Today John had an appointment with his general practitioner.  He went totally prepared with a list of things to talk to him about.

  • Cough- STILL.  All the freakin’ time.
  • Sinus drainage that just. won’t. stop.
  • Bottoms of feet burning-(Apparently this is a diabetes thing that we are just becoming acquainted with.)
  • Swings in blood sugar levels
  • Still off of Lisinopril and blood pressure remains low. (Yea!)
  • Xanax is doing absolutely nothing and want off of it.
  • Depression.

So he whipps out the list and covers everything in short order.  We really like his doctor and he is always comforting to visit.  We walk away feeling like there is someone on this earth that is caught up to speed with all the shit going down besides us.  There were answers for some of the problems and suggestions and samples to get started on for others.

So John came home and was telling me all about the appointment and what all the doctor said and we were looking at his list and glad that it was all crossed off.  We had answers for everything we needed so far.

Then my man that I have seen cry less than a handful of times in the past 20+ years, teared up a little and I was truly a bit terrified.  He told me the rest of the story like this:

He made his way to the front window to settle up before his visit and was presented with a bill for this particular doctor from all the visits while he was in hospital for those two weeks.  It was what was left after the insurance has paid it’s portion.

It was a lot.

It was also unexpected right at that moment.

They asked if John could make a payment plan.

He said yes, he’d be happy to do that.

How much?

……..$20.00 a month?

Is that the most you can do right now?

He said, yes, because right now he’s employed and he doesn’t know if he’s going to be released to go back to work before the “paid leave of absence” is up. – He may not be employed after that.

There was a older lady standing behind John waiting to pay and overhearing this whole conversation and she quietly slid an arm past him and laid a twenty dollar bill on the counter, saying, “This is for his December payment.”.

I think John was mortified at first.  He insisted he was fine to pay it and tried to give it back to her.  She took it and handed it directly back to the receptionist and told her to apply it to his bill.  He was so very touched.  I am wondering how long he stood there and thanked her. She said to consider it a Christmas present.

I wish so much he had gotten your name.  I would have done everything I could to look you up and you would have a thank you card out to  you first thing tomorrow.

Whoever you are, where ever you are, thank you, merry Christmas and God bless you.