In the hospital with pulmonary embolism...again

[SimpleLife]

At 33. Came off the blood thinners when doc said aspirin was ok, which he takes himself for his clot prevention after having some himself.

Big mistake. Had another severe PE and am in the hospital for a few days in case I go into cardiac arrest.

Really puts a downer on FIRE. I can afford coumadin and the machine to test my INR, but when I switched insurance as many employers often do, they didn't cover the $400 a month for Xarelto, even though it is a preventative medication. They don't cover coumadin either on this plan, especially the monthly tests. I met with my doc and he said aspirin is a good alternative. Ugh...

Should have just went back to coumadin. One month on aspirin and I almost died...again.

Health issues put a real cramp on your plans. No known cause for me either. All we know is I will likely die if I stop taking the medication again. They told me I need to be on it for life...

Coumadin and the blood tests are the least expensive options for me. Buy my own INR machine for $700. The Coumadin itself is $5 a month...

[jennypenny]

Sorry! I had my first go-round with clots at 29. Nothing weirder than lying there for days while they all stare at you waiting for you to code.

You can almost always get help paying for your meds if you call the company and work with your pharmacy. I'm currently paying ZERO for $1100 in monthly meds. It took several phone calls, and I had to call once from the pharmacy so the pharmacist could help me while I was on the phone with them, but it was obviously worth it. If your Rx plan through work is awful, ask your pharmacist which private plan would work better for you based on your meds and subscribe privately.

You should be able to get Xarelto for free ... https://www.xarelto-us.com/carepath/savings-program

[taemoo]

PEs are scary, sorry to hear that you are going through it. My wife had 2 PEs due to cancer before 30. Coumadin isn't an option due to drug interactions so she is on lovenox twice a day. Unfortantely lovenox is not $5 a day:( Health issues do put a cramp on the FI plans but you realize freedom means even more because we may not have as much time as we originally thought. I wish you the best.

[vexed87]

Get well soon SL.

Maybe consider moving to a country that has socialised healthcare? It's a drastic measure but if it is the difference between FI and a life time of health insurance and medical bills, it may well be worth it.

[SimpleLife]

All great responses. Thank you all for your support. Yes, the constant health issues makes me want t drop everything and retire now, enjoy what health and time I may have left.

It's a balance, to an extent you sacrifice a little now for a FI future, but one may die before ever getting to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Life is very fragile. At least I got my Will in order just in case.

[George the original one]

Sorry to hear you're unwell. Get well soon!

P.S. Coumadin is one med I've seen in use on heart attack patients and it usually struck me as undesireable because of how it limits the heart rate. They were probably taking higher doses than you?

[Dragline]

Sorry about your situation. Hope you feel better soon.

[Tyler9000]

Take care of yourself, and get well soon. Don't worry about money right now -- it will work itself out.

[jacob]

Worth spending a lot of time educating yourself on your [particular] health. Docs have to know everything which leaves little room for one particular issues [because they're only human+10 minutes of google]... so you'll frequently know as much as they do when it comes to specifics.

If you're INTJ (I forget but just assume based on general stats) ... get the machine .. and don't mess around. INTJs tend to obsess about their physiological functionality efficicency. Other types have an easier time being relatively "suboptimal".

[IlliniDave]

Hate to hear that, SimpleLife. Hope you're able to keep it at bay. Health and medical needs are indeed one of the spectres out that that can derail a plan quickly. I hope you are able to avoid the stethoscopic handcuffs and enjoy many years of healthy FI.

[llorona]

Sorry you're going through this. Hope they're taking decent care of you in the hospital.

[Sclass]

SimpleLife. Rest up.

sorry to hear you're going through this so young. I was diagnosed with a life threatening heart tumor at 41. it really shook me up and probably took me down the path towards quitting my job. I worked another two years to make sure I was clear of the thing after surgery. Then I burned my bridges and didn't look back.

The occasional pain and palpitations remind me that I have to live the remainder of my life on my own terms. My time is precious and not for sale.

Good luck with this. I haven't googled it but I hope it's something you can eventually put behind you.

[SimpleLife]

Thanks all, I got discharged from the hospital last week and am recovering. It's tough emotionally, physically and mentally. The thought of getting cancer next doesn't sit well with me. The thought of getting cancer in retirement is even worse due to the expense.

Catastrophic insurance is good, but the vast majority of the bankruptcies in this country are due to medical issues even WITH insurance. There are no guarantees. How fragile. Even with half a million bucks in the bank one major health issue can set you back to zero, at least in the US.

[vexed87]

@SL, remember it would be crappy to get sick and lose $500,000 due to ill-health, its another thing entirely to have never have had the opportunity to live at all. Assuming you do reach FI, you will have had one hell of a journey, even if you don't quite make it, the number 1 important thing is that you learnt to live well on less...

ERE isn't just about stockpiling cash, but learning to live well on less and realising more isn't better. Someone can rob you of all your worldly possessions tomorrow, and it wouldn't matter once you realise happiness and contentment come from within.

Money is simply money, it buys certain comforts, but many people manage perfectly well without it. An ERE'er with low expenses, a vegetable patch and a bicycle can achieve great things regardless of what swindles away their stash. The markets could wipe out every single one of our asset's values in a heartbeat...

I guess it's times like these that remind us we need to be happy with the way we live now, and not just in some abstract future when everything will be better because we have more (freedom, time, money...)

[anomie]

Condolences on your situation SimpleLife.

If is of any use -- Xarelto's patent will expire in 6 years, after that generics / price should be much lower. I know 6 years probably feels like an eternity, but it is not forever .....
"XARELTO - US: Feb 2021; the firm does not have European rights (Bayer has them)."

And I do not know what your particular clotting disorder is (you do not mention and I am not asking you in public), but wanted to let you know about a support email list / Google Group that you or others in similar situation may have interest in:

FVLeiden Discussion

Welcome! This Group is a place for correspondence regarding thrombophilia issues. It is centered around Factor V Leiden and includes anything related to thrombophilia. "

anyhow. Take care.

[trfie]

There are a lot of preventable risk factors for having a pulmonary embolism, have you gone through whether there is anything you can change? Birth control pills, staying in the same place for long periods of time (when I am on flights I stretch my legs periodically and if it is more than a couple hrs I will get up and walk around a couple of times), smoking. How extensively did they test you to find causes? If you haven't had a big workup you should go to a blood specialist. It might be expensive but it will be more expensive to not know what you might have.

[OrganicRain]

Get well soon SL.

Maybe consider moving to a country that has socialised healthcare? It's a drastic measure but if it is the difference between FI and a life time of health insurance and medical bills, it may well be worth it.

Agreed, I live in Ontario Canada and was born in the USA. Healthcare here is solid and is covered....everything is the same as the USA except slightly higher taxes and no guns...

[trfie]

Agreed, I live in Ontario Canada and was born in the USA. Healthcare here is solid and is covered....everything is the same as the USA except slightly higher taxes and no guns...

Are you sure taxes are higher? I have noticed a lot of the taxes in the US are hidden. Eg, a 6.2% social security and medicare tax is removed from the paycheck BEFORE it goes to the employee, but that income is not exempted from the income tax. And there is another 6.2% tax for social security and medicare that is paid by the employer, which is a de facto tax on the employee (because employee compensation is reduced by that amount). So that is 15% + the income taxes. In addition, the US taxes all worldwide income, unlike Canada, so that there is more income that is subject to tax, which also increases the taxes.

[enigmaT120]

trfie, add to that the expense we pay for health insurance. In my case, my insurance (Kaiser Permanante) costs my employer and myself about 15% of my income, to cover me and my wife.

[OldPro]

Sorry to hear of your troubles SimpleLife. Nothing matters more than our health.

Reading about your insurance and costs issues just reminds me of how people living in countries with better healthcare systems take it for granted. Of course, that's just human nature.

As for Canada vs. USA and taxes, here is a decent article on the differences. As you will see, it is not a simple question to answer. The author does make one general statement of note, "In general, lower income Canadians pay less in tax for the services they receive and rich Americans are better off than rich Canadians." http://www.investopedia.com/financial-e ... icans.aspx

Given the focus of this forum, it would seem that Canadians interested in ERE are in a better position than Americans. Healthcare is certainly one area at least where that is true.