TMI 60 The Spring

The Spring went okay. We were broke but making the bills. The marriage was strained. I felt very used and angry. My ex just seemed to be happy with me shouldering all the responsibilities. I wasn't happy and told him so. I was ready to get a divorce.

My son was in kindergarten. It was nearing the end of the school year and his birthday. He was getting very excited. My ex's business hadn't gone tit's up yet but was definitely in death throes. He was bringing home about $1K per month before taxes. He wasn't doing much to earn that. I felt he needed to be looking for a new business or a new job. He wasn't interested.

My son went to school on his birthday. He was very excited. I had to go into the local office that day but was home by noon. The phone rang at 1PM. It was the school nurse. My son had fallen off teh monkey bars at school and they thought maybe he had broken his arm. GREAT! We had no health insurance. I struggled with what to do. He was in a lot of pain and my family doctor was off that day. I took him to the local ER. They charged me $1K for the ER alone to tell me that yes his arm was broken but they couldn't fix it and he needed to see a specialist. (The ER doc and the radiologist both charged about another $1K each) They referred me to one locally. We rushed over to see her. She charged me $350 to tell me she couldn't touch it either and that he needed to see a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. We made the appointment for the next morning.

The pediatric orthopedic surgeon saw him and said he definitely needed surgery and that if he didn't get it, he would lose the use of his left arm entirely. I cried. I cried a lot. I cried because my son hurt. I cried because I felt so helpless. We scheduled the surgery for the following Monday. The surgery was $17K. He had pins in his elbow and a cast on his arm. The school had no liability insurance and in Texas it is against the law to sue a school. I felt then and still feel the school was negilgent in not having better safety measures in place. It made no difference.