The Year From Hell: 12 Shitty Things That Happened in 2023
This year was no cakewalk for me
2023 has been a wild ride — a rollercoaster like no other year.
I started the year off right by starting my first paid writing job on my 31st birthday, and I’ve written more days in 2023 than in any year prior (except maybe 2002–2004, when I sat at my computer desk and typed stories all. day. long., but those stories were for my eyes only).
The rest of the year has been hell on wheels, and I’m not sure if I could have survived it without writing. I’m about to unpack the hell that has been my life this year.
I’m not writing this post for sympathy. Furthermore, I usually try to write positive, encouraging posts on Medium (or anywhere). I’m writing this to humanize myself and to show that my life is far from perfect.
1. A close family friend died at the end of February
She was my aunt’s best friend and had been part of my family my whole life. When I was a child, I called her “Aunt Betty”. My entire family has felt this loss. It’s been extremely tough on my aunt, whom I’ve always been close to.
2. We’ve had concerns about my son’s development
Around March, our son’s daycare teacher brought it to our attention that he was holding his left thumb tight, and his speech wasn’t as good as his peers'. He seemed to be struggling in some areas of development, and we felt we needed to do our due diligence and investigate this.
This started a long list of specialist visits, ending with him having a $2,000 MRI (after health insurance covered 70%) because the specialists concluded what was going on must be neurological.
3. We were sick the whole month of July
We caught something called Rhinovirus over the Fourth of July weekend, which usually is like a common cold, but this year’s strain was worse than usual. My son also had it and got an ear infection from it, but he recovered quickly.
I ended up with a sinus infection and coughed for a full five weeks. My sinuses are still acting up. I had sinus problems as a kid, but I’ve been in “remission” since my late teens.
4. My husband ended up in the hospital because of an allergic reaction to Tylenol
He wasn’t overdosing, but he had gotten sick several times thanks to the germs our son brought home from daycare, and Rhinovirus almost killed him.
We thought he was having an asthma attack, but we couldn’t figure out why he was also having liver problems.
To add insult to injury, he ended up in the hospital on our son’s second birthday, so we had to postpone all birthday plans until August, when everyone was healthy. Luckily, he was turning two and not five, so he won’t remember this happened.
This hospital stay cost us over $4,000 with my husband’s shitty health insurance (and he works for an insurance company — that’s the United States for you.)
5. The city mandated that we repair our sidewalk by September
It cost over $1500 to repair two slabs of concrete on our sidewalk. It would have been closer to $2000, but we got it done at the same time as the rest of our street and got a discount.
6. My mother-in-law broke her foot
In September, my mother-in-law broke her foot, so my husband and I had to take turns taking care of her and helping her do everything from preparing her meals to going to the bathroom. She slept on our couch for weeks because she couldn’t walk down the stairs to her room.
7. We bought a new dishwasher, and it flooded our kitchen
Our old dishwasher was breaking down every 4–6 months, and we were tired of the same repairs needing to be done. It was over 15 years old, so we decided it was time for a new one (which cost over $1000).
What we didn’t expect to happen was that our brand-new dishwasher would flood our kitchen, resulting in over $4000 in damage because the water leaked into our basement through a hole under the cabinets.
We got $3000 of this back through our home insurance, which had already increased in price by 50% from the previous year without claims — I’m dreading seeing what it’ll go up to next year. I guess I’ll find out in October 2024.
Our insurance is supposed to fight Whirlpool for the other $1,000 (our deductible) because the flooding was caused by a faulty part in the dishwasher.
8. My husband had surgery
He’d developed this cyst in his tailbone area that was causing him pain, and since we reached his out-of-pocket max when he was in the hospital, the surgery was free, so he decided to get it removed. We’ve been navigating his recovery from the surgery over the last week.
9. Both our cars died on the same day
A few days after my husband’s surgery, there was a winter festival at the town center that I wanted to take my son to. I was also going to bring my mother-in-law. Well, imagine my shock when both my husband’s and my cars had dead batteries.
I walked to the festival (it was only about a mile away) with my son, but that was too far for my mother-in-law to walk.
10. My phone’s microphone stopped working
This was an intermittent issue for a couple of weeks, leading to some uncomfortable, awkward phone calls when people suddenly couldn’t hear me.
It turned out that the microphone was just dirty, and I could clear it out with a toothpick.
11. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea
Ever since my son was born, my husband has complained about my snoring, and I’ve struggled to stay awake in the afternoon. So, I took an at-home sleep study and learned I have moderate sleep apnea.
So now I’m sleeping with a CPAP machine (which is costing us around $1,000 — with insurance — plus the cost of regular supplies I’ll need to buy for the rest of my life because these stupid things need their parts replaced all the freaking time).
I’ve used it for three weeks now, and thank God my energy levels have improved.
I hate that I have to use a machine to sleep. Furthermore, I dread figuring out how to use this thing while camping or while away from home. You can’t hook it up to any portable battery — you need specific ones, which are not cheap.
12. Matthew Perry died
This isn’t something that happened to me, but I wanted one bad thing for every month of the year.
Seriously, though, his death shook me. Chandler was one of my favorite Friends characters, and I can’t believe he’s gone. RIP Chandler Bing.
Final Thoughts
This year sucked. It’s like the world was like, “Hey, Nicole, we’re going to pay you to write, but you will go through Hell. It’ll give you inspiration to write!”
Honestly, I don’t know how I’m still standing some days. This year has been challenging for my whole family. I only want a few months when nothing bad happens so I can hole myself up in my house to read and write without interruptions.
Wouldn’t that be great?
The good news?
- I don’t have any cavities (I wrote most of this article while in the dentist’s waiting room).
- My son’s MRI was normal except for inflamed sinuses — which may have been from all the crying he did before the test. We still have no answers for why he’s struggling, but the good news is he’s improving.
- My mother-in-law’s foot is on the mend.
- Our cars are working again.
- I have more energy than I have in years.
I am sorry that you’re probably getting Ramen for Christmas. We’re dead broke over here. The expenses mentioned in this article alone totaled $12,000, not including the $3000 we got back.
You can help out by signing up for a free 30-day Audible subscription (seriously, it’s free). Audible will pay me $15, and you can reap the benefits of choosing an excellent listen from their huge catalog of books (they have almost every book you can dream of finding).
If you enjoy my stories, you can also tip me directly.
I’m crossing my fingers and hoping 2024 is better than 2023.