the dollars and (non)sense of having the flu

So I was thinking the other day how horrible this flu season has been for lots of families. Then of course, I started down the path of analyzing how much it actually cost our family in both the tangibles and intangibles. Ready for this. Let's just say, it ain't pretty:

$75 in co-pays for 5 doctor visits

$200 in Tamiflu bills for the first and second bouts of flu. It worked great for the kids. For me, not so much. I still feel lousy.

$20 for antibiotics for strep and whatever thing they thought I had in January when I actually had the flu.

2 full bottles of Delsym cough syrup

1 full bottle of Advil

2 bottles of Children's Motrin

1 bag of cough drops

2 Costco size boxes of Kleenex

2 boxes of Theraflu (it really works...I was skeptical)

7 days of missed school for each child

2 days Bob took off work to take care of us when I just couldn't get out of bed.

10 days I hadn't left my house before last Monday other than to go to the doctor.

10 loads of laundry staring me in the face right now. How did that happen? We didn't go anywhere.

2 weeks it took me to get my house back in order after the first go round with the flu. It'll probably take longer this time.

4 Sundays of church missed.

1 bi-annual school carnival missed that the kids were looking forward to attending.

1 planned trip to High School Musical concert event cancelled, (Tickets $140) but fortunately, we were able to sell them.

and finally, this is the worst one:

1 Ten year wedding anniversary weekend cancelled.


The flu sucks.