I made it through my lung procedure. It was much easier this time so feeling pretty good and a lot less sore.

TMI warning: It was good news and bad news. My lung disease was still soft after two months and hadn't solidified. So they were able to use suction instead of cutting it out with a laser for hours like last time. So that's good that after two months it hadn't hardened back yet. The bad news is that the damaged parts they were hoping would recover did not at all. Parts of my lung are officially non-functional. So now we will have to decide if it's worth getting the dead parts of my lung removed or if we will leave it for now. 

I was a bit of a celebrity which was funny/weird. Everyone recognized me this time and were super excited to see me. They said it was one of the rarest and coolest things they had ever seen in the lung department.  There have been almost no documented cases of my disease in adults especially not at the severity I have. The doctors asked me to sign a release so they could write about me in a medical journal, and I allowed about 20 extra people to watch my procedure. Anything that will help others like me. I think they were disappointed it wasn't as bad this time, lol. 

They want me to continue getting lung cleanouts every 4-6 months permanently. That is a lot of anesthesia, but not a lot of other options. I am on a waitlist and still waiting to hear back from the one hospital in the country that does a sort of experimental treatment to see if I am a candidate. I have been denied in the past but we'll see. A one-time intense surgery would be better than a lifetime of procedures if there is a chance it would work.

We are supposed to get our tax refund tomorrow. It's over $8k. (I like getting a large chunk back)

We had big plans for it but unfortunately, I had to pay a $2.2k downpayment for the lung procedure and next week I will have to put down $2.8k for the heart cath. There will be more bills afterwards. That is just the base price pre-payment. So for now we will be using the refund to pay medical bills. We will eventually reimburse ourselves once the HSA fills back up. But I didn't want to miss out on the 15% discount for prepaying that much money. 

We also need to put $3k into retirement before April 15 because I claimed that on our taxes.  After we reimburse ourselves we plan on saving for vacation, getting new tires on the car, and then saving the rest. 

Heart cath next week.

Debts

Mortgage -$112,689.16 (-$241.43)
Land Loan -$8,388.33 (-$194.71)
Hospital Bill -$366.41 (-$75)

Savings

Roth IRAs +$29,512 (+$237)
401K +$60,591 (+$1,031)
Emergency Fund +$5,216 (-$1,051)
Animal Fund +$1,039 (+$4)
Car Fund +$260 (+$20)
HSA +$1,419 (-$321)

Overall: +$431.14

I was wrong in my previous check in about our deductible changing. Unfortunately, it still is $3,700. Oh well. 

January was a tough month for us. Lots of expenses and we had to pull from savings again. February so far has been better but we'll see how the month plays out. I have lung and heart procedures this month so going to have lots of medical expenses. Will have to decide again if I am going to take a short-term loan or pay out of savings. The savings are getting lower than I am comfortable though, especially since we keep having to pull from our EF just to cover our basic monthly expenses.

Which leads me to my next news. I got a job! Currently one day a week at the library but with options for more hours if I want. I have been wanting a one day a week job because we need money but I'm already so busy and homeschooling the kids. I was discussing my sadness with a friend that there are no jobs that hire one day a week and then the next day when I took my kids to the library they mentioned to me they were hiring for one day a week and would love to have me. It felt like fate.

I applied and got it. I won't start until it is officially voted on by the city board mid March. But I don't foresee any issues. They also commented on my web design degree on my resume and mentioned they were beginning to look for companies to redo the library website and asked if I would be interested in that job as well! So that make give me a larger income opportunity.

I am a bit nervous about rejoining the workforce but also excited. I LOVE books, and the library seems like a nice quiet, and easy job. I will only make a few hundred dollars a month but it should hopefully cover our budget shortfalls and also allow me to get out of the house every week.