Cam I Am

The title of the post is by no means an understatement..

Things are not going well at all..  It seems that I have to wait for appointments to do anything with my back.  As I’ve previously mentioned, I don’t see a neurosurgeon until April 2008…  But there was still hope!  I was supposed to be getting a Cortisone shot sometime by the end of October!

Apparently not….  I got the call for the appointment today.  I was informed that it will be just for a consult about the shot.  Guess what!? The consult appointment isn’t until December 5th of this year..

So, what’s my problem??

Money..  plain and simple..  I am virtually out of money…  Colleen recently got a notice from Human Resources Canada to inform her that she owes them over $600 because of undeclared income while she was on maternity leave (by no mistake on her part!).  That’s great?!  We don’t have enough problems!

Not only that, but I haven’t seen a payment from my short-term disability benefits since the end of August..  it’s now mid-October..  Apparently, they are still evaluating my claim..  To Pacific Blue Cross, I’m just another claim number..

As for WorkSafeBC (WCB), they just recently received all the information from my doctor..  And they tend to take 4-6 weeks to make a decision.. 

All this equals one thing…  No Money…  No idea how to pay my mortgage in two weeks..  I’m going to the bank tomorrow to pull out what little I still have in my RRSP’s (which I’m going to regret around tax-time!), to try and get by..  but that’s it..

I called the union hall today to see if I could get some sort of emergency funding..  I haven’t heard back yet, but if I don’t by noon tomorrow, I’m going to be calling again to find out what’s going on..

This isn’t just affecting my wife and I..  My oldest daughter, Lizzy, who is going to be 6 years old next month came home today with a notice that they are going to have a Subway lunch at the end of the month.  I looked at the form, and smiled and said that I’d send the form back with her tomorrow with a cheque (for a whole $4.00 for a mini-sub and chocolate milk)..  She looked at me and said that she could pay for it with her money in her piggy bank..  It took 10 minutes, but I eventually assured her that she doesn’t need to worry about that..  It’s my job to provide for her lunch!

Now, Colleen and I aren’t trying to make her aware of the dire financial situation that we currently are facing, but how can she not know?  It doesn’t take long to be around us to see that we are very stressed.

I did have a slight glimmer of hope today though..  Three friends, all independently, offered to loan us money until we got some payment from somewhere..  Not an option that I want to face, but if it comes to it…..well..  desperate times call for desperate measures..

I’m hoping that something comes through soon..  I’m hoping that I am able to return to work soon, on light-duty, at what I would consider reasonable pay (70% of what I was making before at least).  I’m hoping that something changes for the better soon..  After all, in the back of my mind, I’ve got Christmas to think about too..  Yes, I need to take care of the bare essentials first (food, shelter, etc), but I can’t disappoint my kids, can I?

That simply is not an option to me…

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