Dinner

Now that my husband has a fancy camera, I keep begging him to take more food pictures. He finally indulged me last night, mostly because he just got a new lens. He left this morning for a four-day trip to the North Slope to work on a story. I decided to cook a nice dinner before he left. We had the usual salmon recipe (we're not tired of it yet!) along with roasted Yellow Finn and Peruvian Blue potatoes with rosemary and sauteed Toscano kale with garlic and lemon. I was surprised to see fresh king salmon at the market yesterday. The fishmonger told me it was from Southeast Alaska. I bought the potatoes and kale at the Arctic Organics stand at the farmer's market last week. Eating locally is somewhat possible here!

I'm missing something

Okay, I'll tell you. It's my appendix. I went into the hospital on September 12th with abdominal pain and emerged later the same day without my appendix! Being a nurse myself, it was interesting to be the patient and experience everything from the other side. I am happy to say I was treated very well. The most painful part actually was after I came home when the medical bills started arriving. I have insurance, thankfully. If this had happened a few months earlier I wouldn't have had it yet (I had to be at my new job for 3 months before I was eligible for insurance). Basically, once I meet a $2000 deductible for the year, my insurance pays 80% of costs, I pay 20%.

Here's a rundown of the bills I've received so far. The first number is the total bill. The second number is after insurance paid their portion, so it's my responsibility to pay.

• ER physician exam: $576.00, $104.20
• IV fluids (2 bags Normal Saline): $197.00, $39.40
• IV antibiotics: $59.00, $11.80
• CAT scan of the pelvis with contrast: $213.00, $42.60
• CAT scan of the abdomen with contrast: $235.00, $47.00
  
• Pathologist's fee (for examining the appendix once it was removed): $145.00, $27.00
• Anesthesiologist's fee: $1078.00, $338.90
• Surgeon's fee (it was a laparascopic procedure): $3300.00, $790.00

Total without insurance: $5803.00
Total I will have to pay: $1400.90

Wow. Thank goodness for insurance. Thank goodness I have a job that pays well so I can afford to pay the bills that I still owe even with insurance. What a crazy health care system.