It's o.k. to say I've had enough

[Guest guest]

Dear le,

My name is and I live in Lynchburg, VA. I know what you're

going through. I have three active little boys and a husband who

travels alot. In essence, I'm a single parent most of the time. It

was just in the last two weeks that we started to get some federal

assistance in the form of a CNA who can take care of Connor while I

take care of business.

On a more personal note, chronic stress can wear down the seretonin

receptors in your brain. Before having Connor, my rss son, I was in

an extremely stressful job. So I went from job stress to

chronically ill child stress. At my first convention, I was talking

to a mother who just off handedly said, " You know, Prozac helped

save my sanity on more than one occasion over the last couple of

years. I don't know why, but I guess I needed to hear from another

rss parent that " Yeah, we deal with a lot of stuff and it's o.k. to

say, I'm not Supermom. " When I got back from convention, I went to

the doctor and he put me on a mild antidepressant and a sleeping

pill. Within two weeks I was sleeping 7 hours again and not having

anxiety nightmares. I've always told my husband that exhaustion

wasn't the problem. Getting my brain to shut down was!

There are natural alternatives out there, but I would stronly

recommend that you see a doctor first to make sure you don't have

any inadvertant drug reactions.

It's alright to take care of yourself and I hope that you will

strongly consider getting this taken care of soon. You are to

precious to your children to not do this.

Take Care and God Bless,

Mom to Graham 8 ADD; Cameron 5; Connor RSS Kyphosis g-tube gh in

five days.

agged me to the doc who prescribed a mild anti-depressant and a

sleeping pill. Both are non habit forming.

[Guest guest]

I agree with everything you said about being stressed & seeking help. Most

times I feel

like I can handle things. I hate the feeling of stress, but I usually perform

better under

stress. Does that make sense? The problem with me is that even if I wanted to

get help, I

have no time. With 3 kids, my job, a husband who works late every night,

doctors

appointments up the wazoo, T-ball & Boy Scouts, being in charge of activities

for my

homeowner's association, etc., there simply is no time.

The things that stress me out the most are my house being a mess all the time &

dealing

with the red tape when it comes to the insurance company & the medical supply

company.

If you ask me, these are the people that make everyone nuts & need more medical

care.

For example, for 2004, I went over the out of pocket maximum for our family for

copayments on doctors visits, hospital stays, medication, etc. Though our

medical

expenses are always high, I have never actually gone over the maximum. The

insurance

company's policy is that you have to provide receipts as proof of payment. So,

I organized

96 receipts that I had, made copies, and sent them in (I'm sure you can imagine

what a

pain in the butt this was). Yesterday, I get a letter stating I was short by

$170. So, I call

the insurance company, stayed on the phone for 1.5 hours while the

representative went

through all 96 claims I had on there (all this with screaming kids in the

house). It turns

out that for 8 doctor's visits, the physician's office did not file claims.

However, they still

charged me the co-payment (which I provided a receipt for). According to the

insurance

company, if the doctor's office doesn't file a claim, then I don't get credit

for that co-

payment. Then, I asked if she saw claims on there that I did not include on my

spreadsheet, and she said yes. However, she would not tell me what those claims

were, so

that I could look to see if I had a receipt. Ok, so this whole process took at

least 10

STRESSFUL hours of my time, and I legitimately spent more than the yearly

out-of-pocket

maximum. Am I getting any money back? No!!! Can anyone else relate to this?

By the way STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS - wonder why we pack on the

pounds?

Kim C.