The Time Court’s Back Seized up in Georgia

Am I glad we have health insurance! We were enjoying a quiet, relaxing Saturday morning fire in Georgia on a cool spring day. Court was tending to the fire when suddenly she clutched her lower back and dropped to her knees before slinking to lay face down next to the fire.

I ran to her and asked what was wrong and if I could help her get to a chair. She said her back was seizing and she couldn’t move. She just needed to lay still until it passed. I’m not sure what fellow campers thought when they saw Court laying face down next to our fire while I was just hanging out in a chair chatting with her. Unconventional seating arrangement?

The next day was a travel day, but Court wasn’t able to participate. This is a good example of why we always encourage cross-training. You never know when one of you may get injured or sick and not be able to help.

After that fun incident, there was a series of chiropractic visits to get her put back together. All were covered by insurance, leaving us with just the copay.

The Time We Got COVID – But Had Insurance

We both got COVID in April 2021. No time is a good time for COVID, but we just happened to be in Napa Valley, CA, which made the timing particularly sad. Our DMs were flooded with fun recommendations for the Napa area but alas, we were quarantined and trying to survive.

Court had asthma as a child, so when COVID attacked, it was a bit harder on her respiratory system. After day 3 of a heavy chest, she hopped on a Doctor on Demand visit, which is free through our insurance. The doctor ordered an inhaler, which was $5 after insurance – we picked it up and back to quarantine we went.

Close up of COVID testing sample that was covered by insurance.

We Had Insurance The Time Court Had Post-COVID Symptoms

As you may know, COVID doesn’t always let go after the initial symptoms. We had COVID in April, then in June, Court started presenting really odd symptoms. She would be fine then suddenly feel really faint and weak, barely able to stand. She said it felt like her soul was leaving her body.

Additionally, her heart would speed up in tachycardia and palpitate (which is a scary feeling).

Not knowing what was happening (or even thinking it was related to COVID), we ended up going to Urgent Care in Portland, OR. When a nurse checked us in, he let us know that Court was running a low-grade fever. We had no idea. (Turns out, her body was flaring up in low-grade fevers every day at random times.)

We waited for about 45 mins before the doctor came in and said they were closing so they couldn’t help us and we should go to the ER across the street. She then proceeded to tell us she just talked to a doctor over there and the wait time was at least 3 hours.

We asked if it would be fine if we came back in the morning to Urgent Care instead. With heart-related symptoms presenting, her official recommendation was to go to the ER.

Another nurse was in the process of discharging us and mentioned that they had been seeing a lot of these symptoms with patients post-COVID. We asked her more questions and ended up just deciding to come back to Urgent Care in the morning.

As you may have suspected, even though they basically told us they didn’t have time to help before closing, we still got charged for that visit. Fortunately, it was covered by insurance so it was only a $100 copay.

We came back the next day to the same Urgent Care, met with a terribly rude doctor who basically said she couldn’t help because it involved the heart, and recommended we go to the ER where they had the right equipment to test what they needed to.

We were charged for that visit too.

So $200 down and all we had was a referral.

We took the recommendation and ended up going to the ER. 8 hours later (EIGHT!), we saw a doctor who basically ran an EKG, checked some blood levels, and assigned a halter monitor for a week. He was perplexed why Urgent Care wouldn’t do the tests.

The ER had only 25 beds with 72 patients in the waiting room. They were treating people in triage rooms and sending them back to the waiting room with IVs in their arms. Everything from heart attacks and peanut allergies to dog bites and muggings-gone-wrong came walking through that door. Huge props to the health care workers who worked tirelessly to see everyone.

Needless to say, it was a super stressful experience, but we were grateful knowing that our insurance was covering most of the cost.

The ER visit was another $650 copay, putting us at $850 total in this little 3-day escapade. But without insurance, I’m not sure what that total would be.


Catscan control office with catscan and patient in background

The Time Court Had a Herniated Disc

Over the summer, Court tweaked her back with a twisting motion. She thought she had just pulled a muscle but after multiple visits to chiropractors in different states and 2 months of excruciating pain, one finally said, “at this point, I think you have something happening with your actual disc.”

At the very next stop, we booked an appointment with a non-surgical Spinal Rehabilitation doctor. He ordered an MRI, and sure enough, she had one disc that was slightly bulging and another that was fully herniated.

She went on to have about a full month of treatment (on a machine that isn’t covered by insurance – bummer). With the treatment, she was able to make a full recovery and doesn’t have pain anymore! (Or the need for surgery – phew)

The MRI left us with a $256.81 bill, but looking at the initial charge – without insurance, we would’ve been looking at $1,785.

Beth & Court – Life with Beth & Court

Blown tire on a truck with no insurance.

The Time Someone’s Tire Blew Out in Front of Us

We were driving along the highway at 63 mph, our preferred safe speed on any highway with speed limits 65+, and a fifth wheel that was much bigger than us merged on the highway behind us. Within 30 seconds, they were passing us in the left lane and merging back over into the right lane in front of us.

With only a couple car lengths between us, one of their tires on their rig exploded! We could feel the pop, smell the rubber, and were soon dodging pieces of their tire as they pulled off to the side of the road. Pulling our own rig, we stayed calm and didn’t make any sudden movements while also trying to avoid any pieces of their tire or rig flying up and breaking our windshield or causing other damage.

While this was only a close call, it reminded us how quickly a normal travel day could turn into a tragedy. One wrong move or the difference of 10ft. and we easily could’ve been in an accident and on our way to the ER.

As full-time nomads, we understand that our risk of a serious accident is much higher, and we’ve prepared ourselves with insurance coverage so it doesn’t turn a bad situation worse.

Conclusion

Having proper health insurance is critical to everyone, RVers included. The challenge for RVers however is finding a plan that travels with you, and doesn’t restrict you to your domicile location. The experts at RVer Insurance Exchange know how to handle these nuances and can ensure you get a proper insurance policy that fits you…the RVer. Visit RVerInsurance.com for a free quote today.

Life with Beth and Court

Life with Beth and Court

We're a married millennial couple who live, work, and travel in a 26' travel trailer as we explore the U.S. 🗺 We had zero experience prior to jumping into the RV lifestyle, but knew we didn’t want to wait until retirement to see the country. Now we create resources for others to do the same 🙌