Quitting Your Job: The Aftermath

3 weeks.

3 weeks is about the amount of time it took me to say, "oh crap" after quitting my job.

Human perception is a funny thing. When people go on a diet, the #1 piece of advice I hear over and over from nutritionists, or anyone giving advice on the subject, is to keep a food journal. Why? Because people tend to grossly underestimate the amount of food and calories consumed and grossly overestimate the amount of exercise and calories they burn. I'm inclined to think the same can be said with finances.

I can only think of maybe one or two times I've checked my bank statement and actually said, "Yesss! I have way more in there than I thought I did!" It's usually about what we expect, what we plan for, and sometimes it's a little less. Though I was fully aware of what was to come when making the decision to quit, it's a bit different actually living in it. My "oh crap" moment came when the reality of paying my COBRA bill set in, $670.

I probably had the best health insurance I will ever have with my previous job. My hip surgery last May cost less than my cat's annual vet visit (also last May, yes, I know that means she's due). Of course as great as the insurance is, with those outrageous monthly dues, I wouldn't hold on to it if I didn't need to. Just before I left, I was having shoulder pain, decided under the circumstances I might as well get an MRI to be sure. Turns out the radiologist believes I have a labral tear, same injury as my hip. Yaaay. So I precede to interview some surgeons and turns out, I received 3 different opinions. The Broward County revolving door office had me on the surgery books before I left without much explanation of anything. My hip surgeon doesn't believe I have a tear, and the third surgeon believes I have 2 tears and a fracture. My referring doctor calls the radiologist to review the MRI more closely after which he then states he believed I have micro-tears and a hill-sacks lesion. So, I find it a little hard to move on to an individual health insurance policy at this point since they have this little thing called "preexisting conditions."

I go for my second MRI May 1st at which point I will hopefully be able to make a decision as to weather or not to have surgery. I do not want to have surgery. Especially after just having had surgery less than a year ago. I guess it doesn't really help that I am unemployed at this point does it? Although on a positive, I would have plenty of time to recover!