u/fourfloorgypsy

I am a 5 year partner who has remained on the same plan (Cigna bronze) most of my time with starbucks. I just logged on to enroll in benefits and spent nearly an hour on the phone with the advisory line because I can’t fucking believe what they are trying to do to us. My weekly cost was $69.81 and for the exact same plan for myself my partner and child, the price has jumped to $146.71. That is MORE THAN DOUBLE A WEEK. I feel completely played lol. My monthly cost is going from almost $300 a month to nearly $600 a month for the exact same coverage. At first I thought the cost was reflecting monthly since my store has moved to weekly pay, but after calling the advisory line they informed me that the cost on the website is the weekly cost coming out of our paychecks. I’m only with the company another year before I graduate but this hurts.

I apologize for how all over this post will be but having a hard time finding similar stories to what we are experiencing. On Monday night, my son woke us up with piercing scream, and my husband found him in bed covered in vomit and blood from a bloody nose. He was unable to walk, and continued to scream/cry. My husband brought him into our room, I woke up and took him from my husband’s arms and immediately realized something was really wrong so we got 911 on the phone. I want to preface by saying my son has never had any medical emergency or seizure prior to this. He was completely inconsolable, stiffening his body and trying to get up out of my arms. He didn’t seem to recognize my voice and was looking up into the corners of his eyes. It was terrifying. He would try to stand but couldn’t withstand his legs and would not calm down to the sound of my voice. Once the paramedics arrived, they suggested we go to the ER with them because my son was showing signs of Todd’s paralysis which we didn’t know at the time, and they assumed it was a stroke because of the droop in his face and inability to use his right side. After a clear CT scan, the doctors wanted to keep him to run an EEG and MRI in the morning so we stayed. In the morning the neurologist came in said my son had what the believe was a focal seizure and essentially said my son had the exact patterns on the EEG of SeLECTS and believed this was not the first seizure. I felt completely helpless. They recommended he begin a medication and prescribed him OXcarbazepine. I felt hesitant, truly because I still am grasping the reality that this is happening to my kid. We decided to put him on the medication (2ml for 7 days and then doubling to 4ml afterwards for the foreseeable future) because the hospital we stayed in is one of, if not the best ranked children’s hospital in the US and felt like we could fully trust the confidence of the neurologist. I guess my hardship with all this is accepting that this is the experience my child will have. He has always been such a happy, active child with no cognitive issues. Although I witnessed this horrific night, I’m having a hard time believing this is what my child has. I am worried that things could change because of the meds, or god forbid another seizure. The neurologist is hopeful that he will outgrow this which makes me happy but I just am having such a hard time believing this is my life now. I’m sure I’m not alone in this, so I’m hoping to find other parents with similar stories. Going from complete normalcy one day to this the next day has been the biggest challenge. I feel like I can’t take my eyes off him, and watch every breath as he sleeps.