While our credit is still trying to recover from HH's illness and my obliviousness to it, we've been working hard. Whenever we get a medical bill we can't pay, I pay as much as possible and wait for the next month to do the same. Hospital bills get paid the least amount of money because they will cover everything once our application for help goes through. Doctors and other techs get paid more - as much as we can do.

Each month its the same. Slowly, I whittle the bills down and eventually these people get their money.

As long as they send me a bill.

This morning HH and I received a lovely wake up call from a collection agency. We owe money to a doctor - a doctor HH saw while in the hospital during his second "episode". This was in September of 2004. 2004!

We received one bill. ONE! Five months after his stay. I still have the bill stub actually (I save everything). I did what I always did with these kinds of bills - paid as much as I could and waited for next month's bill. Which never came. I contacted the doctor's office and they sent another one and I paid a little more on it. However, things get hectic and life gets busy. I didn't remember to call each month and demand a bill (they don't allow you to just send them money - whose account would they attribute it to).

Several months later, I wondered about the bill - but I thought I had paid it all since we hadn't received another bill (and there was talk at the time of parental help).

Apparently not.

So now, we must pay X amount of dollars before the end of the month otherwise there will be something added to HH's credit report. Don't get me wrong, the agency is more than willing to work with us to pay this off, but still the end of the month or it affects our credit.

I'll be damned if I've worked my *** off for 3 years to get our credit rating on the road to recovery for us to get a set back now. It will not happen. That bill will be paid by May 31st. Right now, I just don't know how.

Long story short - I CAN'T PAY BILLS I DON'T RECEIVE!