Feeling like I'm living a quadruple life; decisionmaking's tough

Aha...i found the rub.......to claim medical deductions your expenses must exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. Pat

Susan, we were not able to use medical deductions until we started paying the total cost of our health insurance. That is when the numbers got high enough as you can only deduct over a percentage of your gross income. That is when we kept track of mileage and dental and vision care.

It is difficult to know what symptoms are significant enough to check with the doctor. Sometimes a cold is just a cold and at others it become bronchitis or pneumonia. I used to err on the side of waiting but now when Dick runs a fever off he goes to see the Dr. Roughly if a cold doesn't resolve in two weeks it is not a cold.

No need to apologize, Pat. You are so well read, and your responses always intelligent. We pediatricians see a lot of green mucus that doesn't deserve antibiotic treatment, so I just wanted to throw my slant onto your advice since I'm sure others on the forum respect your advice as much as I do.

Sorry Warren i should have said when i cough up yellow or green mucus it almost always means an infection..usually secondary to the cold they won't treat. I kind of have a different slant on antibiotics. Pat

I can't quite agree that yellow mucus means infection. If you're coughing up discolored mucus from your lungs... YES, that's a BIG DEAL. But often the mucus is from the upper respiratory tract, and since dried to thickened mucus really does have a greenish color, that alone should not be used as the criterion for deciding on antibiotics treatment. We all pay the price in decreased effectiveness of antibiotics when colds are treated with antibiotics, and there is no benefit.
That having been said, I fully agree that your primary care physician should evaluate any symptom you find uncomfortable, frightening, or out of the ordinary. He/She can then decide if your oncologist needs to be involved... although if it is anything more than a cold, I would ask that your oncologist be informed.

Hi Susan,

I don't have much in the way of answers However, I can share how I keep my medical expense stuff together...
1. I keep a little calenderbook for mileage..I just write where on the correct day. I calculated milage on mapquest. Then I just tally the monthly miles in a breif sitting.
2. I am sure to write checks to pay med bills that are deductible. I highlight the payments and keep the old ledger in the med expense file so that is easily tallied either monthly or year end.
3. All my prescriptions come from 1 pharmacy so I get a print out from them every January. I also do this with my hubbys drs as he sometimes pays copays with debit card.
And that is how I do that.
Please take care of yourself and put your health top of the list, God Bless, Holly