I just didn't even want to address it. I didn't want to look at it. It felt too overwhelming and heavy every time I looked at it, and like in the back of my head, like for some reason I just felt like it would go away if I didn't like pay attention to it, which is like the worst, like that's the worst thing you can do is be avoidant, right? But eventually, like I was like, I need to deal with this. And I felt so much better when I did take care of it, you know.
SPEAKER_03Okay. But did you utilize any uh financial coaching type services to kind of organize that? Or is is this something that you were just like, I have I have this idea in my head, I know how I'm gonna go about consolidating all of this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, pretty much. Okay. Like, this is this is what I'm gonna do. And I was like, it's either yes or no. Yeah, this is this is my shot of what I'm gonna do, and I need it for this amount, and this is maybe probably what the payment's gonna be. Like, I had like a rough blueprint of how this was gonna look, and and it worked out. It did.
SPEAKER_03Perfect. And now still working on that plan, but when you look at it, like that stress of of like all of these things being consolidated into a single manageable chunk has basically you know made life better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's a lot when it's like different people and it's like a lot of different separate bills and like they're coming from different places, and like it just visually feels like a lot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I've seen that in in other situations as well, when you've got, you know, three different credit cards and a car payment and another car payment and you know the mortgage. And uh just recently I did a a home equity loan uh and did exactly that, consolidated all those things into one payment. And yeah, you're not wrong. It does feel good. And especially if you've got some of those larger interest rate situations like credit cards can be being able to bring them into a different loan that's got uh a better rate to it is going to save in the long run as well. Uh random, random product plug there, uh home equity line of credit. If you have the opportunity to to take advantage of one of those, consolidate your debts, that's I love it. Uh how about uh with yours? I know you you talked about how there were a lot of programs that you were able to look into for assistance.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah. So let's say I mean I feel like kind of uh in with that kind of stuff too, because my um husband, his mom was a chief nursing officer. So she kind of knew how some of that background stuff worked. Because if not, I would have been like clueless and it would have been like, oh, you know, just trying to plug along, just keep getting those bills, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that is that falls kind of into that it's not what you know, it's who you know type of category. Use the resources available to you.
SPEAKER_01Yes, definitely. Because yeah, if I would have used the resources, it probably would be a much worse situation, I think, for us. Um, but yeah, so just kind of using those resources trying to help like keep us along just so that we didn't fall into like a major amount of debt. Because definitely the throw the whole thing that was like a stress the entire time, especially you know, with us not being able to work. And because I mean uh part of that, like if it even I was amazed for people who try to do like work and such like on the work, because like doing like treatments and stuff, like that is a full-time job. Like you're there eight to ten hours a day, you know, because even though I was like outpatient, I still was like going in every single day, you know, and then following up, you know, I still had to go see a doctor. Like even when I was like released, I still had to see a doctor, like you know, a couple times a week, and then kind of deferred from there, and I still wasn't able to work when I was released out of uh uh bread hutch because I still had appointments constantly.
SPEAKER_03So uh my wife is a oncology pharmacist at the TriCity Cancer Center. Uh so a lot of this m absolutely rings in my head of things that I have heard uh with the how that is basically a a full-time job being a patient at that point. Yeah. Just the amount of of effort that comes in through that. Uh and of course, then you mentioned the follow-ups, like regularly checking in to make sure that everything is still still good, nothing's coming back. Um now though, you're able to kind of juggle this in with the rest of your schedule. It's not as big of a of an impact.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I say it's definitely gotten like better throughout time because you know it still was like for the first year, it's still like, oh, you know, have to see your doctor pretty regularly, still have to get like medications, and then it's like, okay, you're doing good, dwindle down. Like you can go now like three times, like you know, every three weeks, and then it's like every two months, you know. So it's kind of like a really slow process, but it's like, okay, we're starting to trust you a little bit more, you're starting to do good, okay. Kind of chill out a little bit.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, so with with yours, because you had a lot of the assistance, you you had that big hit of 10 months of not being employed, not really being able to add anything to savings for planning. Um how how slowly did it feel like it transitioned back to being able to work towards your financial goals again?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I feel like it still was like probably at least like another year because after Seattle, um, we moved actually in with my husband's parents in Arizona. So we made a big move because we're like, you know, it's gonna be free rent. But even though we were able to get free rent, like I still wasn't technically supposed to work for a while. I went back to the city.
SPEAKER_03That sounds like you may have have violated.
SPEAKER_01I may have violated just like a little bit, you know. Um, like six months or something.
SPEAKER_03Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01You know, but I was also like kind of the same thing. I get stur crazy and I was like starting to feel better too. So I was able to do stuff. So I'm like, I want to go out, like I wanna do this, and like it was a goal to move back like up towards closer to my family in Washington again. Okay. So I was like, I want to save like at least a little bit so we can move back, but also bad.
SPEAKER_03Probably rush that a little bit. Did did you have any any setbacks from when you did kind of jump the gun?
SPEAKER_01Um, a little bit, yeah. Cause I think because you know, when we had moved to Seattle Lake, we're just allowed to just kind of like get rid of most of our other things, whatever can fit into a small storage unit, that's what we'll keep everything else. Get rid of, you know.
SPEAKER_03So pretty major life decision there.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Sell everything off. We're gonna move, we're gonna live in this place for $2,000 a month.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, pretty much, because like at there in Seattle, like everything's like it was furnished and stuff. But so like in that storage unit, I think we kept our bed, a dresser, and like an entertainment unit, and like my bookshelf, and that was like it. Like every like, you know, and like some a few other things, you know, little things, but like that was what would fit into a little storage shed and stuff. So like when we got moved, just parents, you know, say save up a little bit, but you know, I was like, Oh, I'm gonna save up for the move, saved up just for that, and then we moved. Okay, and we get and had like nothing in our apartment. And well, there's a lot of things you overlook, like even the shower curtain. I was like, Oh, we need that, like oh my gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, that that that first shopping trip to kind of uh outfit an apartment. I remember going to college my first time for an apartment and being like, oh yeah, yeah, I need I need a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I was like, oh yeah. It's like, oh, well, we need pots and pans again, we need a shower curtain, we need a bed frame because everybody was just laying on the ground. Of course, you know, so it's just like that did add up again, so it was like another 2,000, you know, just get furnished again.
SPEAKER_03So you're you're call it two years into this post-that initial situation, and you're finally getting your your feet back under you after this impact.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So finally, you know, working again. Like I first started working just part-time, and you know, even with that, like it was kind of hard at first because some of the chemo treatments gave me like neuropathy in my feet and things like that. So it was like painful to be standing and working all day long, and then finally transitioning like a year after that into like a full-time consistent office hours job.
SPEAKER_03Because of that impact, um, did you have to pass up on some employment opportunities because of what it would have meant for doing that job?
SPEAKER_01I feel like, yeah, there was a couple of jobs like I had applied to, you know, and like before this, I like I worked at Safeway. And I feel like that was already like a struggle with standing a lot throughout the day. And there's yeah, a few other jobs where I was like, well, I don't think I can like do that quite yet. I kind of had a pass up on. Like it wasn't, yeah, it was just kind of having to struggle like what I physically am capable of now because that was like a hindrance to like you know, you get a lot weaker, like you know, throughout the whole process because you're not really doing much. Yeah. So it was like knowing like my limitations, and that was kind of frustrating for me too, because I was like, I want to go do it, but I can't. So it was kind of pushing that stuff off too.
SPEAKER_03Kenzie, on your recovery, did you did you have uh kind of the same when you came back to to start working again with that uh the ankle recovery and everything? Did you find that that uh the job that you were coming back to needed modifications that you needed to shift to a different role?
SPEAKER_00Um, I was still tellering at the time, so I mean it's not a super physical job, but I did go back early and I was in a walking booth and I had this like limp for a whole year that would not go away. Probably would have if I went to physical therapy, but I had this like really bad limp. Okay. Like a whole yeah, so I always get like kind of embarrassed when I had to like get up from my teller station to go grab something because I'm like limping along, you know, like probably staring at me. But no, I it it not too many modifications. I feel like my coworkers were really helpful. Like if something came through the drive-thru, they would get up and grab it first or bring it to me. Like, everybody is really understanding that like my stamina wasn't very strong.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00As far as like my total time being able to walk or be on my feet, I mean that went down a lot. You know, there's only so much like weight I'm supposed to bear for such a certain amount of time on my feet.
SPEAKER_03So everybody was pretty like helpful and it's always nice to have a a good, friendly working environment, great co-workers who are understanding and willing to step up and and assist. Um that's fantastic to not have an impact when you do come back, or at least not as much of one.
SPEAKER_00Our break rooms in the basement. So I would say that's probably the biggest struggle. Like I felt so bad asking my coworkers if they could fill up my water bottle or like do this, because like I couldn't go, I couldn't go down there, you know, or probably really shouldn't anyway.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, climb the stairs.
SPEAKER_00Shouldn't be on the stairs at this point. So that was probably like the biggest like hindrance, I guess, at work is just like accessibility because the break room was down there.
SPEAKER_03So looking back on the entire experience that both of you went through, um is there anything that you think you really had in place that was very helpful? I know life chose to to throw uh a broken ankle at you um right after buying a house because that's you know how life works, Murphy's Law. Did you have anything in particular that you are just really happy you did have?
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean, I feel like for me it was kind of like the community people around me I was very happy to have. Because I feel like that was what really helped me, even like emotionally, financially, like physically being on care, and like having that so that you know I didn't know what to do at the time, you know. But I had people around me who are like, hey, we'll help you and like we know what to do. Okay, we'll tell you how to do that, you know, because I feel like there's a lot of things I wouldn't have known without them.
SPEAKER_03That's fair. Understanding, trusting the people uh that were in your network.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, because I was like, I'm like, I'm definitely not an expert on any of this. I was like, I'm gonna rely on people who do know what they're talking about, you know. And I feel like at a time like I wish I would have like psyched like financial help, like or would have had help like understanding how my insurance actually worked, you know, and things like that. Cause there's a lot, like, you know, I do look back and I'm like, I wish I would have known about that. I wish I would have known like how this worked, and they were like, um, insurance covers like some like travel things, like, and I had no clue for like months and months, like, you know.
SPEAKER_03And of course, they probably don't cover it, just be like, oh hey, did you know we'll pay for this for you? You gotta ask them to to do the thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03How about you, Kenzie? Did you have anything that that in this was was really something that you were happy that you had in place that you look back on?
SPEAKER_00Um I feel like that's a good one, a good support system. I did, I had a good support system, like everything wasn't completely crumbling around me, whether I thought it was or not.
SPEAKER_03It wasn't all just carrots and tortillas. It wasn't all just carrots and tortillas.
SPEAKER_00So my husband's great, you know. He he took me to all my appointments, made sure I was fine for the most part. Um so I feel like I feel like just being able to exercise your options, you know. I wish I would have I wish I would have been able to do that a little bit sooner, you know. I think I think when you acquire like medical debt, you get really overwhelmed, you know. And I think I wish I wouldn't have let that get to me, and I wish I would have looked into more options at the time, you know.
SPEAKER_03So uh along with that, is there anything that that you wish you would have had in place just in case?
SPEAKER_00A bigger savings. I wish I wouldn't have spent all my house. A bigger savings would have been great, you know, because life's wild. It's always throwing curveballs at you. I mean, just the other day, my car battery, you know, there's a whole car battery I gotta buy now. Like life's just like that.
SPEAKER_03And a couple hundred dollars here, a couple hundred dollars there. Like, and not stuff that you were expecting to pay for. Emergency savings is fantastic for things like the car battery and whatnot, but it's difficult to have an emergency savings that's big enough to handle $98,000 life flight expense.
SPEAKER_00I take the savings a little bit more serious now. I'll say that. Like I think, I mean, not that I didn't, obviously, we had a good decent amount of savings. It just ended up getting depleted.
SPEAKER_03Life happens now, now I don't have any savings, but you know, I wish I wish maybe I wouldn't have I will say, yeah, that that whole life life happens at sometimes the worst opportune time. Uh I've mentioned on the podcast before that I uh had decided it was time to re-roof my house, and then a month later we had 118 degree temperature and my entire air conditioning unit had to be replaced. Uh wasn't exactly great timing because I had just dropped a bunch. But yeah, that that being a thing, planning, saving up for something, and then maybe realizing that having that additional beyond what you were looking for. So there's still that cushion there to help out. How about how about for you? Is there anything that you would have have liked to have had in place before everything happened?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I feel like I wish I would have had like any really savings because I feel like I grew up in a like a household that like we didn't really talk about financial. I was saying it's like once you have money, you kind of spend it. Like, you know, so you have a so I wish I would have like went and had had that mentality of like I need to have something saved so at least, you know, when I'm waiting for benefits or waiting for this, I have that in between because that in between can be like what's really stressful. Like, I don't know how I'm gonna, you know, go from day to day. Like, how am I gonna, you know, how groceries?
SPEAKER_03Like all that's beyond paycheck to paycheck. That's that's um a day-to-day situation. Yeah that that level of financial stress could absolutely be be rough. I know that a lot of uh intelligent mentality about a about a savings is have three months worth of expenses saved up as an emergency saving because then you've got at least a three-month window that you can have to try and kind of wheel around. In this case, maybe having a extra bit that covers your deductible um for those. So it's not, oh, well, I guess we're we're spending $3,000 to hit our $3,000 deductible today, and realizing that you're having to pull that out of out of a regular account and all of a sudden it's ramen for the next week or month or three.
SPEAKER_01Uh it's like mostly a case of Diaz for the most out of 10 months.
SPEAKER_03Ladies, thank you so much for joining us uh on the podcast today and sharing your stories about these. Hopefully, these type of uh conversations or things, they come out of nowhere, out of left field, um, and they can be very impactful. We appreciate you coming to share your stories with us today.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having us for having us.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And for everybody else out there, this has been Dollars and Cents, Happa Community Credit Union's financial literacy podcast. Till next time.
