Monday of last week I got an ultrasound that revealed no abnormalities (yay), and was referred back to the urologists, which took many days of calling back to not talk to anyone, but instead was told to follow up with my primary care provider, and the urologists recommends a new antibiotics I’ve never heard of.
So you better believe I made a follow-up appointment as soon as possible, when I heard this, on Friday. I asked for an appointment that day, but heard back from someone this morning about an available spot for tomorrow. So I’m on board, let’s do it, gonna figure out this new suggested prescription, see what that’s about…
Then an hour later I get a voicemail from the billing department of my primary medical provider that my insurance ended on March 31, so I’ll need pay out of pocket, or update my insurance. Considering I got the provider from a list given to me by my medical insurance company, itself given to me from Alameda County Social Services via Medi-Cal (because I am poor), I don’t really think I’m going to “update my insurance”.
So I call my insurance company, and they hang up on me, twice. No kidding, I heard Maria and Candace both introduce themselves, and then a dial tone, because they hung up on me (and because Android is “cute” and includes a “dial tone”). Third times a charm, for some other folks, because all they told me was my Medi-Cal terminated on March 31, and I should know all about it.
What I do know all about it is we recently renewed our social services, and while the website says I am covered, somewhere else in the system says I am not. Also, when I request proof of my coverage by checking a box next to my name and submitting:
Anyhow, back to the person helping me, they give me the number to the social services folks I need to call, and says in this kinda way that suggests, yeah, get it sorted out there, it will update in our systems, you’ll be fine… which is like… hmmm…, I just suggest not ever sounding like that, but especially in the times we are living.
They kindly forwarded me to the new number, where I waited for 23 minutes and then began ringing a human and hung up. Yep. Hung up. So I called back, and it told me, “blah blah, ten or more minutes” over and over again, which I get it, less to record, you use it over and over, no specific promise. Cool. So I waited. This is about 4:30PM. Eventually the message changed to “five to ten minutes”, whaaaat? That’s cool! I was cutting it a bit close, it being 4:50PM and all.
Finally, the phone begins ringing the number of a real human. A real human, who has gone home, and a voice message tells me I should call back during regular office hours, and politely hangs up on me.
5:01PM.
So I call my “care provider” to, um, reschedule for next week, so I can hopefully figure this out, or figure out how much the cost out of pocket will be to learn how much the antibiotics out of pocket will be, and if I need them at all (because the urologists didn’t tell me) or if I can wait to get my Medi-Cal issue worked out before starting them…
And of course their phone lines are off as well.
The good news is, the last round of antibiotics worked very well. The bad news is, I’m very afraid of a relapse and my care provider had last confided to me it was in the urologists’ hands, because they didn’t know why this was happening. I’m on Ibu 800, and I can walk around the house and not much more than that.
That’s my April 6, 2021. I’m so tired of facing dragons alone. I’m gonna start sharing my tales here. 