The last 2 years have been tough. First, on Labor Day, 2009, my husband was diagnosed with a dissection is his superior mesentary artery. The inside layers of the artery are peeling away and blood pools and clots. This artery is the main artery that feeds the intestines, spleen, pacreas, and I think the doctor said pancreas. Depending on which research paper you read, there have only been 46 or 72 cases of this kind since the 1940s. Either way, it's very rare. So far it's been treated with medication and things seem to be doing well. Then in March, 2010, he went to the hospital with chest pains and was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm. It wasn't thought to be serious and he didn't have surgery until April 29th. When they went in for surgery, his aortic valve was also found to be damaged and that was replaced along with a portion of his aorta. Because of strokes he suffered during surgery, he's been unable to return to work...but the upside? Our yard hasn't looked this good in years! Dave putters around the house most of the day. Luckily the strokes didn't affect his physical abilities - just his short term memory and peripheral vision.

The one big shiny spot in all this was the birth of our first grandchild, Paisley. She was born four weeks after my husband's surgery. It made for a busy time in our house...but she's been a joy and lots of fun to spoil!

So...what does all this have to get with being in debt? Well...when my husband's first ER visit and subsequent stay in the hospital happened, we didn't have any health insurance. The total for ER, ambulance transfer, and hospital stay topped somewhere around $40,000. We were fortunate to get insurance before the open heart surgery stay...but we still owed $3,000 for the deductible. On top of it all, my husband has not worked since March, 2010.

There you have it...we were living paycheck to paycheck before it all happened. Now we're just barely paying the necessary bills on one salary.

Hopefully, over the next few months I'll be able to use this blog (and your help with giving me the energy and nerve) to lay it all out and try to figure out how to eventually pay it all off. I know some people in our situation would just throw in the towel and declare bankruptcy...we don't want to go there - we owe the money and feel it is our responsibility to get everyone paid off. It may take a while, but, by golly, we're going to do it.

Over the next few days I'm going to go through the very painful task of opening lots of envelopes that have been ignored and putting each and every debt down on paper, out there for the whole world to see.

If you are in debt up to your eyeballs like us, I hope you'll go on this journey with me and face up to what you owe...organize it...come up with a plan...follow the plan...share our disappointments - and our successes!!